Enlightened Free Thinking Nubian Kings And Queens

In 1870 Republican Joseph Hayne Rainey became the first African American to be elected to the United States House of Representatives and take his seat.  Others were elected earlier but were not seated.  Rainey was born in Georgetown, South Carolina, on June 21, 1832. His parents had been slaves but his father purchased his family’s freedom and taught him to be a barber. The family moved to Charleston in 1846.  Rainey, however, traveled frequently outside the South. In 1859, Rainey went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania There he met and married Susan, a free woman of color from the West Indies, who was also of African-French descent. They returned to South Carolina, where their three children were born: Joseph II, Herbert and Olivia. In 1861, with the outbreak of the American Civil War, Rainey was among free blacks drafted by the Confederate government to work on fortifications in Charleston, South Carolina. He also worked as a cook and laborer on blockade runner ships....

Denmark Vesey probably was born into slavery in St. Thomas but had been a  free black  for over 20 years before being accused and hanged in 1822 as the ringleader of "the rising," a major potential  Charleston, South Carolina  slave revolt. A skilled carpenter, Vesey had won a lottery and purchased his freedom at age 32 in 1799. He had a good business and a family, but was unable to buy his first wife Beck and their children out of slavery. Vesey became active in the Second Presbyterian Church; in 1818 he was among the founders of an  AME Church  in the city, which was supported by white clergy in the city and rapidly attracted 1,848 members, making this the second-largest AME congregation in the nation. In 1820 he was alleged to be the ringleader of a planned slave revolt. Vesey and his followers were said to be planning to kill slaveholders in Charleston, liberate the slaves, and sail to the black republic of  Haiti ...