Amos Drane Explained

Amos Drane (born 1811 or 1812 - ?) was a delegate to Mississippi's 1868 Constitutional Convention representing Madison County, Alabama.^{[1] [2]} He was one of 16 African American delegates at the constitutional convemtion.^[3]

According to a newspaper brief, he had been owned as a slave by Maj. Drane. It states Alfred Handy, a state legislator, was his half-brother.^[4]

Eric Foner documents him per Richard L. Hume as owning substantial property and advocating for a National Union Republican party. He was opposed to restrictions on Confederates voting.^[5]

He was a candidate for the Mississippi House of Representatives.^[6]

In 1871, he was one of the incorporators of the Wesley Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church.^[7]

Testimony about election issues included a report that a mob attacked him for asking questions of a Captain Pratt at a courthouse meeting and the sheriff took him into custody to safeguard him.^[8]

Drane was part of the "Black and Tan" convention held in Jackson, Mississippi in January 1868. It was disparaged by Democrat and Confederate aligned newspaper accounts.^[9]

He and other Republican politicians were lampooned and disparaged in the Panola Star newspaper.^[9]

See also

• African-American officeholders during and following the Reconstruction era

Notes and References

1. Web site: Mississippi Official and Statistical Register. April 4, 1904. Google Books.
2. News: List of 1868 Convention Delegates. Clarion-Ledger . January 8, 1868. 1. newspapers.com.
3. Book: Span, Christopher M.. From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse: African American Education in Mississippi, 1862-1875. April 1, 2012. UNC Press Books. 9781469601335. Google Books.
4. Web site: Canton Mail, January 2, 1875 – Against All Odds.
5. Freedom's Lawmakers by Eric Foner Louisiana State University Press (1996) page 65
6. Web site: House Documents, Otherwise Publ. as Executive Documents: 13th Congress, 2d Session-49th Congress, 1st Session. United States Congress. House. April 4, 1869. Google Books.
7. Web site: Laws of the State of Mississippi. April 4, 1871. Richard C. Langdon. Google Books.
8. Web site: Mississippi: Testimony as to Denial of Elective Franchise in Mississippi at the Elections of 1875 and 1876: Taken Under the Resolution of the Senate of December 5, 1876. United States Congress Senate Committee on Privileges and. Elections. April 4, 1877. U.S. Government Printing Office. Google Books.
9. Web site: Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society. Mississippi Historical. Society. April 4, 1913. Google Books.