John Adams Hyman

John Adams Hyman (July 23, 1840 – September 14, 1891) was a U.S. Congressman from North Carolina from 1875 to 1877.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A Republican, he was the first African American to represent the state in the House of Representatives. He was elected from North Carolina's 2nd congressional district, including counties in the northeast around New Bern. Earlier he served in the North Carolina Senate.

Early life

Born into slavery on July 23, 1840, near Warrenton, North Carolina, Hyman was later enslaved in Alabama.<ref name=":1">Balanoff, Elizabeth. “Negro Legislators in the North Carolina General Assembly, July, 1868–February, 1872.” The North Carolina Historical Review 49, no. 1 (1972): 26, Template:Jstor.</ref> Hyman did not receive any formal education as a child. By 1861, he had returned to North Carolina and was working as a janitor for a jeweler named King in Warrenton. King was from Pennsylvania and taught Hyman to read and write; when this was discovered by whites in town, they forced King and his wife to leave the community.<ref name=":1" /> When Hyman persisted in trying to gain an education, at the age of 21 he was sold to a new master in Alabama.<ref name="marker">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In twenty-five years as a slave, Hyman was sold at least eight times.<ref name="Reid">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Post-Civil War and political career

After the Civil War and the emancipation of enslaved people, Hyman returned to North Carolina in 1865.<ref name=":0" /> He worked as a farmer and pursued elementary studies. He also established a grocery store in Warrenton.<ref name=":1" />

Recognized for his leadership, Hyman was chosen as a delegate to the state equal rights convention in 1865 and to the state Constitutional Convention in 1868. Hyman was elected to the North Carolina Senate, where he served from 1868 to 1874 during the Reconstruction era.

In 1874, Hyman was elected as a Republican to the 44th United States Congress from North Carolina's 2nd congressional district, running against Democrat Garland H. White. He "had swept Craven and seven other counties in the newly created district that became known as the 'Black Second.'"<ref>Benjamin R. Justesen, George Henry White: An Even Chance in the Race of Life (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001): 37–38</ref> Democrats in the legislature had established the district to try to reduce black influence in politics in other parts of the state, as this was a black-majority area. The freedmen and previously free blacks elected all but two Republican representatives for the next quarter century. Hyman served for one term (March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1877). After unsuccessfully running for the Republican renomination to Congress in 1876 and losing to Curtis Brogden, the immediate past governor, Hyman returned to agricultural pursuits.

By 1877, New Bern had become a black-majority town; blacks elected representatives to the board of aldermen and the Craven County Commission, until the Democratic-dominated state legislature withdrew the county's authority to govern itself. The county continued to elect at least one black legislator each session to the state house for another decade, as did other majority-black counties in the northeast part of the state.<ref>Justesen (2001), George Henry White, p. 38</ref>

Hyman was appointed as special deputy collector of internal revenue for the fourth district of North Carolina from July 1, 1877 to June 30, 1878.<ref name=":1" />

He moved to Washington, D.C., after being accused of misappropriating church funds.<ref name="marker"/> He worked for the United States Post Office Department and for the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.

Legacy and honors

• A North Carolina historical marker has been installed in Warrenton, about a block from Hyman's former homesite.<ref name="marker" />

Personal life

Hyman had a wife and four children. He died in Washington, D.C. in 1891.<ref name=":0" /> He was buried in Columbian Harmony Cemetery in Washington, D.C.<ref name=":0" />

See also

• List of African-American United States representatives
• African American officeholders from the end of the Civil War until before 1900

References

Template:Reflist Template:CongBio Retrieved on 2009-04-26

• "Hyman rose from slavery to serve in U.S. Congress", Littleton Observer