Richard Howell Gleaves

Lt. Governor Gleaves

Richard Howell Gleaves (1819–1907) was an American politician and the 55th Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, serving from 1874 to 1876.

Biography

Richard Howell Gleaves was born free in Philadelphia to a Haitian father, who had immigrated earlier in the century following the Haitian Revolution, and an English mother.

In 1866 following the American Civil War, Gleaves moved to Beaufort, South Carolina. There he went into business with Robert Smalls, a former slave who during the war had captained a ship that he took from the Confederates. Gleaves purchased property in the town. His land included the site of a black fraternal hall now known as the Sons of Beaufort Lodge, located at 607 West Street.

Many African Americans in the South joined the Republican Party after the war. In 1872 and 1874 during the Reconstruction era, Gleaves was elected as the 55th Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina to serve under Republican governors Franklin J. Moses, Jr. and Daniel H. Chamberlain. In 1874, he defeated Martin Delany, an African American Republican, for the office.

Gleaves was a prominent Freemason, the sixth National Grand Master of the Prince Hall National Grand Lodge of North America. He was a prominent Reconstruction-era Republican politician in South Carolina.

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