Jefferson had taken well to the tailor trade and was soon set up in a shop by his new owner.The slave trade was alive and well in Macon,and Jefferson had a front-row seat- his shop was across the street from the slave auction block.
Fortunately for him, the shop was also next door the local newspaper.When he was not employed mending or sewing,he was beseeching
the typesetters at the newspaper to set copy,
an activity he observed closely as he taught himself to read and write.By 1860 Jefferson had married Lucinda Carhart and started a family.
By the end of the Civil War (1861-1865),Jefferson was a flourishing member of society.He was establish in his own shop and was an active member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) of Macon,headed by Henry McNeal Turner.Under
Henry's influence Jefferson made his first political appearance at a meeting of the
Georgia Educational Association in 1867.Jefferson may also have had a hand in the
establishment of Georgia's Freedman's Saving Bank a project led by Henry and established through the AME Church.
Jefferson became a prominent member of the Republican Party in 1867 and was appointed as one of the party's key speakers and political organizers.He traveled
throughout Georgia and much of the south,praising the passage of the Congressional Reconstruction Act of 1867 urging former slaves to register to vote.Partially as a result of his efforts,thirty-seven African-Americans were elected to the Georgia constitutional convention of 1867 and thirty-two to the state legislature,among them Henry.
In December 1870 Jefferson became Georgia's congressman when he was elected to fill a vacancy in the 41st Congress.He served from December 22,1870,until the end of the session on March 3,1871.The vacancy resulted when Congress refuses to seat the
Georgia representatives who elected in 1869.They were rejected because they were eligible to serve in the 40th Congress but not in the 41st (elections were held to fill seats for both),and the situation left Georgia without representation in Congress from March 1869 until December 1870.Jefferson spent much of his free time working to better the living conditions of his fellow man by organizing conventions that advocated public education,higher wages,and better terms for tenants farmers,or sharecroppers.He helped organize the Union Brotherhood Lodge,an African American
mutual aid society,in Macon.His advocacy as well as public speaking ability had made him a natural congressional candidate in the eyes of his party.
During his term in Congress Jefferson made history yet again,when on February 1,1871,he became the first African American to speak on the floor of the House of
Representatives.An amnesty bill that would modify the oath required of former
Confederates who sought public office had passed the Senate and was to be voted on by the House.Opposed to the measure,Jefferson asked the assembly,"Do we,then,really propose here to-day,when the country is not ready for it,... when loyal men dare not carry the 'stars and stripes' through our streets,for they do will be turned out of employment,to relieve from from political disability the very men who have committed these Kuklux outrages?" Nonetheless,the bill passed later that day by a vote 118-90.
As Reconstruction ended and the freedoms he had fought so hard for began to dwindle,Jefferson became disenchanted with the political system.He never again held public office.He remained loyal to the radical wing of the Republican Party and serve as a delegate to the nation conventions through 1880,but the party was divided.The Bourbon Democrats had reclaimed the South,and Jefferson began to realize that the only way to regain any of the grounds African Americans had lost to organize an independent African American voting bloc.In 1880 Jefferson theory into
practice and supported Governor Alfred H.Colquitt,a member of the Bourbon Triumvirate,in his reelection campaign.With the support of the African American Republican vote,Alfred defeated his Democratic opponent,Thomas Norwood.White Democrats were spilt between Alfred and Thomas; and white Republicans supported
Thomas.(The Republican Party had failed to offer its own candidadte.)Thus;
Jefferson demonstrated that the African American vote could be significant when whites were divided.
By 1884,African Americans had lost nearly all their power in the Republican Party and were no longer influential in state politics.Disillusioned,Jefferson retreated from politics.He lived out the rest of his life as a private citizen,operating several
businesses,including the first dry-cleaning establishment in Macon.He was not a rich man,but he owned property and managed to educate all six of his children.What free
time he had was spent in his library,book in hand.Jefferson died from influenza.He is
buried in Macon's Linwood Cemetery.
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