The Journey of a Lifetime
I know people who lived all of their lives within five miles of the Petersburg Turnpike in Chesterfield County, Virginia. This was true for my Grandma and several of her cousins. Some take comfort in the surroundings of their parents and their parents’ parents. That way of living is now fading away in the boyhood place of my identity. However, there were always young people (like myself) who wanted to explore and see the larger world. For some black people before the Civil War, it is true the local plantation and farm might have been the known world. It is also as true that some free blacks in the South wanted to see the larger world. And they did so.
Tonight, I present to you a representative of a class of free blacks who explored the larger world and found new vistas, new horizons and points of view. Welcome to the life of Henry J. Maxwell (1837 - 1906).
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Down on Edisto Island, South Carolina in 1837, two free black parents welcomed into the world a son, Henry Johnson Maxwell. The parents provided a strong and positive home environment for their baby boy. The Maxwells were religious people. They made sure that Henry grew up in the Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Growing up in the church provided a rootedness in faith, an invisible force field against the slings and arrows of the larger world.
As he grew up, Henry watched his father manage his store, a living example of black enterprise. Henry would also have observed his father, when not attending to customers, teaching grown men to read and write. Meanwhile and at home, Henry’s mother was teaching white and black kids on her back porch.
Education mattered to the Maxwell family. All free blacks valued education. Free black lived their lives as if ignorance were a curse. Some readers may recall William H. Brisby double-crossed the Confederacy because Brisby was bitter over not being able to read and write in a slave regime. Query whether the ethos of free blacks before the Civil War survives in black students writ large today.
And so Henry’s parents attended to Henry’s education, even in a slave state like South Carolina. Henry began his early education at the “Bonneau School” in Charleston followed by the “Mood School” on Beaufain Street in Charleston.
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At the age of 19, Henry followed a noteworthy pattern among free blacks in South Carolina. Henry decided he would see the world. Think college graduates traveling to Europe for a grand tour before settling down but on a smaller scale. My wife’s ancestor left Georgetown, South Carolina and traveled to Philadelphia where he would meet his future wife, Susan Cooper, daughter of Paris and Susan Telfer Cooper. So, I know a class of young free blacks traveled and saw the larger world in the 1850s. More research should be conducted on this coming of age custom among some free blacks in the South.
Unlike my wife’s ancestor and his attraction to Philadelphia, Henry chose other cities in the Northeast to explore. Henry left South Carolina in June 1856 and lived for a time in New York. After New York, he sampled life in Boston, the center of free black life in America. Finally. Henry made his way to Portland, Maine known for its abolitionist sentiment and the bar admission of the first black lawyer on July 3, 1844.
After a sojourn in Portland, Henry traveled to Addison, Lenawa County, Michigan as part of his grand tour. The year was 1857 and civil rights was in the air. Henry attended a convention to petition the Michigan State Legislature for the right to vote for colored citizens. The convention delegates appointed Henry, the young traveler from South Carolina, to canvass the state for signatures. Henry overwhelmed the task with herculean effort. He visited every county in Michigan and secured more than 2,000 names on the petition.
Simply awe inspiring for a young native of South Carolina in a strange land.
After submitting his petition with 2,000 names, Henry decided to continue his grand tour of parts unknown. He was not married He had no children. It was an ideal time to see the country. He traveled through Indiana. He visited Ohio. And, for good measure, Henry explored a large portion of Canada.
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The Civil War
Like many pioneer black lawyers, Henry heard the call to arms for colored troops. The mass call went out in 1863. Henry volunteered for the Massachusetts Colored Troops but the Army rejected Henry for health reasons. Not one to take “no” for an answer, Henry managed to talk his way into service as a 1st Sergeant of the 2nd U.S. Colored Artillery.
In this role, Henry showed a flash of political acumen as he had in Michigan canvassing for signatures. His artillery outfit happened to be stationed in Tennessee at the same time as a black convention was assembled. Henry attended the convention and made a name for himself. Presumably in uniform, Henry said he had used the cartridge box. Now, he wanted two new boxes. He wanted the ballot box and he wanted the jury box.
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The World of Public Service
Having traveled the country and portions of Canada and served in uniform, Henry returned home to South Carolina. His leadership skills were recognized by voters and influential men with the power of appointment.
In January 1867, Henry became the Superintendent of Education of the Freedmen’s Bureau in the Chesterfield District. The Bureau transferred Henry to Bennettsville in October 1867 for the purpose of organizing schools. Like his father and mother before him, Henry continued the family tradition of teaching. Notably, he entered the political arena by serving as registrar in addition to his duties in the classroom.
In 1868, the focus on teaching led to Henry’s election as the first school commissioner in Marlboro County. He would serve though 1870. The voters were taking notice of Henry as a local dynamo.
1868 was a major breakthrough year for Henry. The voters elected Henry as State Senator for Marlboro County. Henry held his seat in the senate until 1877. Colleagues called Henry “Duke of Marlboro” because Henry was considered the best dressed member of the Senate. It was also in 1868 that Henry was appointed Postmaster at Bennettsville. The appointment made Henry the “1st colored postmaster in the U.S.”
The year brought another happy milestone for the new state senator and postmaster. On October 20, 1868, Henry J. Maxwell married Rebecca Sass Cooper, daughter of Paris Cooper and Susan Telfer Cooper, all from Charleston. The happy couple were married in Philadelphia. It is a small world at times in Black History. Did you know that Henry married the sister of my wife’s great great grandmother?
There were overlapping layers of relationships among those who had been free before the War.
Happiness was followed by sadness. In 1869, both Rebecca and their only son would die.
As the 1870s arrived, Henry began to accumulate property. He owned $1,500 in real estate and $200 in personal property as of the 1870 U.S. Census.
Henry found love again in his life. On September 13, 1870, he married his second wife, Martha Louisa Dibble.
Around this time, Henry pivoted towards a new profession, the law. He gained admission to the South Carolina Bar in March 1871. This was around the time Henry stopped teaching in Bennettsville.
A family man as he would help raise 8 children with Martha, Henry purchased a 44 acre farm in 1874. The farm was located in Sumter where Henry and his family would live for the rest of Henry’s life.
Every life has some blemish and the life of Henry was no different. In 1877, he resigned from the Senate after being arrested by Democratic Redeemers on charges of receiving a bribe in 1872 in connection with election of John J. Patterson to the U.S. Senate. Henry was never tried on the allegations and some saw the arrest as political.
The second psychological wound occurred in 1886. Henry was stabbed while in Charleston. He survived the incident.
After a long life, this traveler in the larger world passed away in his native South Carolina. One son, Dr. Andrew Dibble Maxwell, Sr. (1888 - 1965), graduated from Howard University Dental School and practiced as a dentist. Henry’s grand daughter, Cassandra E. Maxwell, became the first black female lawyer in South Carolina. Cassandra graduated from Howard Law School. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra_E._Maxwell
Conclusion: For the life journey of Henry J. Johnson, three factors came together. His free black parents modeled education as a bedrock value. Henry grew up in the church and learned faith. Finally, he had the wanderlust as a young man to engage the larger world where he discovered himself and what he was made of in foreign lands like Boston, Michigan and Canada. But above all things, Henry lived and breathed education as a way of being in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_J._Maxwell
Henry J. Maxwell (1837 - 1906)
Another incredible story. I agree we should explore the concept of letting students explore the country/world BEFORE going to college or beginning this thing called life.
"Education mattered to the Maxwell family. All free blacks valued education. Free black lived their lives as if ignorance were a curse." There are many black families who still value education. The ones put on display by the MSM give the impression that blacks do not value education. A recent video is out where a lady calls a black woman a musician but the black woman feels insulted and ask why she is being called a magician. The black woman goes on to say, "I play music, I'm not a magician". College is not necessary, but the ability to communicate effectively, read, have some knowledge of history and the ability to do basic math are essential. Cap this off with a continued desire to learn and reinvent yourself, and you will enjoy a good life.
It's good to see his dedication to education lives on in his descendants.