P. B. S. Pinchback
| Pinckney Pinchback | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 24th Governor of Louisiana | |
|
In office December 9, 1872 – January 13, 1873 |
|
| Preceded by | Henry C. Warmoth |
| Succeeded by | John McEnery |
| 12th Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana | |
|
In office December 6, 1871 – December 9, 1872 |
|
| Governor | Henry C. Warmoth |
| Preceded by | Oscar Dunn |
| Succeeded by | Davidson Penn |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Pinckney Benton Stewart May 10, 1837 Macon, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | December 21, 1921 (aged 84) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Nina Hawthorne |
| Education | Straight University (LLB) |
Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (born Pinckney Benton Stewart May 10, 1837 – December 21, 1921) was an American publisher and politician, a Union Army officer, and first African American to become governor of a U.S. state. He was born free in Georgia. A Republican, Pinchback served as the 24th Governor of Louisiana from December 9, 1872, to January 13, 1873. He was later elected to the state legislature, serving from 1879 to 1880.
Nicholas Lemann, in Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, described Pinchback as "an outsized figure: newspaper publisher, gambler, orator, speculator, dandy, mountebank – served for a few months as the state's Governor and claimed seats in both houses of Congress following disputed elections but could not persuade the members of either to seat him." Congress was then controlled by Democrats.
He was born free as Pinckney Benton Stewart in May 1837 in Macon, Bibb County, Georgia. His parents were Eliza Stewart, a freed slave, and Major William Pinchback, a white planter and his mother's former master. William Pinchback, who also had a legal white family, freed Eliza and her children in 1836; she had borne six by that point and two had survived. She had four more with him.
Pinckney Stewart's parents were of diverse ethnic origins; Eliza Stewart was classified as mulatto, and had African, Cherokee, Welsh, and German ancestry. William Pinchback was ethnic European-American, of Scots-Irish, Welsh, and German American ancestry. Their mixed-race children were thus of majority European-American ancestry. Shortly after Pinckney's birth, his father William purchased a much larger plantation in Mississippi, and he moved there with both his white and mixed-race families.
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