Hannibal Carter
*Hannibal C. Carter's birth is celebrated on this date in 1835. He was a Black soldier, abolitionist, and politician.
Carter was born in New Albany, Indiana, then moved to Toronto, Canada, for his early childhood. He and his brother were sons of George Washington Carter. Although the exact date is unclear, sometime in the spring of 1861, his father and brother Edward took the steamer Vicksburg, which ran on the lower Mississippi, down to New Orleans. According to the New Albany Ledger, they were there on April 12, 1861, when Fort Sumter fell and the American Civil War began.
Carter and his brother Edward served in the Native Guards of Louisiana and the Union Army. Despite restrictions placed on Blacks, they had some mobility and could cross state lines. They were among some of the first Blacks in the United States to muster into service during the Civil War. The two Carter brothers became part of the Louisiana Native Guards, which was formed in New Orleans initially to protect the interests of native New Orleans citizens.
He served two nonconsecutive terms in the Mississippi House of Representatives. The first was from 1872 to 1873, and the second was from 1876 to 1877, both times as a Republican. In later years, he changed his affiliation to a Democrat. Carter was also Secretary of State of Mississippi from 1873 to 1874 after being appointed when Hiram R. Revels resigned. After leaving office, he helped establish the Freedmen's Oklahoma Immigration Association in Chicago in 1881. He later spent his life in Chicago, Illinois, where he died at home on June 1, 1904, at 69.
