Charles Hooks

Charles Hooks (February 20, 1768 – October 18, 1843) was a United States Representative from North Carolina during the early national period of the United States. He was born in Bertie County, North Carolina, on February 20, 1768. When he was two years old, his parents moved southward to Duplin County, North Carolina, where they settled on a plantation near Kenansville. Raised in this agrarian setting, Hooks became a planter, a vocation that would shape both his economic life and his political outlook in the decades that followed.

Hooks’s early life in Duplin County coincided with the formative years of the new American republic, and his experience as a planter in eastern North Carolina placed him among the region’s landholding class. Although detailed records of his formal education are scarce, his subsequent public service suggests that he attained the level of learning and local prominence typical of rural political leaders of his era. His familiarity with agricultural concerns and local governance in Duplin County helped prepare him for a career in public office at the state and national levels.

Hooks entered public life as a member of the North Carolina House of Commons, serving from 1801 to 1805. In this capacity, he represented the interests of his constituents during a period when the state was grappling with issues of internal improvement, land policy, and the evolving relationship between state and federal authority. After several years in the lower house, he advanced to the North Carolina State Senate, where he served in 1810 and 1811. His legislative work in both chambers reflected the concerns of a predominantly agricultural state and helped establish his reputation as a Democratic-Republican aligned with the Jeffersonian tradition.

Hooks’s state-level experience led to his election to the United States House of Representatives. He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Fourteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William R. King and served from December 2, 1816, to March 4, 1817. After a brief interval out of office, he was again elected to Congress and served three consecutive full terms in the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Congresses, from March 4, 1819, to March 4, 1825. As a member of the Republican (Democratic-Republican) Party representing North Carolina, Hooks contributed to the legislative process during four terms in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents during a significant period in American history that included debates over economic policy, territorial expansion, and the balance of power between the states and the federal government.

Following his congressional service, Hooks left North Carolina and joined the broader movement of southern planters seeking new opportunities in the expanding cotton frontier. In 1826 he moved to Alabama, settling near Montgomery, where he again engaged in planting. His relocation reflected the westward shift of the plantation economy in the early nineteenth century, as planters from older Atlantic states established new agricultural enterprises in the Deep South.

Charles Hooks spent the remainder of his life near Montgomery, Alabama, continuing his work as a planter until his death on October 18, 1843. He was interred in the Molton family cemetery, indicating a close association with prominent local families in his adopted state. His legacy extended into the twentieth century through his descendants; Hooks was the great-grandfather of William Julius Harris, who served as a United States Senator from Georgia, thereby linking Hooks to a multigenerational tradition of public service in the American South.