Absalom Tatom

Absalom Tatom (* 1742 in Province of North Carolina , †  December 20, 1802 in Raleigh , North Carolina ) was an American politician . Between 1795 and 1796 he represented the state of North Carolina in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Both the exact date and place of birth of Absalom Tatom are unknown. He grew up during the British colonial era and in 1763 became a sergeant in the Greenville City Militia . In the 1770s he joined the American Revolution and was a captain in the Continental Army until June 1776 . He then left that army and served in various positions in the North Carolina militia. In 1779 he became a bailiff at Randolph County Court . In 1781 he acted as an auditor in the Hillsborough district . In 1782 Tatom was one of three federal commissioners to grant land to former soldiers of the Continental Army in what would later become the state of Tennessee . He was also the private secretary to Governor Thomas Burke and the state commissioner for tobacco growing in North Carolina.

In 1785, Tatom became head of the North Carolina Land Survey. In 1788 he was a delegate at a meeting to revise the state constitution. Absalom Tatom joined the movement around the later President Thomas Jefferson and in the 1790s became a member of the Democratic Republican Party founded by him . In the congressional elections of 1794 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in the fourth constituency of North Carolina, where he succeeded Alexander Mebane on March 4, 1795 . He exercised his mandate in Congress until his resignation on June 1, 1796.

Tatom was a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1797 until his death in 1802 . He was considered a supporter of the University of North Carolina and was an opponent of the death penalty (except for murders). In addition, he proposed the construction of a state prison. Absalom Tatom, although a slave owner himself, was an early opponent of slavery who, in his will, gave his slaves freedom. He died in Raleigh on December 20, 1802.

Web links

• Absalom Tatom in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Absalom Tatom in the database of Find a Grave (English)