William James Whipper (January 23, 1834 – July 29, 1907) was an

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

, trial lawyer, municipal judge, and state legislator in South Carolina. An

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, he volunteered for the United States Army during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, serving from 1864 to November 1865 as a member of the 31st Colored Troops. He played an influential role in the state government of

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

during

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

. As a delegate to the state's 1868 constitutional convention, he supported women's suffrage, although his motion to allow "every citizen" to vote was not taken seriously at the time. He was a noted political opponent of

Robert Smalls Robert Smalls (April 5, 1839 – February 23, 1915) was an American politician, publisher, businessman, and maritime pilot. Born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina, he freed himself, his crew, and their families during the American Civil W ...

as well as a dedicated trial lawyer.

Early life

He was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania on January 23, 1834. Whipper's uncle William Whipper was a noted abolitionist and he was named after him. He moved to Ohio where he became a member of the abolition movement. He studied law in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Military service

Whipper volunteered for the United States Army during the

, serving from 1864 to November 1865 as a member of the 31st Colored Troops. During his military service he was court-martialed once for gambling and once for insulting a white lieutenant.

Career

During his career as a trial lawyer, he once served as a co-counsel to

Jonathan Jasper Wright Jonathan Jasper Wright (February 11, 1840 – February 18, 1885) was an African-American lawyer who served as a state senator and judge on the Supreme Court of the State of South Carolina during Reconstruction from 1870 to 1877. Biography Wright ...

, who later went on to become the first black judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina. Whipper was elected as a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1868 where he gave a speech in support of allowing women to vote but the delegates kept on interrupting him and his speech was decided in negative. With Robert Elliott and Macon B. Allen, Whipper formed the nation's first known African American law firm, Whipper, Elliott, and Allen. He and John L. Mitchell represented barber George Brownfield who was convicted of murder by an all white jury in Georgetown, South Carolina. He was sworn in as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1875.

Family life

After the death of his first wife, Whipper married diarist Frances Anne Rollin in South Carolina. The couple had five children. Their daughter Ionia Rollin Whipper became a social reformer. As a result of marital discord, Frances separated from William during the early 1880s, taking her five children to Washington, D.C.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whipper, William James 1834 births 1907 deaths African-American people Members of the South Carolina General Assembly Trial lawyers People of the Reconstruction Era 19th-century American politicians