Abram Colby

Abram Colby
Nationality American
Occupation Former slave and who served in the Georgia House of Representatives
Known for Helped form a chapter of the American Equal Rights Association

Abram Colby was a former slave and who served in the Georgia House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era.

Background

Colby was the son of an enslaved woman and a white planter. He resided in Greene County, Georgia and was freed fifteen years prior to emancipation. He was an early organizer of freed slaves. Colby and minister Henry McNeal Turner helped form a chapter of the American Equal Rights Association.

Service

Colby was known for eloquent oratory and represented Greene County in 1865 at a freeman's convention. A Radical Republican, Colby was first elected in 1866.[1] In 1868, he was offered a $7,500 bribe by the Ku Klux Klan not to seek re-election, but refused.

Brutality by the KKK

On October 29, 1869, he was taken from his bed and beaten by the Ku Klux Klan in front of his family. During his whipping he was asked, "Do you think you will ever vote another damned Radical ticket." He replied, "If there was an election tomorrow, I would vote the Radical ticket." After his remark, the men continued to beat him. Faced with debilitating injury, he was unable to work and did not seek re-election. In 1872, he was called before a joint U.S. House and Senate committee investigating reports of Southern violence.[2] His injuries were so extensive Colby was recorded saying in his testimony during the Joint Select Committee Report: "They broke something inside of me, and the doctor has been attending to me for more than a year. Sometimes I cannot get up and down off my bed, and my left hand is not of much use to me."[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Greene County Blacks". Archived from the original on 8 June 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  2. ↑ "American Experience – Reconstruction: The Second Civil War – White Men Unite". PBS. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
  3. ↑ Corbett, Scott (2016). U.S. History. Online: Openstacks. p. 480.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.