Hancock County

William Henry Harrison-Hancock County

| Cynthia Jennings

William Henry Harrison (September 1843-?) was in Sparta, Hancock County, Georgia, as Bill Thomas. His parents were Eliza and Harrison McLane. When his father passed away, he was enslaved at the age of 14 by Judge James Thomas, the father-in-law to Linton Stephens, the half-brother of Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the Confederacy. Harrison served as Thomas’s body servant, a person who served as a personal care attendant to their enslaver. While it was illegal to teach African Americans to read and write, it was known that Bill Thomas was literate.

There isn’t a lot known about Harrison. Still, it is known that he was part of an attempted insurrection on September 13, 1863, in Sparta, GA, when approximately 100 enslaved people gathered together in a wooded area east of Sparta, GA. Identified as one of the ringleaders of this attempt, his life was spared but not without punishment. Likely due to his relationship with the Thomas and Stephens families, he did escape execution by hanging. Also, due to his relationship with Thomas, it is believed he would have been present for many discussions about the Confederacy and the Civil War at Thomas’s home. 

After the war, Bill Thomas changed his name to William Henry Harrison. Harrison was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1868 and was elected state representative for Hancock County alongside Eli Barnes. In 1872, he testified to Congress on the activities of the Ku Klux Klan in Hancock County. At this time, he shared that he would have to stay up late to guard his land from the KKK, and he often received threatening letters from them.

Members of Harrison’s family are said to be buried at the Brown Chapel AME Cemetery in Hancock County, but it is not known where Harrison is buried.

REferences:

“Insurrection in Hancock County: Revolt Forges a State Leader.” Reflections, Volume XIV, No 1. June/July 2017. p 1, 6.

https://dca.georgia.gov/document/newsletters/2017-06reflectionspdf/download#:~:text=On%20September%2013%2C%201863%2C%20reports,attempting%20to%20excite%20an%20insurrection.%22

George Wallace-20th District

| Cynthia Jennings

Born around 1840, George Wallace was a native of Georgia and represented District 20 (Hancock, Baldwin and Washington counties) in middle Georgia in the1868 Georgia Assembly and in the Georgia State Constitutional Convention of 1867-68. Wallace was biracial and was one of the first three Black senators elected in Georgia, the other being Tunis Campbell Sr. Unseated with the other Black members, Wallace was restored to his senate seat in 1870 by an Act of Congress.  Wallace served on the Republican state committee in 1868, attended the 1869 Georgia labor convention, and was a delegate to the Republican national convention of 1876. According to the 1870 census, Wallace owned $100 in personal property. 

In addition to serving in the Georgia Assembly, Wallace was a founder of the Macon Union League, an organization that demonstrated unwavering support for the Union and was active in the Georgia Educational Association. He represented District 20 in the Georgia State Constitutional Convention, which was the first constitutional convention to include Black delegates and was held in Atlanta. During the convention, Wallace was an outspoken critic of the proposed move of the capital from Milledgeville to Atlanta. As a representative of District 20, which Milledgeville, Wallace proposed putting the move to a state-wide vote. Ironically, the reason the convention was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1867-1868 was because Milledgeville’s innkeepers refused to allow the Black delegates room and board for the state constitutional convention. Without lodging in Milledgeville for all delegates, US Army General John Pope ordered the convention to be held in Atlanta. The Capital was permanently moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1877. 

Eli Barnes-Hancock County

| Cynthia Jennings

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