Henry E. Hayne
Henry E. Hayne served as a soldier in the Civil War and later as a politician in South Carolina during reconstruction. Born to parents of mixed race on December 30th, 1840, Hayne grew up free in Charleston. His white father, a member of a wealthy Charlestonian family, ensured Henry received an adequate education. After his schooling he took up a trade as a tailor.
When South Carolina seceded in 1861 and the Civil War began, Henry enlisted in the Confederate army with the intention to defect to the Union army as soon as possible. This he did while deployed near Beaufort, South Carolina, where he escaped from his unit and defected to the Union troops occupying the town. He enlisted in the 33rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment. This unit, previously known by the name the First South Carolina Volunteers, was formed by Union General David Hunter from freed slaves in Union-occupied areas of South Carolina. This regiment was the first such unit in the Union army, even before Lincoln approved the creation of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) in 1863, famously pioneered by the 54th Massachusetts. Hayne initially enlisted as a private but rose to the rank of Commissary Sergeant, likely due in part to his education, in 1863.
Hayne mustered out of the 33rd in 1866 and became the principal of the Madison Colored School. This school, and others like it, were organized by the Freedman’s Bureau in order to provide educational opportunities to recently freed enslaved people. During this time Hayne became an active local member of the Republican Party, which had championed the anti-slavery movement during the war and Reconstruction and through the 14th Amendment provided the legal basis for citizenship for recently emancipated slaves.
Hayne served in increasingly higher offices within the state Republican party and was a delegate at the 1868 South Carolina Constitutional Convention. In 1870 Hayne was elected to represent Marion County in the South Carolina Senate. Two years later he became the Secretary of State, which he served as until 1877, when he was defeated in the 1876 election by Democratic opposition candidate Robert Moorman Sims, a Confederate veteran.
While serving as Secretary of State for South Carolina Hayne also attended medical school at the University of South Carolina, the first person of non-White ancestry to attend. The story made national headlines, and a number of faculty and students resigned as a result of his enrollment. However, Hayne remained, and it was not long before Black men became a majority of the student body. This did not remain the case, however, as in the election that Hayne was ousted so too was South Carolina’s Republican majority in the legislature. The new legislature passed a law forbidding non-White students at the university, designating Claflin College instead as the only place in the state for Black students to seek higher education. All of this occurred before Hayne could finish his degree.
Very little is known about Henry Hayne’s life after his ouster from college and government. He is known to have left South Carolina after resigning in 1877, moving to Illinois with his wife. He spent the rest of his life in the Chicago area, where he died January 18th, 1898, aged 56.
