James Harris

James Henry Harris (1832–1891) was an American civil rights advocate, upholsterer, and politician. Born into slavery, he was freed as a young adult and worked as a carpenter's apprentice and worker before he went to Oberlin College in Ohio. For a time, he lived in Chatham, Ontario, where he was a member of the Chatham Vigilance Committee that aimed to prevent blacks being transported out of Canada and sold as slaves in the United States. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), he was commissioned to organize black troops in Indiana for the 28th United States Colored Infantry Regiment. After the war, he was an educator and politician in North Carolina. Harris was Raleigh, North Carolina's first African American politician. He became a political leader, helping to found the North Carolina Republican Party, serving as a Raleigh alderman, president of the State Equal Rights League, vice president of the Union League, and chairman of the 1866 Freedmen's Convention. He was elected as a delegate to the state's 1868 constitutional convention, as a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives (1868–1870, and 1883) and of the North Carolina Senate (1872–1874). Early life In 1830 or 1832, Harris was born into slavery, with both black and white heritage, in Granville County, North Carolina. On August 3, 1840 he began an apprenticeship with Charles Allen to learn to be a carpenter. Later, he was a self-employed carpenter or upholsterer in Raleigh, North Carolina. He became free at 18 years of age. A certificate of his freedom was issued by the Granville County Clerk's office in 1848.