Daniel M. Norton

Daniel M. Norton
Daniel M. Norton (later Daniel McNorton)
Born	c. 1843 (2017-07-26UTC15:43) Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S.
Died	1918 (aged 74–75) Zanesville, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation	Barber
Title	Delegate, state Senator

Daniel M. Norton, later Daniel McNorton (c. 1843 – November 29, 1918) was a nineteenth-century African-American politician in Virginia. Daniel Norton served in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868 and the General Assembly, as did his brothers F. S. Norton (1869/71) and Robert Norton (1869-1974, 1876-1883).

Norton was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, reportedly the son of his enslaved mother and her owner. In his teens, he and another brother Robert escaped to freedom in Troy, New York. Daniel received medical training from a doctor there and thereafter was often called "Doctor Norton”. In January 1860, Norton married his wife Edmonie in Philadelphia. By 1865, the two brothers had become prosperous barbers in Springfield, Massachusetts.

At the end of the American Civil War, Norton returned to Virginia, in their home of York County where he may have had part ownership in the store his brother Robert operated. Establishing himself as a local leader, Daniel testified before Congress in February 1866 that freedmen were not being paid for their work, and vigilantes were a threat to them in the area if federal occupation ended. Although elected three times to serve on the Freedman’s Bureau local court, he was barred by the assistant commissioner for Virginia until a white man took his place.

“Dr. Norton” and brother Robert established a beneficial society named Lone Star that enabled Daniel Norton a political power base in York County. In 1867, Norton was elected to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868. He was the sole delegate elected from the Lower Peninsula district made up of his home district of York County as well as James City County surrounding Norton’s birthplace in Williamsburg.

Following the Convention, Norton continued his involvement in Republican politics, unsuccessfully seeking the party’s nomination for U.S. Congress three times. In the meantime he continued to acquire properties in York County, including much of the property in the African-American community in York County called Slabtown or Uniontown. Daniel Norton married Sarah A. Gant in Muskingum County, Ohio, on December 28, 1871.

A moderate Republican, Norton began an unparalleled career as an African-American state Senator, not only serving during the period following Radical Reconstruction over the sessions 1871/72. 72/73, 77/78, 79/80, and 81/82, but also following the Conservative Democrat’s “redeeming” the state for whites in the sessions of 1883/84, August 1884, 85/86, and March 1887.

During his career was a leader both within the Readjuster Republicans, and African-American Republicans as a splinter group. During his tenure on the Committees on General Laws, on Federal Relations, and on Public Institutions, he sponsored four bills the Assembly passed, and he nominated two county judges whom the Assembly elected. Norton nominated Benjamin W. Lacy to the Supreme Court of Appeals, and presided over the Senate of Virginia on April 7, 1882. During this period Norton won legislation to authorize him, his brother Robert Norton and three others to operate a ferry between Yorktown and Gloucester Point.