Edwin Belcher was born on July 31, 1845 to his father and his slave enslaver, Robert E. Belcher and an unknown enslaved woman near Abbeville, SC. In an 1873 letter to abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison, Belcher wrote briefly of his parentage and early upbringing: “I am a Colored man, was born the Slave of my father in South Carolina in 1845. At an early age through the exertions of my mother I was sent to the North where I was attending school when the war Commenced in 1861.” At the start of the war, Belcher was just 16 years old, living in Philadelphia, PA and attending the all-white Pennsylvania High-School. He immediately enlisted the Union Army, leaving school to fight for the United States.

Because of his light complexion Belcher could pass for white. He rose through the ranks of the Union Army to a command position. When whites in Georgia learned he was Black he responded “My blood has dyed the soil of the Sunny South as deep as any other soldiers… My service during the war was just as acceptable as any other man’s and  was appreciated.” During the Civil War, Belcher was both imprisoned in a Confederate camp and suffered a blow to the skill which caused him to have seizures for the rest of his life. Belcher engaged in several battles during the Civil War, his last engagement was in Atlanta during Sherman’s March to the Sea. His father, Robert, rose to the rank of Colonel in the Confederate Army and commanded a Confederate regiment.   

After the Civil War, Belcher held several key positions for the U.S. Government and in Georgia politics. He was a revenue tax officer in Augusta, a Wilkes County representative for the 1868 Georgia Legislature and a member of the Georgia Constitutional Convention, also representing Wilkes County. Belcher was not expelled with his other colleagues in 1868 because he was so light skinned. In 1872, Belcher graduated from Howard University Law School (founded in 1868) and was one of the first graduates of Howard Law. He was admitted to the Washington D.C. bar following graduation. (His brother Eugene R. Belcher was also an early graduate of Howard University Law School.) Edwin Belcher also served as Macon, GA Postmaster and was working as a route agent between Atlanta and Augusta at the time of his death. Edwin Belcher married Ida and they had a 9-month infant named William S. Belcher (who would later go by Sumner) at the time of the 1870 census. 

Belcher died in Augusta, Georgia on January 7, 1883 at the age of 37 after a two-month long illness caused by typhoid-pneumonia. A special dispatch to the Chicago Tribune written in Atlanta, Georgia published Belcher’s obituary describing him as “without exception he was the most powerful debater and stump-speaker of his race in this section and probably in the South. His appearance was commanding, and his reputation as an orator was such like that of Bob Toombs, he never spoke to an empty seat.” Edwin Belcher’s death received national attention. News of his passing was published in the Chicago Tribune, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Lewiston, Maine’s Sun-Journal, The Dayton Herald, The Savannah Morning News, and The Daily Chronicle of Knoxville, Tennessee. The Atlanta-based author concluded Belcher’s obituary saying, “His mother resides here.” Edwin Belcher is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.