Absalom Tatom

Absalom Tatom (* 1742 in North Carolina; † December 20, 1802 in Raleigh, North Carolina ) was an American politician. Between 1795 and 1796 he represented the state of North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Both the exact date of birth and birth place of Absalom Tatom are unknown. He grew up during the British colonial period and was 1763 Sergeant in the militia of the town of Greenville. In the 1770s he joined the American Revolution and was until June 1776 a captain in the Continental Army. Then he left this army and served in various positions in the militia of North Carolina. In 1779 he was bailiff at the Randolph County Court In 1781, he served as an auditor in the county to Hillsborough. 1782 was Tatom one of three Federal Commissioner for the allocation of land to former soldiers of the Continental Army in the territory that became the State of Tennessee. In addition, he was private secretary to Governor Thomas Burke and State Representative for the cultivation of tobacco in North Carolina.

In 1785, Tatom was Head of the surveying authority in North Carolina. In 1788 he was a delegate at a meeting to revise the State Constitution. Absalom Tatom joined the movement to the future President Thomas Jefferson and was in the 1790s a member of the founded of this Democratic- Republican Party. In the congressional elections of 1794, he was elected in the fourth constituency of North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he became the successor of Alexander Mebane on March 4, 1795. He held his seat in Congress until his resignation on June 1, 1796.

Since 1797 until his death in 1802 was Tatom deputy in the House of Representatives from North Carolina. He was regarded as a supporter of the University of North Carolina and was an opponent of the death penalty (except for murder ). In addition, he proposed the construction of a state prison. Absalom Tatom was, even though slave owners, an early opponent of slavery, his slaves gave the freedom in his will. He died on December 20, 1802 in Raleigh.

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