Nelson Gill
{{Short description|Reconstruction-era educator}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
Nelson Green Gill was a state legislator and school organizer in Mississippi.{{Cite book |last=Society |first=Mississippi Historical |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zagKAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22Nelson+G.+Gill%22&pg=PA237 |title=Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society |date=1913 |publisher=The Society |pages=39, 235 |language=en}} He organized a school for African American students in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Mrs. Gill was also involved with the school.{{Cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KKkKAAAAIAAJ&dq=n.g.+gill+marshall+county+mississippi&pg=PA199 | title=Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society | year=1912 }} He represented Marshall County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1874 and 1875.{{Cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKgFAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22h.+h.+truhart%22&pg=RA11-PP5 | title=Miscellaneous Documents: 30th Congress, 1st Session - 48th Congress, 2d Session and Special Session | last1=Senate | first1=United States. Congress | year=1872 }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UPExAQAAMAAJ&q=%E2%80%9CN.g.+Gill%E2%80%9D&pg=PA531 | title=A History of Mississippi: From the Discovery of the Great River by Hernando DeSoto, Including the Earliest Settlement Made by the French Under Iberville, to the Death of Jefferson Davis | isbn=9780404046101 | last1=Lowry | first1=Robert | last2=McCardle | first2=William H. | publisher=AMS Press }} He was white. He was a Republican.{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e7AFAAAAQAAJ&dq=n.g.+gill+holly+springs+1874&pg=PA986 | title=Reports of Committees: 30th Congress, 1st Session - 48th Congress, 2nd Session }}
From Illinois, Gill served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.The Lewis Publishing Company. An Illustrated History of Southern California embracing the counties of San Diego San Bernardino Los Angeles and Orange and the peninsula of lower California. The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois. 1890. He lived in Mississippi after the war and was appointed sheriff and to the board of supervisors. He represented Marshall County, Mississippi in the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1874 and 1875 and as sergeant at arms.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPw7AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22nelson+g.++gill%22+marshall+county&pg=PA168|title=Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society|first=Mississippi Historical|last=Society|date=October 1, 1912|via=Google Books}}
He served as a Freedmen's Bureau agent in Holly Springs, Mississippi after the American Civil War.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5uEWCgAAQBAJ&dq=nelson+gill+mississippi&pg=PA168|title=Wedlocked: The Perils of Marriage Equality|first=Katherine|last=Franke|date=November 6, 2015|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9781479815999|via=Google Books}} A Democratic Party spokesman passed a death threat to him from the Ku Klux Klan.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YSLCS7hg-DEC&dq=nelson+gill+mississippi&pg=PA17|title=The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi: A History|first=Michael|last=Newton|date=December 21, 2009|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786457045|via=Google Books}} but assassination attempt against him by the Klan failed. He worked to organize African Americans in Oxford, Mississippi into a Loyal League.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yk0UAAAAYAAJ&dq=nelson+gill+mississippi&pg=PA311|title=Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society ... V. 1-14|first=Mississippi Historical|last=Society|date=October 1, 1913|publisher=The Society|via=Google Books}}{{Cite journal |last=Buckley |first=G. T. |date=1961 |title=Is Oxford the Original of Jefferson in William Faulkner's Novels? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/460629 |journal=PMLA |volume=76 |issue=4 |pages=443–454 |doi=10.2307/460629 |jstor=460629 |s2cid=163479021 |issn=0030-8129|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Black |first=William R. |date=2018 |title=How Watermelons Became Black: Emancipation and the Origins of a Racist Trope |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26381503 |journal=Journal of the Civil War Era |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=70–71 |jstor=26381503 |issn=2154-4727}}
Gill was critical of abuses of apprenticeship laws including the binding of a teenager to her former slaveowner instead of letting her live with her mother.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZH_2DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22nelson+g.++gill%22+mississippi&pg=PT56|title=Upon the Altar of Work: Child Labor and the Rise of a New American Sectionalism|first=Betsy|last=Wood|date=September 14, 2020|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252052323|via=Google Books}}
Gill was targeted for his political activities and because he fraternized with African Americans.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K-yADwAAQBAJ&dq=nelson+gill+mississippi&pg=PA43|title=Reading Reconstruction: Sherwood Bonner and the Literature of the Post-Civil War South|first=Kathryn B.|last=McKee|date=January 8, 2019|publisher=LSU Press|isbn=9780807170526|via=Google Books}}
He served as president of the board of supervisors from 1869 to 1871.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KKkKAAAAIAAJ&dq=nelson+gill+mississippi&pg=PA206|title=Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society|first=Mississippi Historical|last=Society|date=October 1, 1912|publisher=The Society|via=Google Books}}