History of Hiram Rhodes Revels
Hiram was born on September 27, 1827,
in the city of Fayetteville, North Carolina.
He died in January 16, 1901.
He was born a free African American. His parents were a mix of African and Croatan Indian cultures. He was tutored secretely by a free black woman because teaching black children was illegal at the time. He then went to live with his brother Elias B. Revels in Lincolnton, North Carolina. He worked with his brother as a barber for a while, then went to go on with his education. He attended the Union County Seminary in Indiana, a black seminary in Ohio, and went to Knox College in Illinois. Hiram Revels also became a minister for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He married Phoebe A. Bass, a free black woman that lived in Ohio, and they had six daughters. He also established a school for freedmen in St.Louis, Missouri.
Hiram Rhodes Revels accomplished something not a lot of people can do. He became the first African American to serve as a Senate in the United States Congress. He represented the state of Mississippi and was elected as senator in 1863. He was a senate for only two years. His senate years of service started from February 25, 1870 - March 4, 1871.