Henry S. Harmon (1839 – December 24, 1889) was an attorney and politician in Florida after the Civil War. He was the first African-American to be admitted to the bar in Florida.
Early life
Henry Harmon was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1839. His parents, Timothy and Robinet Harmon, had been slaves in Virginia, but had escaped to the North before Henry was born. Although details of his young years are scarce, Henry was later described as "a [man] of education."
Harmon enlisted in the 3rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment when it was formed in August 1863, and was promoted to the rank of sergeant before the end of the year. He served with the Third USCI at the sieges of Fort Wagner and Fort Gregg on Morris Island. Harmon became friends with future congressman Josiah T. Walls while serving in the Third. At the end of the Civil War, a portion of the Third Regiment, including Harmon, was stationed in Gainesville, Florida. Harmon was discharged from the Army in Gainesville in late 1865.
In letters to the Philadelphia Christian Recorder (a publication of the African Methodist Episcopal Church), Harmon expressed his dissatisfaction over the position of African-Americans in the South. In the first two years after the end of the Civil War control of southern states was returned to men who had supported the Confederacy, who instituted black codes that restricted the rights of African-Americans. Resistance by African-Americans to the black codes was met with violence by whites, and in 1866 Alachua County, of which Gainesville was the county seat, was placed under martial law.
Political office
Starting in March 1867, the Military Reconstruction Acts restored federal military control to the former Confederate states. Former Confederate officials and supporters were temporarily barred from voting and holding office and African-Americans were guaranteed the right to vote. Harmon was soon appointed as a voting registrar in Alachua County. In March 1868 Harmon served as a vice president of the Alachua County Republican Party Convention. He and Josiah Walls were nominated for, and won, seats in the Florida House of Representatives, serving until 1870. Harmon concentrated on improvements to the administration of government and generally avoided controversial proposals on social issues, for which he was criticized by more radical elements of the Republican Party. Harmon is credited with helping to pass legislation establishing free public education in Florida. Harmon was elected to the Gainesville town commission in 1869. In 1970, while campaigning for another term in the Florida House of Representative, Harmon and Josiah Walls, who was running for the Florida seat in the United States Congress, were denied a cabin on the steamboat Oklawaha, and had to sleep on the deck. Harrison Reed, Republican governor of Florida, joined the two on deck.
The governor of Florida appointed Harmon clerk of the court for Alachua County in 1871. This position included keeping records for the county commission and the courts in the county, overseeing county government operations, and witnessing and recording deeds and mortgages. Harmon, as clerk of the court, together with the county judge and a justice of the peace, all Republicans, served on the board of canvassers for Alachua County in the election of 1872. The board of canvassers threw out the results from two precincts because the returns, which favored the Republicans, had been forged. Republican party officials pressured the board to count the fraudulent votes. The county judge, William Birney, was arrested on the order of Republican party leaders, and Harmon and the other canvasser were threatened by the "Liberty Hill Gang", a radical faction of the Republican Party in Florida. Harmon ran for the Florida Senate in 1872, but the Republican Party was split and Harmon lost to the incumbent Democrat. Harmon remained well regarded in the Republican Party, and he was appointed chief clerk of the Florida House of Representatives in 1873. He was re-elected to that post in 1874 and 1875. He was also appointed to a customs post in Tampa in 1873, but he was resented as an outsider, and apparently did not serve long in the post.