Abram Colby

Abram Colby (1822 – September 10, 1872) was an American minister and politician who served in the Georgia House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era. He was enslaved by his father.

Early life and family Colby was the son of an enslaved woman named Mary Minnie and an Irish plantation owner called John Colby. Abram resided in Greene County, Georgia, and was freed fifteen years prior to emancipation. He was an early organizer of freed slaves. Colby and minister Henry McNeal Turner worked together to form a chapter of the American Equal Rights Association.

He was married to Anne Colby and they had three children: Ella, Julia, and William.

Service Colby was known for eloquent oratory, and represented Greene County in 1865 at a freeman's convention. A Radical Republican, Colby was first elected in 1868. Colby could not read, so he kept his son close to him during all official legislative matters, to act as his secretary. They were Colby and a former Confederate Major, moderate republican Robert McWhorter, who went on to serve as Speaker of the House. In that same election, Ulysses S. Grant carried Greene County in the presidential race. in front of his family. One of them pointed a gun (but did not fire it) at his young daughter Amanda. His injuries were so extensive Colby was recorded saying in his testimony during the Joint Select Committee Report: "They broke something inside of me, and the doctor has been attending to me for more than a year. Sometimes I cannot get up and down off my bed, and my left hand is not of much use to me."