James T. S. Taylor

James Thomas Sammons Taylor (January 14, 1840 – January 4, 1918) was an American politician and activist from Virginia. He was a delegate representing Albemarle County in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868.

Early life James Thomas Sammons Taylor was born on January 14, 1840, in Berryville, Virginia, to Ellen (née Sammons) and Fairfax Taylor. His father was born a slave and bought his freedom and moved his family to Charlottesville. Taylor grew up in Charlottesville.

Career Taylor was taught the shoemaker trade by a white person and he followed his father in the trade. According to the University of Virginia, he ran away from Charlottesville to northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., in 1862 to avoid serving as a laborer for the Confederate cause. He was a member of the committees on the basis of representation and apportionment and on prisons and the prevention and punishment of crime. He introduced a resolution that would allow former slaves to sue for wages that were owed for work done for their owners after the Civil War's end. It was not adopted. He was later selected as commissioner and judge of elections. He was a sexton of Christ Church. Taylor wrote an agent of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedman, and Abandoned Lands to ask for money owed him from the army. He received . In 1872, he purchased more than an acre of his father's house in Charlottesville and built a two-story brick house.

Taylor died of pneumonia on January 4, 1918, at his home on Taylor Street in Charlottesville. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Charlottesville.

Legacy In October 2025, a highway marker in Charlottesville was created in memory of Taylor.