Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, II (September 28, 1821 – August 14, 1874) was a Presbyterian
minister and a prominent African-American officeholder during Reconstruction. He served as first black Secretary of State
and Superintendent of Public Instruction of Florida
, and along with Josiah Thomas Walls, was among the most powerful black officeholders in the state
during Reconstruction.
on September 28, 1821. His father, the Reverend Jonathan Gibbs I, married Maria Jackson. The elder Gibbs was a Methodist minister, and his wife was a Baptist
. Jonathan C. Gibbs II was the oldest of four children born to the couple. He grew up in Philadelphia during a time when the city was rife with anti-black and anti-abolitionist sentiments. Such sentiments were not unfamiliar to free blacks, as many white Northerners during this period practiced both white superiority and discrimination against blacks. Gibbs and his brother, Mifflin, attended the local Free School in Philadelphia.
Though not much is known about the details of his early life, Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs grew up in a Philadelphia where anti-black riots and violence were quite common. Following the death of his father in April 1831, Gibbs and his brother left the Free School to aid their ailing mother and earn a living. The young Gibbs apprenticed to a carpenter. Both brothers eventually converted to Presbyterianism. Gibbs impressed the Presbyterian Assembly such that the Assembly provided financial backing for him to attend Kimball Union Academy
in Meriden
, New Hampshire
.
at Meriden
, New Hampshire
, and graduated in 1848. At the time, the academy was under the guidance of abolitionist principal, Cyrus Smith Richards, who had earlier allowed Augustus Washington
(who would also attend Dartmouth) to study at the academy. Washington is best known for a famous daguerreotype of John Brown
. At KUA, Gibbs became acquainted with Charles Barrett, a native of Grafton
, Vermont
, who would become one of his closest friends. The two went on to Dartmouth College
, and later, Barrett returned to his native Vermont and served in politics.
While Gibbs was a student, Dartmouth was under the presidency of pro-slavery Nathan Lord
. Lord was originally an anti-slavery advocate who had voted for the Liberty Party
and had written editorials in The Liberator. His sudden conversion was due to his conservative brand of Calvinism, he felt that reformers may have been going to far in their zeal against slavery. Despite the president's views regarding slavery, which stemmed in large part from his belief that the institution was predicated on sin, Lord permitted several African-Americans to attend the college. Lord's believed that any group of people who sinned against God could be enslaved (including whites).
While at the college, Gibbs was influenced by three professors who would affect his thinking as a missionary, educator and politician. He was a member of the abolitionist movement while a college student, and participated in several conventions, appearing by name in The Liberator.
He was the third African-American to graduate from Dartmouth College
, and, following on the heels of John Brown Russwurm
, Gibbs became the second black man in the nation to deliver a commencement address at a college.
from 1853 to 1854 but did not graduate due to financial constraints. At the seminary, Gibbs studied under Charles Hodge
a pro-slavery advocate. Hodge, a Presbyterian minister, espoused the belief that, "slavery as such was not condemned by Scripture but that the way it was practiced in the South perpetuated great evil." Unlike Nathan Lord
, Hodge did support the war effort and President Abraham Lincoln
. Though Gibbs was unable to graduate from the seminary, he was ordained in 1856, and became pastor of Liberty Street Presbyterian Church in Troy, New York
, where Henry Highland Garnet
had been pastor. Gibbs invited the pro-slavery president of Dartmouth College
, Nathan Lord
, to give the ordination sermon. He "begged Dr. Lord as a special favor to preach his ordination sermon, giving as a reason that his college was the only (one) which would endure his presence." Lord delivered the sermon as a result of the absence of other ministers.
Gibbs, by now a young minister, married Anna Amelia Harris, the daughter of a well-to-do black New York merchant. The couple had three children: Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs
, Julia Pennington Gibbs, and Josephine Haywood Gibbs.
Following his ordination, Gibbs became active in the abolitionist movement. He attended a series of black conventions where he worked with Frederick Douglass
and served on committees. His participation in the abolitionist movement began to place him on the national stage as a known figure in the movement. Gibbs was featured in anti-slavery publications including The Liberator and the The National Anti-Slavery Standard. His rising fame was indicative of Gibbs' own ambitions as well his skills as an orator and rising abolitionist minister. His growing involvement in New York's abolitionist movement did not bode well for his marriage. In part due to his extensive absences from home and his parish duties, Gibbs became increasingly alienated him from his wife. On Anna's part, she was accustomed to living standards that a young pastor could not afford. The tension between husband and wife prompted Gibbs to consider leaving the United States for Africa
to work as a missionary. However, he was persuaded by his congregation to abandon these plans. The marital discord eventually led to lengthy and bitter divorce proceedings, which lasted until 1862. Not long afterward, Gibbs returned to his native Philadelphia where he continued his involvement in the abolitionist movement.
Following President Abraham Lincoln
's announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation
, Gibbs delivered a sermon titled "Freedom's Joyful Day" where he emphasized that whites should crush their prejudices and that blacks should be allowed to fight in the Civil War. Gibbs noted that, "We, the colored men of the North, put the laboring oar in your hand; it is for white men to show that they are equal to the demands of these times, by putting away their stupid prejudices." He touched upon the need for blacks to fight by addressing white concerns and prejudices stating unequivocally that:
Along with William Still
, Gibbs fought for equal accommodations and transportation in Philadelphia, decrying segregation of the city's rail cars. In a blunt article published in December 1864 in the National Anti-Slavery Standard, Still and Gibbs asked, "Why, then, should the fear exist that the very people who are meeting with colored people in various other directions without insulting them, should instantly become so intolerably incensed as to indicate a terrible aspect in this particular?" They wrote further that:
Gibbs' efforts in the movement to abolish slavery helped both free blacks and their enslaved brethren. As the Civil War drew to a close, Gibbs left Philadelphia, and journeyed to the South to help rebuild the former Confederate states and to educate the ex-slaves and poor whites who were left destitute in the wake of the bloody ravages of war.
"was invited to go South for several months to look to the needs of Freedmen." What may have begun as an endeavor for only a few months eventually grew to several years, as Gibbs labored alongside other missionaries as part of the American Home Missionary Society. Gibbs arrived at New Bern, North Carolina
, where he wrote a letter published in The Christian Recorder where he described the conditions he saw in the aftermath of the war, "The destitution and suffering of this people extended my wildest dream; old men and women bending to the ground, heads white with the frosts and hardships of many winters, as well as the innocent babe of a few weeks, contribute to make up this scene of misery." Gibbs eventually settled in Charleston
, South Carolina
, where he established himself in the local church and opened a school for educating the freedmen.
The situation for freedmen in this period was filled with uncertainty as well as with great opportunities. As early as 1866 the need for missionary activities among the freedmen was mentioned prominently in The First Annual Report of the General Assembly’s Committee on Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. The Report stated that, "The condition of the freedmen, their native peculiarities, and the various influences to which they are subjected, have much to do in determining the success of missions, and the plan of the church’s operation for their benefit." This same report also illuminated the perspective of Northern missionaries in treating the situation on the ground for freedmen writing that newly freed blacks are, "passing through 'a howling wilderness' of social, political, and religious problems, as striking and peculiar as those found by the Israelites in their journey from the 'house of bondage' to the land of their fathers. And all these problems impinge upon the work of their religious education, in every branch of it, either directly or remotely. Missionary activity in the South was not a new occurrence in the South. Contraband camps had already been a fixture from early on in the war, and missionaries were already hard at work living among the contrabands, a point which was not lost on Steven Hahn
who noted that:
The established missionary work among freed blacks in the South was augmented by missionary activities such as those in which Gibbs participated. The motivating factor for Gibbs involved his enduring belief in the power of education and the link (expressed in the 1866 report) between religious duties and the task of uplifting nearly four million enslaved individuals. In a letter to his old friend, Charles Barrett of Vermont
, Gibbs proudly stated that he "had one school that daily average in Charleston, 1000, children, and some 20 teachers." During his time in South Carolina
Gibbs also involved himself in the political activities that were available to blacks during Reconstruction. Controversially, Gibbs' participation in a meeting of black delegates in South Carolina who drafted a petition demanded that the educated of both races be allowed to vote, indicates an elitism present in his character. The petition also stated that, "we do ask that if the ignorant white man is allowed to vote, that the ignorant colored man shall be allowed to vote also." In spite of Gibbs' apparent elitism, it was clear that he valued the power of education for his formerly enslaved brethren. Gibbs noted that,"If we can secure, for the next ten years, three clean shirts a week, a tooth brush, and spelling-book to every Freedman in South Carolina, I will go bail (a thing I seldom do) for the next hundred years, that we will have no more slavery, and both whites and blacks will be happier and better friends." During this period, Gibbs met and married his second wife, Elizabeth, with whom he would have at least one child (who would die in infancy). Gibbs "remained [in Charleston] but a short time not finding things to his liking. He proceeded to Jacksonville, Florida and there opened an Academy for youth of that city."
Gibbs moved to Florida
in 1867 where he started a private school in Jacksonville. He rapidly moved away from his missionary efforts and into active political involvement in Reconstruction Florida. Religion and politics went hand-in-hand for black officeholders in this period, and Gibbs' entrance echoed the words of another prominent black officeholder, Charles H. Pearce who remarked that, "A man in this State, cannot do his whole duty as a minister except he looks out for the political interests of his people." Jonathan C. Gibbs was elected to the State Constitutional Convention
of 1868. He formed part of the radical Mule Team faction within the convention that initially gained control of the convention only to be thwarted by more moderate and conservative delegates led by Harrison Reed and Ossian Bingley Hart. The resulting constitution according to Canter Brown, Jr., "While it established the state's most liberal charter to that date, it incorporated important restrictions on black political power. It permitted most former Rebels to vote, at the same time specifying a legislative apportionment plan that discriminated again black-majority counties in favor of sparsely populated white counties. The drafters retained one item especially important to black leaders. The constitution directed the legislature to create a uniform system of public schools." The Mule Team proceeded to nominate its own slate of candidates, opposing the more conservative faction of Republicans
nominating Gibbs for Florida's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ultimately, the Mule Team coalition fractured in the wake of the successful election of a moderate Republican administration and Congressional approval of the 1868 Constitution.
Though Gibbs did not win the election to Congress, he was appointed Florida's Secretary of State from 1868 to 1872, by Wisconsin-born Republican governor, Harrison Reed. The power and responsibility that Gibbs' wielded during his four years as Secretary of State was a point not missed on the Philadelphia-born minister. In a letter to his close friend, Charles Barrett, Gibbs remarked that, "In 1868 I was appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate
, Secretary of State of Florida at a salary of $3000, per year for four years, and stand second man in the government of this State today." The amount of actual power and influence Gibbs had contradicts the observations made by historians of this period. Eric Foner
noted that, "During Reconstruction more blacks served in the essentially ceremonial office of secretary of state than any other post, and by and large, the most important political decisions in every state were made by whites." However, Article VIII of the Constitution states that, "The Superintendent of Public Instruction, Secretary of State, and Attorney General shall constitute a body corporate, to be known as the Board of Education of Florida. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be president thereof. The duties of the Board of Education shall be prescribed by the Legislature." Gibbs also was incredibly proactive as Secretary of State, conducting extensive investigations into violence and fraud (including investigations into the activities of the Ku Klux Klan
) and he also served on the Board of Canvassers, testifying on behalf of Josiah Thomas Walls.
He was appointed Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1873. Gibbs was also commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Florida State Militia. Gibbs was also elected as a Tallahassee City Councilman in 1872.
, reportedly of apoplexy
.
Reconstruction Judge Mifflin Wistar Gibbs
, and the father of Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs
, a delegate to the 1886 Florida Constitutional Convention, and a member of the Florida state legislature. Gibbs High School, the first high school in St. Petersburg for black students, is named after him. Gibbs Junior College (also in St. Petersburg) was named after him. The college now forms part of St. Petersburg College
which has a Gibbs Campus.
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
minister and a prominent African-American officeholder during Reconstruction. He served as first black Secretary of State
Secretary of State of Florida
The Secretary of State of Florida is a constitutional officer of the state government of the U.S. state of Florida, established by the original 1838 state constitution....
and Superintendent of Public Instruction of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and along with Josiah Thomas Walls, was among the most powerful black officeholders in the state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
during Reconstruction.
Philadelphia
Gibbs was born free in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
on September 28, 1821. His father, the Reverend Jonathan Gibbs I, married Maria Jackson. The elder Gibbs was a Methodist minister, and his wife was a Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
. Jonathan C. Gibbs II was the oldest of four children born to the couple. He grew up in Philadelphia during a time when the city was rife with anti-black and anti-abolitionist sentiments. Such sentiments were not unfamiliar to free blacks, as many white Northerners during this period practiced both white superiority and discrimination against blacks. Gibbs and his brother, Mifflin, attended the local Free School in Philadelphia.
Though not much is known about the details of his early life, Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs grew up in a Philadelphia where anti-black riots and violence were quite common. Following the death of his father in April 1831, Gibbs and his brother left the Free School to aid their ailing mother and earn a living. The young Gibbs apprenticed to a carpenter. Both brothers eventually converted to Presbyterianism. Gibbs impressed the Presbyterian Assembly such that the Assembly provided financial backing for him to attend Kimball Union Academy
Kimball Union Academy
Kimball Union Academy is a private boarding school located in New Hampshire. Founded in 1813, it is the 22nd oldest boarding school in the United States...
in Meriden
Meriden, New Hampshire
Meriden is a village in the eastern part of the town of Plainfield in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. Meriden is home to Kimball Union Academy, a private boarding school....
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
.
New Hampshire
Gibbs attended Kimball Union AcademyKimball Union Academy
Kimball Union Academy is a private boarding school located in New Hampshire. Founded in 1813, it is the 22nd oldest boarding school in the United States...
at Meriden
Meriden, New Hampshire
Meriden is a village in the eastern part of the town of Plainfield in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. Meriden is home to Kimball Union Academy, a private boarding school....
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, and graduated in 1848. At the time, the academy was under the guidance of abolitionist principal, Cyrus Smith Richards, who had earlier allowed Augustus Washington
Augustus Washington
Augustus Washington was an African American photographer and daguerreotypist, who later in his career emigrated to Liberia. He is one of the few African American daguerreotypists whose career has been documented.-Biography:...
(who would also attend Dartmouth) to study at the academy. Washington is best known for a famous daguerreotype of John Brown
John Brown (abolitionist)
John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
. At KUA, Gibbs became acquainted with Charles Barrett, a native of Grafton
Grafton, Vermont
Grafton is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 649 at the 2000 census.-History:The town was founded as Thomlinson, but renaming rights were auctioned in 1791. The high bidder, who reportedly offered "five dollars and a jug of rum," changed the name to Grafton after...
, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, who would become one of his closest friends. The two went on to Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, and later, Barrett returned to his native Vermont and served in politics.
While Gibbs was a student, Dartmouth was under the presidency of pro-slavery Nathan Lord
Nathan Lord
Nathan Lord was a U.S. Congregational clergyman and educator. His pro-slavery views, unusual in abolitionist New England, brought him notoriety during the American Civil War....
. Lord was originally an anti-slavery advocate who had voted for the Liberty Party
Liberty Party (1840s)
The Liberty Party was a minor political party in the United States in the 1840s . The party was an early advocate of the abolitionist cause...
and had written editorials in The Liberator. His sudden conversion was due to his conservative brand of Calvinism, he felt that reformers may have been going to far in their zeal against slavery. Despite the president's views regarding slavery, which stemmed in large part from his belief that the institution was predicated on sin, Lord permitted several African-Americans to attend the college. Lord's believed that any group of people who sinned against God could be enslaved (including whites).
While at the college, Gibbs was influenced by three professors who would affect his thinking as a missionary, educator and politician. He was a member of the abolitionist movement while a college student, and participated in several conventions, appearing by name in The Liberator.
He was the third African-American to graduate from Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, and, following on the heels of John Brown Russwurm
John Brown Russwurm
John Brown Russwurm was an American abolitionist from Jamaica, known for his newspaper, Freedom's Journal. He moved from the United States to govern the Maryland section of an African American colony in Liberia, dying there in 1851....
, Gibbs became the second black man in the nation to deliver a commencement address at a college.
New York and the Abolitionist Movement
Following his graduation in 1852, Gibbs studied at Princeton Theological SeminaryPrinceton Theological Seminary
Princeton Theological Seminary is a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church located in the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey in the United States...
from 1853 to 1854 but did not graduate due to financial constraints. At the seminary, Gibbs studied under Charles Hodge
Charles Hodge
Charles Hodge was the principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1851 and 1878. A Presbyterian theologian, he was a leading exponent of historical Calvinism in America during the 19th century. He was deeply rooted in the Scottish philosophy of Common Sense Realism...
a pro-slavery advocate. Hodge, a Presbyterian minister, espoused the belief that, "slavery as such was not condemned by Scripture but that the way it was practiced in the South perpetuated great evil." Unlike Nathan Lord
Nathan Lord
Nathan Lord was a U.S. Congregational clergyman and educator. His pro-slavery views, unusual in abolitionist New England, brought him notoriety during the American Civil War....
, Hodge did support the war effort and President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
. Though Gibbs was unable to graduate from the seminary, he was ordained in 1856, and became pastor of Liberty Street Presbyterian Church in Troy, New York
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
, where Henry Highland Garnet
Henry Highland Garnet
Henry Highland Garnet was an African American abolitionist and orator. An advocate of militant abolitionism, Garnet was a prominent member of the abolition movement that led against moral suasion toward more political action. Renowned for his skills as a public speaker, he urged blacks to take...
had been pastor. Gibbs invited the pro-slavery president of Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, Nathan Lord
Nathan Lord
Nathan Lord was a U.S. Congregational clergyman and educator. His pro-slavery views, unusual in abolitionist New England, brought him notoriety during the American Civil War....
, to give the ordination sermon. He "begged Dr. Lord as a special favor to preach his ordination sermon, giving as a reason that his college was the only (one) which would endure his presence." Lord delivered the sermon as a result of the absence of other ministers.
Gibbs, by now a young minister, married Anna Amelia Harris, the daughter of a well-to-do black New York merchant. The couple had three children: Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs
Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs
Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs was the only son of Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, and a member of the 1886 Florida Constitutional Convention. He was a member of the State House of Representatives. Gibbs was a cofounder of Florida A&M College, and served as its Vice President until his death in 1898...
, Julia Pennington Gibbs, and Josephine Haywood Gibbs.
Following his ordination, Gibbs became active in the abolitionist movement. He attended a series of black conventions where he worked with Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
and served on committees. His participation in the abolitionist movement began to place him on the national stage as a known figure in the movement. Gibbs was featured in anti-slavery publications including The Liberator and the The National Anti-Slavery Standard. His rising fame was indicative of Gibbs' own ambitions as well his skills as an orator and rising abolitionist minister. His growing involvement in New York's abolitionist movement did not bode well for his marriage. In part due to his extensive absences from home and his parish duties, Gibbs became increasingly alienated him from his wife. On Anna's part, she was accustomed to living standards that a young pastor could not afford. The tension between husband and wife prompted Gibbs to consider leaving the United States for Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
to work as a missionary. However, he was persuaded by his congregation to abandon these plans. The marital discord eventually led to lengthy and bitter divorce proceedings, which lasted until 1862. Not long afterward, Gibbs returned to his native Philadelphia where he continued his involvement in the abolitionist movement.
Return to Philadelphia
Gibbs served as pastor of the First African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1859 to 1865. He became active in the abolitionist movement and "he became a key figure in the local underground railroad and contributed articles to the Anglo-African Magazine."Following President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
's announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
, Gibbs delivered a sermon titled "Freedom's Joyful Day" where he emphasized that whites should crush their prejudices and that blacks should be allowed to fight in the Civil War. Gibbs noted that, "We, the colored men of the North, put the laboring oar in your hand; it is for white men to show that they are equal to the demands of these times, by putting away their stupid prejudices." He touched upon the need for blacks to fight by addressing white concerns and prejudices stating unequivocally that:
Along with William Still
William Still
William Still was an African-American abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, writer, historian and civil rights activist....
, Gibbs fought for equal accommodations and transportation in Philadelphia, decrying segregation of the city's rail cars. In a blunt article published in December 1864 in the National Anti-Slavery Standard, Still and Gibbs asked, "Why, then, should the fear exist that the very people who are meeting with colored people in various other directions without insulting them, should instantly become so intolerably incensed as to indicate a terrible aspect in this particular?" They wrote further that:
Gibbs' efforts in the movement to abolish slavery helped both free blacks and their enslaved brethren. As the Civil War drew to a close, Gibbs left Philadelphia, and journeyed to the South to help rebuild the former Confederate states and to educate the ex-slaves and poor whites who were left destitute in the wake of the bloody ravages of war.
Move to the South
On December 18, 1864, Gibbs announced his departure from the First African Presbyterian Church. Gibbs,"was invited to go South for several months to look to the needs of Freedmen." What may have begun as an endeavor for only a few months eventually grew to several years, as Gibbs labored alongside other missionaries as part of the American Home Missionary Society. Gibbs arrived at New Bern, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, where he wrote a letter published in The Christian Recorder where he described the conditions he saw in the aftermath of the war, "The destitution and suffering of this people extended my wildest dream; old men and women bending to the ground, heads white with the frosts and hardships of many winters, as well as the innocent babe of a few weeks, contribute to make up this scene of misery." Gibbs eventually settled in Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, where he established himself in the local church and opened a school for educating the freedmen.
The situation for freedmen in this period was filled with uncertainty as well as with great opportunities. As early as 1866 the need for missionary activities among the freedmen was mentioned prominently in The First Annual Report of the General Assembly’s Committee on Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. The Report stated that, "The condition of the freedmen, their native peculiarities, and the various influences to which they are subjected, have much to do in determining the success of missions, and the plan of the church’s operation for their benefit." This same report also illuminated the perspective of Northern missionaries in treating the situation on the ground for freedmen writing that newly freed blacks are, "passing through 'a howling wilderness' of social, political, and religious problems, as striking and peculiar as those found by the Israelites in their journey from the 'house of bondage' to the land of their fathers. And all these problems impinge upon the work of their religious education, in every branch of it, either directly or remotely. Missionary activity in the South was not a new occurrence in the South. Contraband camps had already been a fixture from early on in the war, and missionaries were already hard at work living among the contrabands, a point which was not lost on Steven Hahn
Steven Hahn
Steven Hahn is the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor in American History at the University of Pennsylvania.-Life:Educated at the University of Rochester, where he worked with Eugene Genovese and Herbert Gutman, Hahn received his Ph.D. from Yale University. His dissertation was overseen by...
who noted that:
The established missionary work among freed blacks in the South was augmented by missionary activities such as those in which Gibbs participated. The motivating factor for Gibbs involved his enduring belief in the power of education and the link (expressed in the 1866 report) between religious duties and the task of uplifting nearly four million enslaved individuals. In a letter to his old friend, Charles Barrett of Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, Gibbs proudly stated that he "had one school that daily average in Charleston, 1000, children, and some 20 teachers." During his time in South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
Gibbs also involved himself in the political activities that were available to blacks during Reconstruction. Controversially, Gibbs' participation in a meeting of black delegates in South Carolina who drafted a petition demanded that the educated of both races be allowed to vote, indicates an elitism present in his character. The petition also stated that, "we do ask that if the ignorant white man is allowed to vote, that the ignorant colored man shall be allowed to vote also." In spite of Gibbs' apparent elitism, it was clear that he valued the power of education for his formerly enslaved brethren. Gibbs noted that,"If we can secure, for the next ten years, three clean shirts a week, a tooth brush, and spelling-book to every Freedman in South Carolina, I will go bail (a thing I seldom do) for the next hundred years, that we will have no more slavery, and both whites and blacks will be happier and better friends." During this period, Gibbs met and married his second wife, Elizabeth, with whom he would have at least one child (who would die in infancy). Gibbs "remained [in Charleston] but a short time not finding things to his liking. He proceeded to Jacksonville, Florida and there opened an Academy for youth of that city."
1868 Constitutional Convention and rise to Secretary of State
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
in 1867 where he started a private school in Jacksonville. He rapidly moved away from his missionary efforts and into active political involvement in Reconstruction Florida. Religion and politics went hand-in-hand for black officeholders in this period, and Gibbs' entrance echoed the words of another prominent black officeholder, Charles H. Pearce who remarked that, "A man in this State, cannot do his whole duty as a minister except he looks out for the political interests of his people." Jonathan C. Gibbs was elected to the State Constitutional Convention
Constitutional convention (political meeting)
A constitutional convention is now a gathering for the purpose of writing a new constitution or revising an existing constitution. A general constitutional convention is called to create the first constitution of a political unit or to entirely replace an existing constitution...
of 1868. He formed part of the radical Mule Team faction within the convention that initially gained control of the convention only to be thwarted by more moderate and conservative delegates led by Harrison Reed and Ossian Bingley Hart. The resulting constitution according to Canter Brown, Jr., "While it established the state's most liberal charter to that date, it incorporated important restrictions on black political power. It permitted most former Rebels to vote, at the same time specifying a legislative apportionment plan that discriminated again black-majority counties in favor of sparsely populated white counties. The drafters retained one item especially important to black leaders. The constitution directed the legislature to create a uniform system of public schools." The Mule Team proceeded to nominate its own slate of candidates, opposing the more conservative faction of Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
nominating Gibbs for Florida's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ultimately, the Mule Team coalition fractured in the wake of the successful election of a moderate Republican administration and Congressional approval of the 1868 Constitution.
Though Gibbs did not win the election to Congress, he was appointed Florida's Secretary of State from 1868 to 1872, by Wisconsin-born Republican governor, Harrison Reed. The power and responsibility that Gibbs' wielded during his four years as Secretary of State was a point not missed on the Philadelphia-born minister. In a letter to his close friend, Charles Barrett, Gibbs remarked that, "In 1868 I was appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate
Florida Senate
The Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida. The Senate is composed of 40 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 470,032....
, Secretary of State of Florida at a salary of $3000, per year for four years, and stand second man in the government of this State today." The amount of actual power and influence Gibbs had contradicts the observations made by historians of this period. Eric Foner
Eric Foner
Eric Foner is an American historian. On the faculty of the Department of History at Columbia University since 1982, he writes extensively on political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African American biography, Reconstruction, and historiography...
noted that, "During Reconstruction more blacks served in the essentially ceremonial office of secretary of state than any other post, and by and large, the most important political decisions in every state were made by whites." However, Article VIII of the Constitution states that, "The Superintendent of Public Instruction, Secretary of State, and Attorney General shall constitute a body corporate, to be known as the Board of Education of Florida. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be president thereof. The duties of the Board of Education shall be prescribed by the Legislature." Gibbs also was incredibly proactive as Secretary of State, conducting extensive investigations into violence and fraud (including investigations into the activities of the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
) and he also served on the Board of Canvassers, testifying on behalf of Josiah Thomas Walls.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Death
Gibbs died on August 14, 1874, in Tallahassee, FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, reportedly of apoplexy
Apoplexy
Apoplexy is a medical term, which can be used to describe 'bleeding' in a stroke . Without further specification, it is rather outdated in use. Today it is used only for specific conditions, such as pituitary apoplexy and ovarian apoplexy. In common speech, it is used non-medically to mean a state...
.
Legacy and impact
He was the brother of prominent ArkansasArkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
Reconstruction Judge Mifflin Wistar Gibbs
Mifflin Wistar Gibbs
Mifflin Wistar Gibbs was an African-American abolitionist and judge. Gibbs was the eldest brother of fours siblings, including Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, and was prominent in Reconstruction Arkansas...
, and the father of Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs
Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs
Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs was the only son of Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, and a member of the 1886 Florida Constitutional Convention. He was a member of the State House of Representatives. Gibbs was a cofounder of Florida A&M College, and served as its Vice President until his death in 1898...
, a delegate to the 1886 Florida Constitutional Convention, and a member of the Florida state legislature. Gibbs High School, the first high school in St. Petersburg for black students, is named after him. Gibbs Junior College (also in St. Petersburg) was named after him. The college now forms part of St. Petersburg College
St. Petersburg College
St. Petersburg College is a fully accredited post-secondary educational institution located in St. Petersburg, Florida, serving some 65,000 students annually...
which has a Gibbs Campus.