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Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the John Adams Hyman Letters #70104, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Primary Sources Uncharted Americana, 2021 (Acc. 20210901.3).

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Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Chaitra Powell and Dawne Howard Lucas, September 2021

Encoded by: Dawne Howard Lucas, September 2021

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African American legislators--North Carolina.
• African Americans--North Carolina--Politics and government.
• Craven County (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Hyman, John A. (John Adams), 1840-1891.
• National cemeteries--North Carolina.
• New Bern (N.C.) National Cemetery.
• Reconstruction--(U.S. history, 1865-1877)--North Carolina.
• Republican Party (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• Republican Party (U.S.: 1854- )--History--19th century.

Born into enslavement near Warrenton, N.C., John Adams Hyman (1840-1891), was the first African American to represent North Carolina in the House of Representatives. Hyman was chosen as a delegate to the state equal rights convention in 1865, to the state Constitutional Convention in 1868, and served in the North Carolina Senate from 1868 to 1874 in the Reconstruction-era legislature. He served as a Republican U.S. Congressman representing North Carolina's 2nd congressional district from 1875 to 1877.

In 1876, leading members of the Republican Party in New Bern, N.C., recommended that F. D. Schlachter be appointed as the superintendent of the National Cemetery in New Bern, replacing a Democrat. Established in 1867, the cemetery contains the remains of the Union soldiers, including 300 African Americans. Schlachter served in the Union Army, participating in the Burnside Expedition that captured New Bern.

Three letters recommending Republican F. D. Schlachter to be appointed as Superintendent of the National Cemetery in New Bern, N.C., replacing an unnamed Democrat. Two letters, dated 25 April 1876, are addressed to North Carolina’s first African American U.S. congressman, John Adams Hyman, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 2nd district. One of the letters is signed by Thomas Power, chairman of the Republican Executive Committee, and a dozen other local officials from Craven County, N.C. Another letter appears to be signed by John S. Manix, an active member of the Craven County Republican Party. In the third letter, dated 8 May 1876, Hyman writes that "Mr. Shlachter is strongly recommended by all the leading Republicans of New Berne for the position." The letters are written on the same sheet of congressional stationery.