People reinvent themselves all the time. This happens in the modern era as lawyers and psychologists write their way into the novelist profession every night after work. Or, the doctor who becomes a U.S. Senator. Or, the comedian becomes a podcast influencer. The same was true for those born in the 1830s who came of age in Reconstruction. I present to you a pioneer black lawyer who remade him time and time again.
This is the career path of Daniel L. Lapsley.
=========
In 1834, a slave baby boy was born in Caldwell, Kentucky to two slave parents owned by Rev. R.A. Lapsley. Rev. Lapsley taught the boy “to read and write.” As we know, an education was good fortune for a slave youngster.
At the age of thirteen and in 1847, Daniel L. Lapsley moved with Rev. Lapsley to Nashville, a city that would anchor Daniel for much of his adult life. Daniel became freed at a young age and learned the barbering trade. Barbering was a common and lucrative trade for free blacks in the antebellum period. John B. Vashon worked as a free black barber in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and became one of the wealthiest blacks in the city as a result. His barbering trade financed his son’s education at Oberlin College from 1840 to 1844. Gideon Quarles, the brother of pioneer black lawyer John M. Langston, worked as a free black barber in Chillicothe, Ohio in the 1830s and 1840s. Edward Rainey saved his earnings from his work as a barber and used the savings to buy the freedom of himself and his family in 1846.
Daniel’s first business venture was a barber shop.
In March 1864, Daniel and his business partner, Alfred McKay, announced acquisition of “a pre-existing business called the Sewanee House Shaving Saloon.” The Shaving Saloon was located in the Sewanee House hotel. From the start, Daniel showed a flair for marketing. His establishment was billed as having “a fine bathroom.” To sweeten the lure, Daniel advertised “we have just received a barrel of Bay Rum for the benefit of our customers.”
By 1865, Daniel had opened another barbershop at 94 South College Street in Nashville.
While setting himself up in business, Daniel also gained increasing recognition as a civic leader. He attended the Tennessee black convention in 1865 and again in 1866.
1865 was also a year of great anticipation for black wealth. On March 3, 1865, Congress chartered the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company with a branch in Nashville. The idea of the Freedmen’s Bank was to provide a source for deposits so that slaves and their descendants could accumulate wealth. The idea was a noble one and quite congruent with black thrift and enterprise as a concept. Daniel served as secretary for the Nashville branch.
Daniel continued to immerse himself in the upward lift of black people in Nashville. On May 25, 1866, Daniel founded the First Colored Baptist Church of Nashville by an order of official incorporation from the General Assembly of Tennessee. For years, Daniel would be known around Nashville as Deacon Lapsley. He also founded a black college, Roger Williams University, in 1866.
Having come to the attention of many in Nashville, Daniel began his ascent into public office. The voters elected Daniel Magistrate for Davison County in 1868. In this role, he deliberated legal disputes among defendants from all races.
His judicial demeanor and temperament was rewarded by the voters. Again in 1870, the electorate selected Daniel as Davidson County Magistrate. Daniel also served as Justice of the Peace from 1870 to 1882.
Barber, Bank Secretary, Founder of a Church, Deacon, Founder of a College, Magistrate, Justice of the Peace — this Renaissance Man named Daniel Lapsley was just getting started as the 1870s began.
In 1871, the federal government awarded Daniel a patronage position in Nashville.
“He also served on the board of education, helping to secure the appointment of Nashville’s first black teachers.”
In 1873, Daniel was awarded admission to the Bar in Nashville. In the same year, he is recorded as working as a letter carrier at a compensation level of $600 a year for the U.S. Postal Service. And he married his wife, Josephine Avery. Josephine married a man who wore many hats in town.
I have a sad speculation. Do you wonder why Daniel was hustling as a letter carrier in 1873 while working two or three other jobs? I have a theory. Remember that Daniel was secretary for the Freedmen’s Bank? I imagine Daniel may have placed his personal savings in the bank as a show of racial solidarity with former slaves and their descendants.
On July 11, 1874, the Freedmen’s Bank was declared insolvent and went into liquidation. A series of bad real estate deals with the bank’s money doomed the bank. 72,000 depositors in over 13 states were essentially wiped out. The depositors held accounts ranging from $1 to $11,000. All gone.
On November 28, 1874, Daniel and others citizens from Nashville submitted a Memorial to the U.S. Banking Committee in Congress asking for the government to make depositors whole. The Memorial or petition alleged that the Bank appealed to a class of people “who had been prevented by their condition of servitude from accumulating wealth.” Shady bank promoters induced a “poor, unlettered and trusting class to deposit their small savings.” The petitioners acknowledged the U.S. Government had no legal obligation to the black depositors but Daniel and his co-signers urged a moral obligation on the U.S. Government.
The federal government rejected the petition. The Freedmen’s Bank was never a Governmental institution. The government was not responsible.
=========
I sense the failure of the Freemen’s Bank changed the inner psychology of Daniel Lapsley.
Even before the withdrawal of federal troops from the South in 1877, Lapsley’s actions turned westwards. On May 1875, Daniel was a member of the State Colored Men’s Convention. The Convention formed a Colored Emigration Society on the last day of the convention.
In 1877, the Convention chartered the Lincoln Colonization Society. The Society directed Daniel “to go to Kansas and select suitable lands for colonization purposes.”
In the 1880 Census, Daniel was listed as a lawyer and a teacher.
Around 1890, Daniel left Nashville for Omaha, Nebraska. Daniel continued to practice law while dabbling in a new career, real estate. Public service called again as Daniel was appointed election judge. In this role, he oversaw the Republican primary in the Third Ward.
Daniel’s story did not end in Omaha. There was more adventure in life out west.
In 1900, Daniel could be found in Portland, Oregon. He worked as an attorney. His wife had passed away and he lived with his daughter and son-in-law. His final line of work for this man born a slave was modest and humble.
In 1903, the sixty-nine year old Daniel Lapsley worked as a check man at the Portland Hotel. Query whether he looked back on his long life and considered the West Coast home.
One thing I keep wondering is how these men became lawyers? It doesn’t seem that they were specifically schooled in law. I tried looking at definitions for “lawyer,” but I couldn’t find anything that really answered my question.
And, something I find especially interesting is that being a slave didn’t always mean that there weren’t opportunities. All of the men you’ve wrote about have found ways to work within their particular system. They’ve all learned to read, and some have started businesses as slaves that earned them enough money to buy their freedom!
I’m not being dismissive of how awful slavery was for many, but I’m also surprised to learn that it wasn’t always. I wish we were able to have discussions about this (besides here). History is a lot more complicated than too many people seem to realize or acknowledge. I wish our country would stop trying to see black lives as purely being based on victimization. As I said yesterday, this seems like a form of racism.