Liberty Billings
(1823-1877)

Died aged c. 54

Liberty Billings was born in Maine in 1823. At the age of 25, he was ordained as a Unitarian minister and 14 years later was commissioned as Lt. Colonel and second in command of the first authorized African-American military unit in the U.S. Army‑the 1st South Carolina Infantry Regiment. After being wounded in the Civil War, Billings was honorably discharged in 1863 and in 1865 arrived in Fernandina and purchased property. Billings championed black rights in Florida and was a leader in Florida’s Reconstruction politics. In 1870, he conducted the U.S. Census in Nassau County. From 1871 to 1877, he was a state Senator, representing Nassau, Duval and St. Johns Counties. Serving as president pro-tempore of the Senate, he died in Fernandina in 1877.

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