Pinchback, P. B. S.

By: Caryn E. Neumann

Source:

 Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass

Pinchback, P. B. S.

Sex:  Male

Born:  Macon, Georgia, United States
10 May 1837

Died:  Washington, District of Columbia, United States
21 December 1921

Activity/Profession:  Entrepreneur, Newspaper Editor / Publisher, Political Figure, State Governor

(b. 10 May 1837; d. 21 December 1921),
Union army officer, politician, and attorney.

Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, who became the first black governor in the United States and the only African American to hold a governorship during Reconstruction, was born in Macon, Georgia, to William Pinchback, a Mississippi plantation owner, and Eliza Stewart, a former slave of mixed ancestry who had been freed just before her son's birth. In 1847 Pinchback and his older brother moved to Cincinnati to attend boarding school. Upon William Pinchback's death, his heirs threatened Eliza with reenslavement, and she fled Georgia to join her sons in Ohio. The family was denied any inheritance and soon found themselves in financial straits.

P. B. S. Pinchback, photograph of c. 1870–1880 from the Brady-Handy Collection. In Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive, and Rising (1887), Rev. William J. Simmons gave a detailed chapter on Pinchback's life, including a profile article from a newspaper and an account by Pinchback himself of one episode in his career. Simmons remarked of Pinchback: “Though so fair that he could readily pass for a white man, he is known to stand up for his race.”

Library of Congress.

view larger image

At the age of twelve, with his elder brother unable to cope with the sudden responsibility, Pinchback became the chief supporter of his family. He worked as a cabin boy on canal boats in Ohio and later as a steward on several Mississippi riverboats. He learned the art of gambling from professional card sharks and picked up extra cash by playing against the other boatmen. In 1860 Pinchback married Nina Emily Hawthorne. Four of their six children survived infancy.

In 1862 Pinchback jumped ship at Yazoo City, Mississippi, and made his way to New Orleans, which had fallen to Union forces. Possessed of a very light complexion and determined to play a role in a Union victory, in 1862 Pinchback enlisted as a private in the First Louisiana Volunteer Infantry, a white regiment. He recruited black soldiers and raised the Corps d'Afrique, a regiment of New Orleans men. Pinchback then joined the Second Louisiana Native Guards, later renamed the Seventy-fourth U.S. Colored Infantry, and rose to the rank of captain. Unable to advance further because of racial discrimination and angry about the better compensation given to white officers, he resigned honorably from the army in September 1863.

Pinchback became an advocate for African Americans during the Civil War. He argued that the denial of black suffrage inherently denied the government the right to draft black men into military service. After a brief sojourn in Alabama, where he promoted black education, Pinchback returned to New Orleans in 1867. Elected to Louisiana's constitutional convention in 1868, he worked to create a state-supported public school system and wrote the provision guaranteeing racial equality in public transportation and licensed businesses. He joined the Louisiana state senate that same year as a Radical Republican. In 1871 he became president pro tempore of the senate and, by virtue of this position, advanced to lieutenant governor upon the death of the incumbent, Oscar J. Dunn. When the governor Henry C. Warmoth was impeached in 1872, Pinchback moved into the governor's chair, from 9 December 1872 to 13 January 1873.

Pinchback was unable to hold on to any other major political office. Democrats charging bribery and election irregularities successfully challenged his 1872 election to the U.S. House of Representatives, then also challenged his subsequent appointment to the U.S. Senate; after years of legal wrangling, the Democrats succeeded in getting Pinchback's appointment declared invalid in 1876. Frederick Douglass blamed the decision on “a mean and malignant prejudice of race.”

In 1879 Pinchback helped found Southern University and later served as a trustee of the school. He maintained involvement in African American politics through his co-ownership of the Louisianian newspaper. After working as surveyor of customs for the port of New Orleans from 1882 to 1886, he entered Straight University Law School in 1887, passing the state bar exam that same year. Pinchback subsequently moved to Washington, D.C., and practiced law until his death.

See also Black Politics; Civil War, Participation and Recruitment of Black Troops in; Democratic Party; Douglass, Frederick; Education; Military; Political Participation; Republican Party; and Union Army, African Americans in.

processed xml | source xml