Willis Augustus Hodges (February 12, 1815 – September 24, 1890) was an African-American

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 ...

, journalist, and political organizer who became prominent in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Born to free parents in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, Hodges became an outspoken advocate for enslaved African Americans during the Antebellum period, giving aid to the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

in the North after a move to New York, and collaborating with such notable figures as

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he found ...

John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...

and

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

. He also published an antislavery newspaper, ''The Ram’s Horn.'' Following 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 ...

, when he served in the Union Army, Hodges was active in

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 Union ...

politics in Virginia, attending the State Constitutional Convention of Virginia as a delegate from 1867 to 1868. He returned to New York in 1881, after conservative whites regained dominance in Virginia.

Birth and early life

Hodges was born in

Princess Anne County, Virginia County of Princess Anne is a former county in the British Colony of Virginia and the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, first incorporated in 1691. The county was merged into the city of Virginia Beach on January 1, 1963, ceasing to ...

on February 12, 1815, to Charles Augustus Hodges, a free African American, and Julia Nelson Willis, a free woman of mixed-race descent. His father Charles was a landowner and a successful farmer, owning 200 acres of property and one slave by 1840. While Hodges later became a forceful opponent of slavery, his mother's origins led to his having also a lifelong concern for the free blacks in the South, who suffered many constraints. Hodges dedicated his autobiography to their plight. His brothers were antislavery activists Charles Edward Hodges (1819–after 1910) and William Johnson Hodges (?–1872).

Antebellum abolitionist

When Willis was fourteen, his older brother William was arrested for antislavery agitation and thrown into jail. He escaped and fled to Canada, but the incident marked the Hodges family as pariahs in Princess Anne County. The young Hodges found himself the victim of mob violence on more than one occasion during this time. In the aftermath of the

Nat Turner rebellion Nat Turner's Rebellion, historically known as the Southampton Insurrection, was a slave revolt, rebellion of Slavery in the United States, enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831.Schwarz, Frederic D.1 ...

, the white legislature passed severe discriminatory measures against free blacks, fearing more uprisings. Hodges left Virginia for New York in 1836. At the instigation of his sister, Hodges devoted himself to study. He also soon began attending antislavery meetings. Hodges quickly grew impatient with Northerners whom he viewed as being "more men of words than deeds," and became an impassioned advocate for the immediate abolition of slavery by any means necessary. He started a newspaper, ''The Ram's Horn'', in the 1840s, and soon began to collaborate

, an antislavery zealot. Brown notably organized the armed raid on the US armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859.

War and Reconstruction-era

During the

, Hodges traveled to the South and served as a scout for the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

. He used his knowledge of Princess Anne County and the surrounding area to assist Federal forces in its occupation. At the conclusion of the war, Hodges returned to his boyhood home. He was chosen to represent Virginia at the constitutional convention of 1867–1868. The conventions of this period, mandated by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

, marked the "first time

lacks Henrietta Lacks (born Loretta Pleasant; August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951) Note: Some sources report her birthday as August 2, 1920, vs. August 1, 1920. was an African-American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, ...

sat alongside whites as lawmakers," both in Virginia and throughout the occupied South. Because of Hodges' leading role at the convention, he was singled out for ridicule in the southern press. It was typically bitterly hostile to the role of African Americans in Reconstruction. Aligning with the

Radical Republican The Radical Republicans (later also known as " Stalwarts") were a faction within the Republican Party, originating from the party's founding in 1854, some 6 years before the Civil War, until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Reco ...

s, Hodges supported the enfranchisement of blacks, demanded the disenfranchisement of former Confederates, and sought integration of public schools, established for the first time by biracial legislatures in the South. When conservative white Democrats regained dominance of government in Virginia, Hodges returned to New York in 1881. He revisited Virginia in later years.

Death

Hodges died on September 24, 1890, in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

. He was seventy-five.

References

Bibliography

*Foner, Eric. "Blueprints for a Republican South: The Constitutional Conventions." In ''Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution'', 316–33. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2014. *Hodges, Willis Augustus, and Willard B. Gatewood. ''Free Man of Color: The Autobiography of Willis Augustus Hodges''. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1982. *Kirk, Ian. "Hodges, Willis Augustus (1815-1890)." The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. Accessed November 17, 2018. https://blackpast.org/aah/hodges-willis-augustus-1815-1890. *Lowe, Richard. "William Augustus Hodges: "We Are Now Coming to New Things"." Edited by Steven Woodworth. In ''The Human Tradition in the Civil War and Reconstruction'', 213-24. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources Inc., 2000.

External links

*Kirk, Ian. "Hodges, Willis Augustus (1815-1890).
Black Past.
*"Documents of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Virginia." Archive. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodges, Willis Augustus 1815 births 1890 deaths African-American abolitionists 19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) African-American journalists 19th-century American journalists Activists from Virginia Activists for African-American civil rights African-American people in Virginia politics Virginia Republicans Free Negroes Politicians from Virginia Beach, Virginia African-American politicians during the Reconstruction Era