Richard H. Cain passed away #OTD in 1887. Cain represented South Carolina in the US House of Representatives. He was one of six Black men to represent South Carolina in Congress during Reconstruction. Cain was also an abolitionist, newspaper editor, entrepreneur, and minister.
Cain was born to free parents on April 12, 1825, in Greenbrier County, Virginia (modern day West Virginia). He and his family moved to Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1831. Because Ohio was a free state, Cain was provided an education and learned how to read and write.
He became a licensed minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844 and moved to Hannibal, Missouri. He left the Methodist Church in 1848 to join the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church where he became a minister and deacon.
When the Civil War broke out Cain was studying at Wilberforce University in Ohio. He and 125 other Black students at Wilberforce attempted to enlist in the Union Army but were turned away. He was then assigned to a pastorship at the Bridge Street Church in Brooklyn.
Cain was selected as a delegate to the National Convention of Colored Men in 1864 in Syracuse, New York, where he advocated for universal male suffrage.
In 1865 the AME Church sent Cain to lead Emanuel Church (Mother Emanuel) in Charleston, South Carolina. The next year he co-founded the South Carolina Leader (renamed the Missionary Record in 1868), a weekly Black newspaper in Charleston.
In 1868 he was a delegate to the South Carolina constitutional convention and was elected to the state legislature. Cain lost re-election in 1870 but was named the leader of the Charleston branch of the Republican Party.
Cain served in the US House of Representatives from 1873-75 and 1877-79. During his time in Congress he championed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and introduced bills to fund public education.
As Democrats began to reestablish white supremacy in South Carolina, Cain became a strong supporter of Black emigration to Liberia. He became a member of the Liberian Exodus Joint Stock Steamship Company in 1877.
Cain left South Carolina for Texas in 1880 to serve as bishop of the Texas–Louisiana Conference. He helped found Paul Quinn College in Texas and served as the school's president for a time. Paul Quinn College is the oldest HBCU west of the Mississippi River.
After his stint as president of Paul Quinn College, Cain moved back to Washington and served as bishop of the AME's Mid-Atlantic and New England States district until his passing.

#TheCivilWarDoc #CivilWar #Reconstruction #BlackHistory #History #SouthCarolina #Onthisday

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More from @TheCivilWarDoc1

Jan 19
#OTD in 1871 the US Senate passed a resolution creating the Select Committee to Investigate Alleged Outrages in the Southern States. The select committee investigated white supremacist violence in North Carolina and was pivotal to the passing of the Second Enforcement act.
The select committee was made up of five Republicans and two Democrats and held hearings in Washington D.C. to investigate Klan violence in North Carolina during the Kirk-Holden War.
The two Democrats concluded that the racial violence in NC was carried out by Northern "carpetbaggers" while the five Republicans rightfully determined that the Klan “sought to carry out its purpose by murders, whippings, intimidations, and violence, against its opponents.”
Read 9 tweets
Jan 17
#OTD in 1865 Gen. William T. Sherman’s army is rained in while in #Savannah, Georgia, delaying the march through the Carolinas. Image
During the fall of 1864 Sherman’s troops destroyed everything in their path as they marched across #Georgia. They destroyed railroads, stole livestock, and famously burned most of #Atlanta. Image
After capturing Savannah just before Christmas, they stopped for 3 weeks to rest and resupply, during which time Sherman made his headquarters at the Green-Meldrim House. After resting they planned to head north through the #Carolinas. Image
Read 4 tweets
Dec 15, 2022
#OTD in 1864 Brig. Gen. Henry H. Lockwood wrote to his superiors about his concerns regarding Maryland's apprenticeship system, especially as it applied to newly emancipated children. Lockwood explained how former enslavers were exploiting the system to their own advantage. Image
#Slavery was abolished in #Maryland on November 1, 1864, when the state legislature adopted a new state constitution. The new constitution did not outlaw forced labor. Children of "unfit" parents could legally forced into apprenticeships that often times resembled slavery.
The children of newly emancipated people were overwhelmingly subject to forced apprenticeships, often times being forced to work for the people that formerly enslaved them and their parents. This development was concerning to General Lockwood.
Read 7 tweets
Dec 14, 2022
"Sectional feeling no longer holds back the love we feel for each other. The old flag again waves over us in peace with new glories.” Those words were spoken by #President #McKinley during a speech in #Atlanta #OTD in 1898 only four days after the end of the Spanish American War.
By 1898, the #LostCause narrative of the #CivilWar had made much headway in the minds of white Americans, North and South. The #JimCrow South was emerging by the late 19th century and was accompanied by a tidal wave of white supremacist terrorism.
McKinley's message of reunion was only meant for white Americans. Only a month earlier white terrorists violently overthrew #Wilmington, #NorthCarolina's biracial government, killing hundreds of Black Wilmingtonians in the process.

ncdcr.gov/1898-wilmingto…
Read 8 tweets
Dec 13, 2022
#OTD in 1862, #Confederate soldiers repulsed a massive #Union assault on the second day of the #Battle of #Fredericksburg. Wave after wave of Union soldiers were mowed down during a full frontal assault against Confederate troops positioned at Marye’s Heights. Image
After the Battle of #Antietam a few months earlier, General #McClellan allowed Lee's Army to retreat back to #Virginia to fight another day. #President #Lincoln then relieved McClellan of command and replace him with General Ambrose #Burnside. Image
Burnside quickly planned a fall offensive to move on #Richmond. However, the Union Army's operation faced logistical setbacks, allowing Lee to settle in at Fredericksburg. Burnside chose to attack Lee head on, a decision that proved disastrous.
Read 9 tweets
Nov 17, 2022
Prominent Black physician and abolitionist James McCune Smith passed away #OTD in 1865. Smith, who penned the introduction of Frederick Douglass' second autobiography My Bondage My Freedom (1855), was the first Black person to receive a medical degree in the United States.
Smith was born enslaved in 1813 in Manhattan and received a formal education as a child under New York's gradual emancipation laws. He was free at the age of 14 on July 4, 1827. He graduated from African Free School in NYC and enrolled at the University of Glasgow.
He received his medical degree in Glasgow in 1837 and moved back to New York to establish a medical practice. According to Bryan Greene of @SmithsonianMag, Smith also opened the first Black-owned pharmacy in the United States.
Read 8 tweets

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