William Henry Harrison (Georgia politician)

Bill was born into slavery, the son of a woman named Eliza and Harrison McLane, who died about 1854 or 1855. He had three sisters and two brothers. After his father died, 14 year old Bill became a slave of Judge James Thomas in southwestern Hancock County, Georgia. He became his body servant and was literate, having been taught to read the bible by the judge. Seeking his freedom, he was among the about 100 people involved in the Sparta insurrection of September 13, 1863. Bill Thomas was emancipated at the end of the Civil War and changed his name to William Henry Harrison.{{Cite web |url=http://georgiashpo.org/sites/default/files/hpd/pdf/Reflections/Reflections%2C%20June%202017.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180524004317/http://georgiashpo.org/sites/default/files/hpd/pdf/Reflections/Reflections%2C%20June%202017.pdf |url-status=usurped |archive-date=May 24, 2018 |title=Insurrection in Hancock County: Revolt Forges a State Leader |last=Spencer |first=Leslie |date=June 2017 |publisher=Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network, published on Georgia Department of Natural Resources - Historic Preservation Division website |pages=1, 6|work=Reflections|volume=XIV|number=1|accessdate=May 23, 2018}}

Members of his family are said to be buried at the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church cemetery in the county.

He was a leader of Georgia's African-American community during the Reconstruction Era after the American Civil War. He was one of two African-American representatives, along with Eli Barnes, elected to the Georgia Legislature as a Republican from Hancock County, Georgia in April 1868.{{cite book|title=The Rural Face of White Supremacy: BEYOND JIM CROW|author=Schultz, M.R.|date=2010|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252092367|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gNFHhiZuAe8C&pg=PA175|page=175|accessdate=2018-03-18}}{{cite book|author=Donald Lee Grant|title=The Way it was in the South: The Black Experience in Georgia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zpmjRm4cdswC&pg=PA106|year=1993|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-2329-9|page=106}}

During this period, "wholesale violence broke out against black people" by the Ku Klux Klan and other white people. Barnes and Harrison testified before the U.S. Congress on Ku Klux Klan violent

activity in Georgia under the Ku Klux Act of 1871. Barnes stated that it was common for black families to be visited in the night by white men who assaulted their wives and daughters and caused mayhem.{{cite book|author=Kent Anderson Leslie|title=Woman of Color, Daughter of Privilege: Amanda America Dickson, 1849-1893|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KISmEAw0rPoC&pg=PA59|date=15 April 2010|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-3717-3|page=59}} Harrison said that after the American Civil War more blacks were whipped than under slavery. Many people were murdered.{{cite book|title=The Rural Face of White Supremacy: BEYOND JIM CROW|author=Schultz, M.R.|date=2010|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252092367|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gNFHhiZuAe8C&pg=PA158|page=158|accessdate=2018-03-18}}

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Category:African-American state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:People from Hancock County, Georgia

Category:African-American politicians during the Reconstruction Era

Category:Year of death missing

Category:Original 33

Category:19th-century American slaves

Category:1843 births

Category:Georgia (U.S. state) Republicans

Category:People enslaved in Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:19th-century members of the Georgia General Assembly

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