This Day In History: March 15th
In the years following the Civil War, politician Robert Carlos De Large managed to be an agent for the Freedmen’s Bureau and win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The late politician began his term in 1871 and called out corruption amongst both parties. He also advocated for African Americans to have opportunities to purchase land.
Robert Carlos De Large was born in Aiken, South Carolina, on March 15, 1842. He was born to a free father and a mother of Haitian descent. He received an education and found work as a tailor and farmer before entering politics. He also held a position within the Confederate Navy during the Civil War and saved nearly $6,500 by 1870.
Following his tenure in the Navy, De Large worked with the Freedmen’s Bureau after the war. He aided in organizing efforts for the South Carolina Republican Party and served on committees for state conventions. In 1865, he chaired the credentials committee for the Colored People’s Convention held at Charleston’s Zion Church. Two years later, he chaired the platform committee for the South Carolina Republican Convention and served on the franchise and elections committee for South Carolina’s 1868 constitutional convention.
During this convention, he lobbied for Congress to grant $1 million in funds to purchase land to sell to South Carolina’s poor population. De Large’s early years of politics also included his role as chair of the Ways and Means Committee. By 1870, he was elected to represent the state’s second congressional district over the incumbent, Christopher Bowen. The next year, he was chosen as the state’s land commissioner.
While in office, De Large sought funds to rebuild an orphanage, contested intolerable conditions of the South and supported legislation to combat the activities of the Ku Klux Klan. However, after only serving one term, De Large made his departure from Congress in 1873 due to his declining health. He was succeeded by Alonzo Ransier, but he continued to serve the people of his state as a magistrate in the city of Charleston.
Robert Carlos De Large died on February 14, 1874, in Charleston, South Carolina.
