pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1564b.html Born in Ireland, Pierce Bulter came to the United States as an officer in the British Army. During the Revolutionary War he fought for American independence. After the war, he served in the Continental Congress. Later, he, like Charles Pinckney, served as one of South Carolinas four delegates to the Constitutional Convention. At the Convention, he advocated for a strong, central state that could adequately defend itself. He also defended the institution of slavery, advocating for the Fugitive Slave Clause and encouraging other delegates to accept a provision that would count all slaves in the population when determining how many representatives each state would have (instead, the Convention adopted the 3/5 compromise, counting each slave as 3/5 of a person). He also served in the Senate. Through his time in the Senate, Butler made several abrupt political changes. He begun as a Federalist, split to join the Jeffersonian Republicans in 1795, and ultimately declared himself a political independent in 1804. He retired from public life in 1805, and died in Philadelphia in 1822. The link above is a photograph of Butlers house in Philadelphia from PBSs Africans in America series.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 12:45:04 +0000
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