Peter Jacob Carter
From the Northampton Notables exhibit in the County administration building at 164040 Courthouse Rd. in Eastville.
Peter Jacob Carter was born into slavery in Eastville, on May 29, 1845. His father was the son of a free native of West Africa and an enslaved Virginia woman, Carter, a younger brother, a sister and his mother all belonged to Calvin H. Read, a schoolteacher.
By the year 1858, Read had moved to Baltimore. On December 5, 1860, to satisfy a debt of $1,000 borrowed from his wife's estate, Rend deeded Carter, two of his siblings, and their mother to his wife, still residing in Northampton County
From November of 1861 until the end of the Civil War, Union troops occupied the Eastern Shore of Virginia, headquartered in Eastville. With the occupation, Carter escaped from slavery and on October 30, 1863, he enlisted in Company B of the 10 Regiment United States Colored infantry. He served in the US. Army throughout the War, including assignments to the Quartermaster Department and the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. He was discharged on May 17, 1866.
Carter returned to the Eastern Shore and settled in Franktown. He attended the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University) from 1869 to 1871. In November of 1871, he was elected as a Republican to Northampton County's scat in the House of Delegates.
By 1872, Carter was recognized as one of the leading African American members of the assembly. He won reelection three times, making his eight-year tenure in the General Assembly one of the longest among nineteenth century African Americans. During his tenure in the General Assembly, Carter served on many committees and introduced bills aimed at positive social change: improvement to the care of African American deaf mutes, the elimination of abuse of state prisoners, the amendment of antebellum laws pertaining to juries and criminal laws that discriminated against blacks and favored whites, and provisions for housing for the afflicted poor and aged. He was a member of a delegation that met with President Ulysses S. Grant to solicit support for the civil rights bill pending in Congress in 1873. Other bills he presented dealt with local issues, such as taxes on oysters and the boundaries of election precincts. His bill to incorporate the Northampton Land Association was passed in 1875.
Carter did not seek reelection in 1879 and took the position of Lighthouse Keeper at Cherrystone Inlet, while continuing to farm his land. However, he remained the predominant African American leader on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and continued to work tirelessly for the Republican party, serving on committees and as doorkoopeх, choiring state conventions, and campaigning on behalf of its interests. Is 1882, Carter was appointed to the board of the newly established Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State University).
While traveling on a steamer from Norfolk to the Eastern Shore, Peter Jacob Carter fell ill. He died on July 19, 1886, apparently of appendicitis, and was buried in the family cemetery near Franktown.