Edwin Belcher

{{short description|U.S politician during the Reconstruction Era}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_upright = | image_size =  | alt = | caption = | state_house = Georgia | district = Wilkes County, Georgia | term_start = 1868 | term_end = ? | predecessor = | successor = | birth_name =  | birth_date = c. 1845 | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | monuments = | other_names = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = | agent =  | known_for = | spouse = | children = | parents = | party = Republican | allegiance = {{flag|United States}} | branch = {{army|United States|size=23px}} | service_years = | rank = | unit = }}

'''Edwin Belcher''' (born c. 1845) was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, a Freedmen Bureau official in Monroe County, Georgia after the war, and then a state senator in the Georgia Legislature representing Wilkes County, Georgia during the Reconstruction Era.

==Military service== Edwin Belcher reportedly served in a white regiment and was twice taken prisoner during the Civil War. When his background was discovered he reportedly said he did his duty like any other soldier.<ref name=eman/>

==Political office== Belcher was also appointed an assessor of revenue for Georgia's third district by U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and was later appointed by Grant as postmaster in Macon, Georgia.<ref name=eman>{{cite book|title=Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944|author1=Smith, J.C.|author2=Marshall, T.|date=1999|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated|isbn=9780812216851|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1lOIjQUG4aoC&pg=PA249|page=249|access-date=2018-03-18}}</ref> After the 1868 election the legislature refused to seat African Americans. More than two dozen were turned away but Belcher and a few others were allowed to remain because they had light complexions and it could not be proved they were 1/8 or more "Negro".<ref name="blogspot">{{cite web|url=http://accheritage.blogspot.com/2010/09/27-september-1833-legislator-madison.html|website=accheritage.blogspot.com|title=This Day in Athens: 27 September 1833: Legislator Madison Davis Is Born|date=27 September 2010|access-date=2018-03-18}}</ref> The others allowed to remain in their elected offices were Madison Davis of Clarke County, F. H. Fyall of Macon County and Thomas P. Beard of Richmond County.<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=From Slavery to Agrarian Capitalism in the Cotton Plantation South: Central Georgia, 1800-1880|author=Reidy, J.P.|date=2000|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=9780807864067|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fbOpBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA304|page=304|access-date=2018-03-18}}</ref>

==Law career== In 1872 he graduated from Howard University's law school (founded in 1869) and was admitted to the bar in Washington D.C.<ref name=eman/> His brother Eugene R. Belcher was also part of one of the earliest Howard University Law School classes.<ref name="google2">{{cite book|title=All for Civil Rights: African American Lawyers in South Carolina, 1868–1968|author1=Burke, W.L.|author2=Finkelman, P.|author3=Huebner, T.S.|date=2017|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=9780820350998|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1InDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA47|page=47|access-date=2018-03-18}}</ref><ref name="google3">{{cite book|title=Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944|author1=Smith, J.C.|author2=Marshall, T.|date=1999|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated|isbn=9780812216851|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1lOIjQUG4aoC&pg=PA218|page=218|access-date=2018-03-18}}</ref>

In 1878, Belcher wrote a letter introducing himself to William Lloyd Garrison.<ref name=letter>{{cite web|url=https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:dv142m499|title=Letter from Edwin Belcher, Augusta, Ga, to William Lloyd Garrison, April 16th, 1878|website=Digital Commonwealth|access-date=2018-03-18}}</ref> In the letter he says he was "born the slave of my father".

==Legacy== Drew S. Days III, former Solicitor General of the United States, is a descendant of the Belcher family.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dh.howard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1158&context=jcs_speeches|title=Howard University School of Law: One Hundred and Twenty Five Years|last=Smith|first=J. Clay Jr.|date=January 6, 1994|access-date=2020-02-23}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belcher, Edwin}} Category:African-American state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Georgia (U.S. state) postmasters Category:1840s births Category:Original 33 Category:African-American politicians of the Reconstruction era Category:Union army officers Category:Year of death missing Category:Republican Party Georgia (U.S. state) state senators Category:Howard University alumni Category:19th-century members of the Georgia General Assembly