The Roller Coaster Life of Samuel J. Lee (1844 - 1895)
It is not clear whether Samuel J. Lee was born slave or free. Nor is it clear whether his father was from England or a local slave owner. The record is unclear. What can be said is Samuel grew up among a family of free mulatto blacks in the Abbeville District of South Carolina. We also know that Samuel accompanied the slave owner, Samuel J. McGowan, into battle as McGowan enrolled in the Confederate Army. McGowan was wounded seven times and Samuel was wounded at the Second Battle of Bull Run. McGowan served as a Confederate Brigadier General. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_McGowan_(general) I am not convinced that Brigadier General McGowan and Samuel were father and son but some writers are so convinced. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Father_and_Son_at_War/UagVBQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Samuel+J.+Lee%22&pg=PA7&printsec=frontcover
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The end of the Civil War ushered a new era of promise and opportunity for Samuel. Like every pioneer black lawyer, Samuel seized opportunity. He did not wallow in the past.
1867 found Samuel in Alabama where he fully invested himself in civic life. He served as registrar, country commissioner, a militia officer, a circuit solicitor and special land agent investigating fraudulent entries on public lands.
By 1868, Samuel returned to his native South Carolina and began to step up the ladder of public office. The voters elected Samuel to represent Edgefield County and then Aiken County in the state House of Delegates from 1868 to 1874.
Samuel so impressed his fellow legislators that they unanimously voted Samuel Speaker of the South Carolina State House of Delegates in 1870. He was the first black Speaker to hold the position.
Meanwhile, he was on a campaign to acquire property. The 1870 U.S. Census showed Samuel owned $500 in real estate and $400 in personal property. He later acquired a farm spread over 100 acres.
Not content to merely serve as Speaker of the State House and a farmer, Samuel studied law during his free time in the legislature. He proved an adept law student and was admitted to the South Carolina state Bar on March 6, 1872.
Almost as an afterthought, Samuel accepted appointment as Brigadier General of the South Carolina militia in the same year. His official position was Chief of Staff, National Guard of the State of South Carolina.
A man so situated becomes sought after in the public square. In 1873, Samuel was elected a Trustee of the University of South Carolina. The Trustees in turn selected Samuel as Board President. In this position, Samuel pushed for the racial integration of the state’s flagship public university. Samuel single-handedly was “responsible for the admission of the first group of black students to the law school at the University of South Carolina.” The first black law students in the fall of 1873 included notables like Thomas Ezekiel Miller who would one day become a congressman from South Carolina, Richard T. Greener who was the first black college graduate of Harvard in 1870, and Thomas McCants Stewart who would become a Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia.
Samuel was burning on all cylinders. “By dint of industry and application,” remarked the Charleston News and Courier, “he has made himself one of the most creditable lawyers in the state for his age.”
In 1874, Samuel resigned his House seat to practice law in Aiken. One suspects Samuel wanted to turn his focus to financial profit and gain in the law. It would not be easy, however, for Samuel to step away from public service. Samuel was recognized as a dynamo, someone widely respected for his leadership skills. In the same year, Samuel left the State House, the legislature elected Samuel Probate Judge for Charleston.
In a stunning turn of events, the former Speaker of the House was now threatened by a mob of Democrats who wanted to oust all Republicans from public office. “As bloodshed was imminent, the Probate Judge Hon. Samuel Lee closed his office and went to his home to protect his wife and children…The Democrats planted revolvers and shotguns around the door of the probate office and swore vengeance against the judge.” Trumped up charges of misconduct were levied against Judge Lee. The charges, however, were dropped after key lawyer and politician Robert Elliott entered the case on Lee’s behalf.
Things went from bad to worse for Samuel Lee.
In 1875, he was convicted of fraudulently issuing checks while he was county commissioner back in Alabama.
In 1876, Lee caught his stride back and won election as solicitor. He resigned, however, after being accused of having received $3,000 for his vote on a railroad measure.
Samuel hit rock bottom.
In 1877, he wrote the American Colonization Society and stated “his intention to emigrate to Liberia.” He requested “information about practicing law there.” Samuel left South Carolina for parts unknown. He did not go to Africa. After a while, he caught his second wind and returned to South Carolina.
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Samuel turned on the after burners in the 1880s. He returned to the practice of law. Soon, the public regarded Samuel as the state’s leading black lawyer. In 1882, he ran for the Republican nomination for Congress. Samuel did not win but the word went out that Samuel J. Lee was back in the game.
In 1891, life had come full circle as this man wounded at the Second Battle of Bull Run and former Brigadier General (second black in history) headed a black militia company in Charleston.
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Conclusion: At the end of his life, this man who educated himself to become a lawyer left a lasting impression about second acts in life. A life well-lived knows adversity and triumph over adversity. Samuel J. Lee was “buried with military honors, in friendly Union Cemetery, Charleston.”
Over 6,000 people attended his funeral.
What an interesting life. We'll never know if any allegations against him were trumped up or factual, but he sure didn't sit on his laurels.