Last updated: April 12, 2024
Person
Henry Hayne
LOC
Quick Facts
Significance:
Black Soldier during the Civil War, Reconstruction Era Politician, Desegregated the University of South Carolina
Date of Birth:
Approximately 1840
Date of Death:
Unknown
Not much is known about Henry Hayne’s early life. He was born free, the son of a wealthy white Charlestonian named James Hayne and his free Black wife, Mary. He was well educated and worked professionally as a tailor.
When the Civil War broke out, local tradition holds that he was white passing enough to join the Confederate army, with the sole purpose of trying to get close enough to Union lines where he could escape. Although the Confederate service may be apocryphal – no records exist to confirm that – he did join the United States Army, enlisted in the 1st South Carolina Volunteers at Camp Saxton in mid 1863. Educated, he served as the Commissary Sergeant for the regiment and was mustered out in February 1866 with the rest of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers.
After the war Hayne got involved in politics. He represented Marion County, SC in the 1867 South Carolina Legislature and served as the principal for a Freedman’s Bureau school there. In 1868 he was a representative at the state Constitutional Convention. In October 1873, Hayne made history when he became the first Black student to enroll at the University of South Carolina. Within a few years, the majority of the University campus was Black – at least for a while.
In addition to his studies at the University of South Carolina, Hayne remained active in politics, eventually serving as Secretary of State for the state of South Carolina. In this position, he was tasked with certifying the results of the 1876 gubernatorial election, in which Red Shirts had used violence and intimidation to swing the election in favor of Wade Hampton, a former Confederate General. Hayne did so under pressure, and was forced from office.
What happened to Hayne after being forced from political office is something of a mystery. There is some evidence he may have moved to Chicago, Illinois, but nothing is certain. In the aftermath of the 1876 election, Hayne, like so many Black legislators in the state, was driven from power and largely erased from history.