Charles W. Cansler
| Charles Cansler | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 15, 1871 Maryville, Tennessee, USA |
| Died | November 1, 1953 (aged 82) Knoxville, Tennessee, USA |
| Alma mater | Freedmen's Normal Institute (Friendsville, Tennessee) |
| Occupation | Educator |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Lillian Webber |
| Parent(s) | Hugh Lawson Cansler and Laura Scott |
Charles Warner Cansler (May 15, 1871 – November 1, 1953) was an American educator, civil rights advocate, and author, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. A grandson of William Scott, a pioneering African-American publisher, and the son of Knoxville's first African-American teacher, Cansler was instrumental in establishing educational opportunities for the Knoxville's African-American children in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His 1940 biography, Three Generations: The Story of a Colored Family in Eastern Tennessee, remains an important account of black life in 19th century East Tennessee.
Cansler was born in Maryville, Tennessee, in 1871, a son of Hugh Lawson Cansler (originally spelled "Gentzler" ) and Laura Scott. Cansler's father was the son of a plantation slave and the plantation owner's daughter Catherine Cansler. Cansler's maternal grandfather, William Scott (1821–1885), had moved to Friendsville in 1847 at the request of the town's Quaker leaders. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Scotts moved to Knoxville, which offered better protection from pro-Confederate guerrillas, who often targeted free blacks.
While in Knoxville, Cansler's mother attended a school for black children established by St. John's Episcopal Church rector, Thomas William Humes. In 1864, she became Knoxville's first African-American teacher when she received permission to open a school from Ambrose Burnside, commander of the occupying Union forces. In August 1865, William Scott moved to Nashville, where he founded The Colored Tennessean, the state's first newspaper published and edited by an African American. Two years later, he returned to Maryville, where he published the pro-Radical Republican Maryville Republican, and in 1869 served as the city's only black mayor.
Charles Cansler studied at the Quaker-sponsored Freedmen's Normal Institute. He later attended Maryville College, one of the few integrated colleges in the South, but he quit before graduating. In the early 1890s, Cansler worked at different jobs for the railroad and the federal government, but disheartened by discrimination, he began studying law under Knox County judge William Kain. He passed the bar in 1892.
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