Rainey, Joseph Hayne, 1832-1887

RAINEY, Joseph Hayne, a Representative from South Carolina; born in Georgetown, Georgetown County, S.C., June 21, 1832; received a limited schooling; followed the trade of barber until 1862, when upon being forced to work on the Confederate fortifications in Charleston, S.C., he escaped to the Bermuda and remained there until the close of the war; delegate to the South Carolina state constitutional convention in 1868; member of the South Carolina state senate, 1868-1870; elected as a Republican to the Forty-first Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of United States Representative B. Franklin Whittemore, and was the first African American to be elected to the House of Representatives; reelected to the Forty-second and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from December 12, 1870, to March 3, 1879; appointed internal-revenue agent of South Carolina on May 22, 1879, and served until July 15, 1881, when he resigned; engaged in banking and the brokerage business in Washington, D.C.; retired from all business activities in 1886, returned to Georgetown, S.C., and died there August 2, 1887; interment in the Baptist Cemetery.

<p>Born enslaved, Joseph Rainey was the first African American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, the first to preside over the House, and the longest-serving Black lawmaker in Congress during Reconstruction. Like many Representatives of the era, Rainey introduced few bills, but he was one of the House’s most able orators and labored tirelessly in committee. During his more than eight years in the House, Rainey worked to pass civil rights legislation, fund public schools, and guarantee equal protection under the law. Throughout, he sought to use his position to advocate for the concerns of African Americans on the House Floor. “I can only raise my voice,” Rainey said in 1877, “and I would do it if it were the last time I ever did it, in defense of my rights and in the interests of my oppressed people.”</p>

<p>Joseph Hayne Rainey was born on June 21, 1832, in Georgetown, South Carolina, a seaside town surrounded by low country rice plantations. Much of his early life is difficult to document. His parents were enslaved, but his father, Edward L. Rainey, was permitted to work as a barber and keep a portion of his earnings. He used that money to buy his family’s freedom in the early 1840s. South Carolina barred African Americans from attending school and Joseph Rainey never received a formal education. Rainey learned his father’s trade and by the 1850s worked as a barber at the exclusive Mills House hotel in Charleston. In 1859 Rainey traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he married Susan Cooper, who was originally from South Carolina. The Raineys returned to Charleston and later had three children: Joseph, Herbert, and Olive.</p>

<p>Joseph Hayne Rainey (June 21, 1832 – August 1, 1887) was an American politician. He was the first black person to serve in the United States House of Representatives and the second black person (after Hiram Revels) to serve in the United States Congress. His service included time as presiding officer of the House of Representatives. Born into slavery in South Carolina, he and his family were freed in the 1840s when his father purchased their freedom. Revels and Rainey were both members of the Republican Party.</p>

<p>Joseph Hayne Rainey was born into slavery in 1832 in Georgetown, South Carolina. He and his brother Edward were of mixed race; their mother Grace was of African and French descent, likely descended from slaves brought by refugees from Saint-Domingue during and after the revolution that created Haiti. Their father Edward Rainey, also enslaved, had been allowed by his master to work independently to earn money and developed a successful business as a barber; he paid a portion of his income to his master as required by law. Edward saved a substantial sum; by the 1840s he purchased his freedom and that of his wife and two sons. With education severely limited for black people, as an adult Rainey followed his father by becoming a barber; it was an independent and well-respected trade that enabled him to build a wide network in his community.</p>