Elliott, Robert Brown, 1842-1884

<p>Robert Brown Elliott (August 11, 1842 – August 9, 1884) was an African-American member of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina, serving from 1871 to 1874.</p>

<p>He was born in 1842 in Liverpool, England. He attended High Holborn Academy in London, England and then studied law, graduating from Eton College in 1859. From there he joined the British Royal Navy. Elliott decided to settle in South Carolina in 1867. He was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1868 and began practicing law in Columbia, the state capital.</p>

<p>Elliott arrived in South Carolina in 1867 at the age of 25, where he established a law practice. Elliott helped organize the local Republican Party and served in the state constitutional convention in 1868 as a delegate from the Edgefield district. In the late 1860s he was hired by AME bishop and fellow future congressman Richard H. Cain to be an associate editor of the paper, the South Carolina Leader (renamed the Missionary Record in 1868), along with another future congressman, Alonzo J. Ransier. Around the same time, Elliott formed the nation's first known African American law firm, Whipper, Elliott, and Allen, with William Whipper and Macon B. Allen.</p>

<p>Legislator, congressman. Details of Elliott’s early life are uncertain. His modern biographer, Peggy Lamson, believes that he was born on August 11, 1842, in Liverpool, England, of unknown West Indian parents. Contemporary accounts state that he was born in Boston, educated at High Holborn Academy in London, and graduated from Eton College in 1859, although no evidence survives to corroborate these claims. It does seem likely that he did enjoy a substantial degree of formal education, since Elliott was universally acknowledged to be highly literate and learned. In 1867 Elliott moved from Boston to Charleston, South Carolina, where he accepted a position as an associate editor of a black-owned Republican newspaper, the South Carolina Leader. Around 1870 he is believed to have married Grace Lee Rollin, a member of a distinguished Charleston free black family. The couple had no children.</p>

<p>In South Carolina, Elliott’s education and ability quickly placed him among the most influential African Americans in the state. In 1868 Elliott, Jonathan J. Wright, and William Whipper were the first African Americans admitted to the South Carolina Bar. Elliott soon after turned to politics. He was an adept orator and first entered the political spotlight as a delegate to the 1868 constitutional convention. That same year he was an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor but was elected to the state House of Representatives from Barnwell County. Serving in the House from 1868 to 1870, Elliott chaired the committee on railroads and sat on the committee on privileges and elections. His political skills were apparent to allies and opponents alike, with one conservative newspaper reporter describing Elliott as “the ablest negro in South Carolina.” He was chosen state assistant adjutant general in 1869, in which role he was responsible for organizing the militia, but he resigned in December 1870 in protest over Republican Party corruption. Also in 1869 Elliott was elected president of a state labor convention, which sought to improve working conditions among the state’s newly emancipated black laborers.</p>

<p>In 1870 Elliott defeated a white candidate for his first of two terms in Congress. The first full-blooded man of color elected to Congress, Elliott took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 4, 1871. He employed his oratorical skills to condemn the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina and to champion civil rights for African Americans. He resigned from Congress in 1874 and returned to the South Carolina General Assembly, where he served as Speaker of the House from 1874 to 1876.</p>

<p>Elliott’s political career ended following the controversial election of 1876 and the return of the Democratic Party to power in South Carolina. He spent most of his later years as an outspoken, controversial Republican Party leader frustrated at the loss of federal support for black civil rights. Following a series of federal patronage positions in South Carolina and Louisiana, and failed law practices, Elliott died penniless in New Orleans of malarial fever on August 9, 1884. He was buried in that city’s St. Louis Cemetery Number 2.</p>

ELLIOTT, Robert Brown, a Representative from South Carolina; born in England., August 11, 1842; attended public school in England; journalist; studied law; was admitted to the bar and practiced in Columbia, S.C.; member of the State constitutional convention in 1868; member of the State house of representatives from July 6, 1868, to October 23, 1870; assistant adjutant general of South Carolina 1869-1871; elected as a Republican to the Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses and served from March 4, 1871, until his resignation, effective November 1, 1874; again a member of the State house of representatives 1874-1876, and served as speaker; unsuccessful candidate for election as attorney general of South Carolina in 1876; moved to New Orleans, La., in 1881 and practiced law until his death there on August 9, 1884; interment in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2.

<p>With a legislative style more flamboyant and aggressive than his predecessors’, and considerable oratorical skills, young, talented Robert Elliott regularly dazzled audiences. Possessing a strong, clear voice “suggestive of large experience in outdoor speaking,” Elliott fought passionately to pass a comprehensive civil rights bill in his two terms in Congress. However, his fealty to the South Carolina Republican Party led him to resign his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to serve the state government in Columbia. Elliott’s classical education, photographic memory, and obsession with politics impressed contemporary observers. “He knew the political condition of every nook and corner throughout the state,” Elliott’s law partner Daniel Augustus Straker commented. “[Elliott] knew every important person in every county, town or village and the history of the entire state as it related to politics.”</p>

<p>Robert Elliott was born on August 11, 1842, likely to West Indian parents in Liverpool, England. He received a public school education in England and learned a typesetter’s trade. Elliott served in the British Navy, arriving on a warship in Boston around 1867. Historical records show that in late 1867 Robert Elliott lived in Charleston, South Carolina, where he was an associate editor for the South Carolina Leader, a freedmen’s newspaper owned by future Representative Richard H. Cain. Elliott married Grace Lee, a free individual from Boston or Charleston, sometime before 1870. The couple had no children.</p>