Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, II (September 28, 1821 – August 14, 1874) was an American Presbyterian minister who served as Secretary of State and Superintendent of Public Instruction of Florida, and, along with U.S. Congressman Josiah Thomas Walls, was among the most powerful black officeholders in the state during Reconstruction. An African American who served during the Reconstruction era, he was the first black Florida Secretary of State, holding the office over a century prior to the state's second black Secretary of State, Jesse McCrary, who served for five months in 1979.
Early life
Philadelphia Gibbs was born free in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 28, 1821. His father was Reverend Jonathan Gibbs I, a Methodist minister, and his mother, Maria Jackson 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.Leon F. Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790–1860 (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1961), vii. Gibbs and his brother, Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, 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.Philip S. Foner, History of Black Americans: From The Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom to the Eve of the Compromise of 1850, Vol. 2 (Westport, CT and London, Greenwood Press, 1983), 203. 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 so impressed the Presbyterian assembly that it provided financial backing for him to attend Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire.William Pierce Randel, The Ku Klux Klan: A Century of Infamy, (Philadelphia and New York: Chilton Books, 1965), 125; Phyllis Gibbs Fauntleroy, Linking The Gibbs Chain, (Washington, D.C.: P.G. Fauntleroy, 1995), 4; Carter G. Woodson, "The Gibbs Family", The Negro History Bulletin, Vol. XI, No. 1 (October 1947), 3, 7.
New Hampshire Gibbs attended Kimball Union Academy (KUA) at Meriden, New Hampshire, and graduated in 1848. At the time, the academy was under the guidance of an 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.Luis-Alejandro Dinnella-Borrego, At Freedom's Gate: Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs and the Story of Reconstruction Florida, B.A. Honors Thesis, (Hanover: Dartmouth College, 2007), 28–29; Augustus Washington, letter published in Charter Oak, Hartford Connecticut, 1846. 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 too far in their zeal against slavery. Notwithstanding Lord's views regarding slavery, which stemmed in large part from his belief that the institution was predicated on sin, he permitted several African Americans to attend the college. Lord believed that any group of people who sinned against God could be enslaved (including whites).Chesley A. Homan, From Antislavery to Proslavery: The Presidency and Resignation of Nathan Lord, B.A. Honors Thesis, (Hanover: Dartmouth College, 1996), 40; Luis-Alejandro Dinnella-Borrego, At Freedom's Gate, 32–34; John King Lord, A History of Dartmouth College 1815–1909, Vol. II, (Concord: The Rumford Press: 1913), 332; Leon Burr Richardson, History of Dartmouth College, Vol. II, (Brattleboro: The Stephen Daye Press, 1932), 478.
While at the college, Gibbs was influenced by three professors who would affect his thinking as a missionary, educator and politician.Dinnella-Borrego, At Freedom's Gate, 37–39. He was a member of the abolitionist movement while a college student, and participated in several conventions, appearing by name in The Liberator.George E. Carter, "Antebellum Black Dartmouth Students," Dartmouth College Library Bulletin, Vol. XXI, No. 1 (November 1980), 30; Dinnella-Borrego, 39–41; The Liberator, (February 14, 1851), 28.
He was the third African American to graduate from Dartmouth College. Following John Brown Russwurm, Gibbs became the second black man in the nation to deliver a commencement address at a college.
Abolitionist minister
New York and the Abolitionist Movement Following his graduation in 1852, Gibbs studied at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1853 to 1854, but he did not graduate due to financial constraints.Phyllis Gibbs Fauntleroy, Linking The Gibbs Chain (Washington, D.C.: P.G. Fauntleroy, 1995), 4–5; Jonathan C. Gibbs, M.D., "An Essay On The Life And Times of Rev. Jonathan C. Gibbs of Florida, 1821–1874," (unpublished, no date). This essay was in the possession of Phyllis Gibbs Fauntleroy. 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.Learotha Williams, "A Wider Field of Usefulness": The Life And Times of Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs c. 1828–1874, Ph.D. Diss., (Tallahassee: Florida State University, 2003), 10–11; Mark A. Noll, "Hodge, Charles," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/08/08-00687.html (accessed: April 18, 2007). Though Gibbs was unable to graduate from the seminary, he was ordained in 1856. He was called as a 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.Raymond L. Hall, "A Reaffirmation of Mission: The Saga of the Black Experience at Dartmouth," Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, vol. 79, 3 (November 1986), 6; Dinnella-Borrego, 47–48.
Gibbs, by now a young minister, married Anna Amelia Harris, the daughter of a well-to-do black New York merchant and his wife. The couple had three children: Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs, Julia Pennington Gibbs and Josephine Haywood Gibbs.Dinnella-Borrego, 49–50; Phyllis Gibbs Fauntleroy, Linking The Gibbs Chain (Washington, D.C.: P.G. Fauntleroy, 1995), 7; Jonathan C. Gibbs, M.D., "An Essay On The Life And Times of Rev. Jonathan C. Gibbs of Florida, 1821–1874," (unpublished, no date), in the possession of Phyllis Gibbs Fauntleroy.
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. He gradually became known nationally for his work in the movement. Gibbs was featured in anti-slavery publications including The Liberator and The National Anti-Slavery Standard. His rising fame was indicative of Gibbs's own ambitions as well his skills as an orator and rising abolitionist minister.Dinnella-Borrego, 48–49; Learotha Williams, Jr., "A Wider Field of Usefulness", 19–20; C. Peter Ripley, et al., eds., The Black Abolitionist Papers Volume 5: The United States, 1859–1865 (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1992), 246; "Minutes of the Colored State Convention of New York, Troy, September 4, 1855" in Philip S. Foner and George E. Walker, eds., Proceedings of the Black State Conventions, 1840–1865 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1979), I, 88.; "Colored Men's State Convention," Frederick Douglass' Paper, September 14, 1855 in George E. Carter and C. Peter Ripley, et al. eds., Black Abolitionist Papers 1830–1865 (New York: Microfilming Corporation of America, 1981), microfilm, 9:0825. (Hereafter cited as BAP Microfilm). His growing involvement in New York's abolitionist movement separated him from his family. In part due to his extensive absences from home and his parish duties, Gibbs became increasingly alienated from his wife. Anna 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.Jonathan C. Gibbs to Jacob C. White, May 20, 1858. Jacob C. White Papers 115-1, Folder 57. (Washington D.C.: Howard University, Moorland Spingarn Research Center); Learotha Williams, Jr., "A Wider Field of Usefulness": The Life And Times of Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs c. 1828–1874, Ph.D. Diss., (Tallahassee: Florida State University, 2003), 30. The marital discord eventually led to lengthy and bitter divorce proceedings, which lasted until 1862.Anna Amelia Gibbs vs. Jonathan C. Gibbs. Superior Court, New Haven Connecticut. 1857–58 (Case #24), 1860, 1862 (Case #77). (Note: the petition was brought in September 1857, the case was heard in 1858, dragged into 1860, and even into 1862 when a new trial was set for December 1862). New Haven: Connecticut State Library. Not long afterward, Gibbs returned to his native Philadelphia, where he continued to work 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, "a key figure in the local underground railroad and contributed articles to the Anglo-African Magazine."Dinnella-Borrego, 55–56; C. Peter Ripley, The Black Abolitionist Papers, 246; "Annual Meeting of the Philadelphia Vigilant Committee," Weekly Anglo-African, February 25, 1860 in BAP Microfilm, 12:0509.
Following President Abraham Lincoln's announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, Gibbs delivered a sermon titled "Freedom's Joyful Day," emphasizing 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."Jonathan C. Gibbs, "Freedom's Joyful Day," in Philip S. Foner and Robert James Branham, eds., Lift Every Voice: African American Oratory, 1787–1900 (Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 1998), 383. 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?""Colorphobia in Philadelphia," National Anti-Slavery Standard, December 17, 1864 in BAP Microfilm, 15:0616. They wrote further that: