Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs
Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs (September 28, 1821 - August 14,1874) was a Presbyterian minister and a prominent African-American officeholder during Reconstruction.
Early life
Gibbs was born a free man in Philadelphia on September 28, 1821. Though not much is known about the details of his early life, Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs grew up in a Philadelphia where anti-black riots and violence were quite common.[1] Following the death of his father in April of 1831, Gibbs and his brother left the Free School to aid their ailing mother and earn a living. The young Gibbs apprenticed to a carpenter. Both brothers eventually converted to Presbyterianism. Gibbs impressed the Presbyterian Assembly such that the Assembly provided financial backing for him to attend Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire.[2]
He was the third African-American to graduate from Dartmouth College, and, following on the heels of John Brown Russwurm, Gibbs became the second black man in the nation to deliver a commencement address at a college.
Following his graduation in 1852, Gibbs studied at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1853 to 1854 but did not graduate due to financial constraints.[3]
Gibbs served as pastor of the First African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1859 to 1865. He became active in the abolitionist movement and “he became a key figure in the local underground railroad and contributed articles to the Anglo-African Magazine.”[4]
The situation for freedmen in this period was filled with uncertainty as well as with great opportunities. As early as 1866 the need for missionary activities among the freedmen was mentioned prominently in The First Annual Report of the General Assembly’s Committee on Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. The Report stated that, “The condition of the freedmen, their native peculiarities, and the various influences to which they are subjected, have much to do in determining the success of missions, and the plan of the church’s operation for their benefit.”[5] This same report also illuminated the perspective of Northern missionaries in treating the situation on the ground for freedmen writing that newly freed blacks are, "passing through 'a howling wilderness' of social, political, and religious problems, as striking and peculiar as those found by the Israelites in their journey from the 'house of bondage' to the land of their fathers. And all these problems impinge upon the work of their religious education, in every branch of it, either directly or remotely.[6] Missionary activity in the South was not a new occurrence in the South. Contraband camps had already been a fixture from early on in the war.
The established missionary work among freed blacks in the South was augmented by missionary activities such as those in which Gibbs participated. The motivating factor for Gibbs involved his enduring belief in the power of education and the link (expressed in the 1866 report) between religious duties and the task of uplifting nearly four million enslaved individuals. In a letter to his old friend, Charles Barrett of Vermont, Gibbs proudly stated that he “had one school that daily average in Charleston, 1000, children, and some 20 teachers.”[7] During his time in South Carolina Gibbs also involved himself in the political activities that were available to blacks during Reconstruction. Controversially, Gibbs' participation in a meeting of black delegates in South Carolina who drafted a petition demanded that the educated of both races be allowed to vote, indicates an elitism present in his character. The petition also stated that, "we do ask that if the ignorant white man is allowed to vote, that the ignorant colored man shall be allowed to vote also."[8] In spite of Gibbs' apparent elitism, it was clear that he valued the power of education for his formerly enslaved brethren. Gibbs noted that,"If we can secure, for the next ten years, three clean shirts a week, a tooth brush, and spelling-book to every Freedman in South Carolina, I will go bail (a thing I seldom do) for the next hundred years, that we will have no more slavery, and both whites and blacks will be happier and better friends."[9] During this period, Gibbs met and married his second wife, Elizabeth, with whom he would have at least one child (who would die in infancy). Gibbs “remained [in Charleston] but a short time not finding things to his liking. He proceeded to Jacksonville, Florida and there opened an Academy for youth of that city.”[10]
Reconstruction politician
Gibbs moved to Florida in 1867 where started a private school in Jacksonville. He rapidly moved away from his missionary efforts and into active political involvement in Reconstruction Florida. Religion and politics went hand-in-hand for black officeholders in this period, and Gibbs' entrance echoed the words of another prominent black officeholder, Charles H. Pearce who remarked that, "A man in this State, cannot do his whole duty as a minister except he looks out for the political interests of his people."[11] Jonathan C. Gibbs was elected to the State Constitutional Convention of 1868. He formed part of the radical Mule Team faction within the convention that initially gained control of the convention only to be thwarted by more moderate and conservative delegates led by Harrison Reed and Ossian Bingley Hart.[12] The resulting constitution according to Canter Brown, Jr., "While it established the state's most liberal charter to that date, it incorporated important restrictions on black political power. It permitted most former Rebels to vote, at the same time specifying a legislative apportionment plan that discriminated again black-majority counties in favor of sparsely populated white counties. The drafters retained one item especially important to black leaders. The constitution directed the legislature to create a uniform system of public schools."[13] The Mule Team proceeded to nominate its own slate of candidates in opposing to the more conservative faction of Republicans nominating Gibbs for Florida's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ultimately, the Mule Team coalition fracture in the wake of the successful election of a moderate Republican administration and Congressional approval of the 1868 Constitution.
Though Gibbs did not win the election to Congress, he was appointed Florida's Secretary of State from 1868 to 1872, by Wisconsin-born Republican governor, Harrison Reed. The power and responsibility that Gibbs' wielded during his four years as Secretary of State was a point not missed on the Philadelphia-born minister. In a letter to his close friend, Charles Barrett, Gibbs remarked that, "In 1868 I was appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, Secretary of State of Florida at a salary of $3000, per year for four years, and stand second man in the government of this State today.”[14] The amount of actual power and influence Gibbs had contradicts the observations made by historians of this period. Eric Foner noted that, “During Reconstruction more blacks served in the essentially ceremonial office of secretary of state than any other post, and by and large, the most important political decisions in every state were made by whites.”[15] However, Article VIII of the Constitution states that, "The Superintendent of Public Instruction, Secretary of State, and Attorney General shall constitute a body corporate, to be known as the Board of Education of Florida. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be president thereof. The duties of the Board of Education shall be prescribed by the Legislature."[16] Gibbs also was incredibly proactive as Secretary of State, conducting extensive investigations into violence and fraud (including investigations into the activities of the Ku Klux Klan) and he also served on the Board of Canvassers, testifying on behalf of Josiah Thomas Walls.
Death
Gibbs died on August 14, 1874, in Tallahassee, Florida, reportedly of apoplexy.
Notes
- ↑ Philip S. Foner, History of Black Americans: From The Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom to the Eve of the Compromise of 1850, Vol. 2 (Westport, CT and London, Greenwood Press, 1983), 203.
- ↑ William Pierce Randel, The Ku Klux Klan: A Century of Infamy, (Philadelphia and New York: Chilton Books, 1965), 125; Phyllis Gibbs Fauntleroy, Linking The Gibbs Chain, (Washington, D.C.: P.G. Fauntleroy, 1995), 4; Carter G. Woodson, "The Gibbs Family", The Negro History Bulletin, Vol. XI, No. 1 (October, 1947), 3, 7.
- ↑ Phyllis Gibbs Fauntleroy, Linking The Gibbs Chain (Washington, D.C.: P.G. Fauntleroy, 1995), 4-5; Jonathan C. Gibbs, M.D., “An Essay On The Life And Times of Rev. Jonathan C. Gibbs of Florida, 1821-1874,” (unpublished, no date). This essay was in the possession of Phyllis Gibbs Fauntleroy.
- ↑ Dinnella-Borrego, 55-56; C. Peter Ripley, The Black Abolitionist Papers, 246; “Annual Meeting of the Philadelphia Vigilant Committee,” Weekly Anglo-African, February 25, 1860 in BAP Microfilm, 12:0509.
- ↑ The First Annual Report of the General Assembly’s Committee on Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Pittsburgh: Jas. McMillin, 1866), 16.
- ↑ The First Annual Report of the General Assembly’s Committee on Freedmen, 13.
- ↑ Jonathan C. Gibbs, Letter to Charles Barrett, Grafton, Vt., Tallahassee, Fla., June 7, 1869. Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.
- ↑ Herbert Aptheker, “South Carolina Negro Conventions, 1865,” The Journal of Negro History Vol. 31, No. 1, (January 1946), 94-95; Eric Foner, Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction (Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1996), 84.
- ↑ Leon F. Litwack, Been In The Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery (New York: Vintage Books, 1980), 522; Jonathan C. Gibbs, The Christian Recorder, February 3, 1866.
- ↑ Jonathan C. Gibbs, M.D., “An Essay On The Life And Times of Rev. Jonathan C. Gibbs of Florida, 1821-1874,” (unpublished, no date).
- ↑ Canter Brown Jr., Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867-1924, (Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 1998), 4; Dorothy Dodd, "'Bishop' Pearce and the Reconstruction of Leon County", Apalachee (1946), 6.
- ↑ Canter Brown Jr., Florida's Black Public Officials, 10-11.
- ↑ Brown, 10-11; Jerrell H. Shofner, Nor Is It Over Yet: Florida in the Era of Reconstruction 1863-1877, (Gainesville, University of Florida Press, 1974), 184-187.
- ↑ Jonathan C. Gibbs, Letter to Charles Barrett, Grafton, Vt., Tallahassee, Fla., (June 7, 1869). Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.
- ↑ Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, (New York: Perennial Classics, 1988), 354.
- ↑ Florida Constitution, (1868). Article VIII, Sec. 9.