Fernandina Beach FL HD Billings House plaque01

Liberty Billings (1823 - 1877) was an American officer in the Union Army, a Unitarian minister, and a state senator. Billings was born in Saco, Maine in 1823. He was educated at

Thornton Academy Thornton Academy (often abbreviated as TA) is a co-educational, independent boarding and day school serving grades 9–12 located in Saco, Maine. Thornton Academy also opened a full-time, private junior high school on its campus, named Thornton Ac ...

and later graduated from

Meadville Theological School The Meadville Lombard Theological School is a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Chicago, Illinois. History Meadville Lombard is a result of a merger in the 1930s between two institutions, a Unitarian seminary and a Universalist seminary. M ...

in 1848. Billings served as Lieutenant Colonel of the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry which in turn became the 33rd United States Colored Infantry during the American Civil War. He was a Republican ( Radical Republican) during the

Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

and served as a state senator in Florida. He was involved in the constitutional convention that developed the

1868 Florida Constitution The Constitution of the State of Florida is the document that establishes and describes the powers, duties, structure, and function of the government of the U.S. state of Florida, and establishes the basic law of the state. The current Consti ...

. Billings has been honored posthumously as a Great Floridian. He was deemed ineligible to participate in the constitutional convention and was voted out along with others accused of being residents of other states. The Billings House located in the Fernandina Beach Historic District in

Fernandina Beach, Florida Fernandina Beach is a city in northeastern Florida and the county seat of Nassau County, Florida, Nassau County, Florida, United States. It is the northernmost city on Florida's Atlantic coast, situated on Amelia Island, and is one of the princi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Billings, Liberty 1823 births 1877 deaths 19th-century Unitarians American Unitarians People of Florida in the American Civil War People of Maine in the American Civil War African Americans in the American Civil War Union Army colonels Radical Republicans Members of the Florida House of Representatives People from Saco, Maine African-American Christian clergy African-American state legislators in Florida Fernandina Beach, Florida Thornton Academy alumni

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