John Carraway (c. 1834 - 1871) was a tailor, seaman, civil rights activist, and politician in the United States.[1] In Alabama during the Reconstruction era, he served as a delegate to the 1867 Alabama Constitutional Convention.[2] He also served on Mobile, Alabama's city council, and in the Alabama House of Representatives.[3][1]
Carraway was born around 1834 the son of a plantation owner in North Carolina and one of his slaves.[4] He was emancipated in his father's will.[1] He left Mobile for Brooklyn, New York in the 1850's.[3] While in Brooklyn, he campaigned in New York for voting rights for African Americans.[5]
He served in the Union Army as part of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment[5] under Robert Gould Shaw during the American Civil War. In the Alabama House he was a political ally but personal rival of Creole legislator Ovid Gregory.[3][1]
Carraway represented Mobile at the state's 1867 Constitutional Convention, served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 1868 to 1870, and served on the Mobile City Council in 1869 and 1870. At the convention he spoke in opposition to segregation and opposed a ban on marriages between blacks and whites.[5] He also proposed life imprisonment for any white men cohabiting with black women.[6]
He was a rival of Lawrence S. Berry. Jeremiah Haralson accused him of taking a bribe from railroad interests.[7]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d "Gulf South Historical Review" (PDF). Tuskegee University Archives. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ Work, Monroe N.; Staples, Thomas S.; Wallace, H. A.; Miller, Kelly; McKinlay, Whitefield; Lacy, Samuel E.; Smith, R. L.; McIlwaine, H. R. (1920). "Some Negro Members of Reconstruction Conventions and Legislatures and of Congress". The Journal of Negro History. 5 (1): 63–119. doi:10.2307/2713503. JSTOR 2713503. S2CID 149610698. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ a b c Fitzgerald, Michael W. (September 1, 2002). Urban Emancipation: Popular Politics in Reconstruction Mobile, 1860–1890. LSU Press. ISBN 9780807128374 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Song is part of soldier's legacy (John Carraway)". The Montgomery Advertiser. 26 May 1997. p. 1. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ a b c Freedom's Lawmakers by Eric Foner, Louisiana State University Press (1996) page 41
- ^ Brock, Euline Williams. "BLACK POLITICAL LEADERSHIP DURING RECONSTRUCTION" (PDF). Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ Fitzgerald, Michael W. (2002-09-01). Urban Emancipation: Popular Politics in Reconstruction Mobile, 1860–1890. LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-2837-4.
