Henry Eppes

Henry Eppes (September 16, 1830 or 1831 – January 26, 1903) was an American politician and minister. Despite being born into slavery, he served seven terms in the North Carolina Senate and also served as a delegate for Halifax County to North Carolina's 1868 Constitutional Convention.

Early life Eppes was born enslaved in Halifax County, North Carolina on September 16, 1830 or 1831. Halifax County was part of North Carolina's "black belt", where the African American population outnumbered the white population. Eppes was elected to serve as a delegate for Halifax County in North Carolina's Constitutional Convention in 1868. He was one of 13 colored delegates. He served on the body's Committee on Homesteads.

Also in 1867, the Union military government appointed Eppes to work as a registrar. The couple had thirteen children, seven of which survived to adulthood. He also was a delegate to the Methodist General Conference in Atlanta, Georgia and Baltimore, Maryland. (Eppes' death date is incorrectly reported as 1917 in some sources.) Hill notes that Eppes's son wrote a letter in February 1903 that mentions his father's funeral on January 29 in Halifax. The error probably resulted from the 1917 death certificate of a man named Henry Epps in Halifax County.