George Robison Black

George Robison Black (March 24, 1835 – November 3, 1886) was an American slave owner, politician, lawyer, and Confederate officer who represented Georgia in the United States House of Representatives for one term as a Democrat. His wife, Nellie Peters Black, became a prominent social activist in Georgia, noted particularly for her work in civic reform and charitable causes.

Black was born on March 24, 1835, at his family’s slave plantation near Jacksonboro, Screven County, Georgia. He was the son of Edward Junius Black, himself a former member of Congress from Georgia, and Augusta George Anna Kirkland Black. Raised in the antebellum South on a plantation worked by enslaved people, he grew up in a political and agrarian environment that shaped his later career in law, agriculture, and public life.

Black pursued higher education in the South, first attending the University of Georgia in Athens and later the University of South Carolina in Columbia. After completing his studies, he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1857. He began the practice of law in Savannah, Georgia, where he established himself professionally in the years immediately preceding the Civil War.

During the American Civil War, Black served in the Confederate States Army. He first held the rank of first lieutenant in the Phoenix Riflemen, a local military unit, and later rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the 63rd Georgia Regiment. His service in the Confederate forces placed him among the many Southern political figures whose public careers were intertwined with the Confederacy and its defense of slavery.

Following the war, Black resumed civilian life and quickly entered public affairs during Reconstruction. In 1865 he participated in the Georgia constitutional convention, contributing to the reorganization of state government in the immediate postwar period. Remaining active in Democratic Party politics, he served as a delegate to the 1872 Democratic National Convention. He was elected to the Georgia State Senate, serving from 1875 to 1877, and became vice president of the Georgia State Agricultural Society, reflecting his continued involvement in and advocacy for the state’s agricultural interests.

As a member of the Democratic Party representing Georgia, Black contributed to the legislative process during one term in the United States Congress. He was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-seventh Congress and served from March 4, 1881, to March 3, 1883. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, as the nation continued to grapple with the legacies of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the evolving political and economic order of the late nineteenth century. In this context, he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his Georgia constituents, though he was unsuccessful in his campaign for reelection in 1882.

In his later years, Black remained a figure of note in Georgia public life, connected both to the state’s political establishment and to its agricultural and civic institutions. His family life was also of public significance through his marriage to Nellie Peters Black, who emerged as a leading social activist in Georgia, particularly in movements related to public health, education, and social welfare. George Robison Black died in Sylvania, Georgia, on November 3, 1886. He was buried in Sylvania Cemetery, leaving a legacy tied to the politics of the post–Civil War South and to a family that continued to play a visible role in the state’s public affairs.