Eli Barnes was elected as a representative to the Georgia Assembly as a Republican to represent Hancock County, Georgia. Unlike several of the Original 33, there is no Freedman’s Bureau Record to collect basic family information, so there is little known about Barnes. He testified to Congress about harassment and intimidation of Black people at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan. He told the congressional investigating committee, “It has got to be quite a common thing. . . to hear a man say, ‘They rode around my house last night, and they played the mischief there; my wife was molested, my daughter badly treated, and they played the wild generally with my family.’”

It has got to be quite a common thing. . . to hear a man say, ‘They rode around my house last night, and they played the mischief there; my wife was molested, my daughter badly treated, and they played the wild generally with my family.’

Condition of the Affairs of the Southern States testimony