James M. Simms

James Meriles Simms (1820 – after 1893)[1] was an African-American minister, newspaper publisher, author, and elected representative in the Georgia Assembly during the Reconstruction Era.[2]

Simms was born a slave in Savannah, Georgia. A carpenter by trade, he bought his freedom in 1857. In around 1864, having been condemned for teaching slaves, he was sentenced to be publicly whipped and fined $100. He left Savannah for Boston and became a chaplain in the Union Army,[3] later returning to his home district. Simms may have been the same person as the James M. Symms whose company published an edition of The Black Man in 1863.[4]

Simms and his African-American colleagues in the Georgia Assembly were prohibited from taking office after a vote by their colleagues. Federal intervention in 1870 overturned the discriminatory action. He wrote about his church's history in Savannah, Georgia.[5]

In 1870, he supported the Baptist minister and Assembly delegate Ulysses L. Houston in occupying the Bryan County Baptist Church, which had been taken over by his rival Alexander Harris; for their role in this protest, Houston and Simms were both arrested.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Leslie Harris; Daina Ramey Berry (2014). Slavery and Freedom in Savannah. University of Georgia Press. pp. 185–. ISBN 978-0-8203-4410-2.
  2. ↑ James M. Simms by Karen Ruffle, Documenting the South
  3. ↑ Mary Ellen Snodgrass (2009). Civil Disobedience: A-Z entries. Sharpe Reference. ISBN 978-0-7656-8127-0.
  4. ↑ Alice Fahs (2003). The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North & South, 1861-1865. Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. 346–. ISBN 978-0-8078-5463-1.
  5. ↑ The First Colored Baptist Church in North America Constituted at Savannah, Georgia, January 20, A.D. 1788. With Biographical Sketches of the Pastors: (Electronic Edition) Simms, James M. (James Meriles)
  6. ↑ Edmund L. Drago (1992). Black Politicians and Reconstruction in Georgia: A Splendid Failure. University of Georgia Press. pp. 73–. ISBN 978-0-8203-1438-9.
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