The Reverend Richard Harvey Cain
Portrait byC. M. Bellc. 1873–1879
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromSouth Carolina
In office March 4, 1877 – March 3, 1879
Preceded by	Charles W. Buttz
Succeeded by	Michael P. O'Connor
Constituency	2nd district
In office March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1875
Preceded by	District created
Succeeded by	District eliminated
Constituency	at-large seat
Member of theSouth Carolina Senate fromCharleston County
In office November 24, 1868 – March 1, 1870
Personal details
Born	(1825-04-12)April 12, 1825 Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia), U.S.
Died	January 18, 1887(1887-01-18) (aged 61) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Party	Republican
Spouse	Laura
Profession	Minister
Nickname	"Daddy Cain"[1]

Richard Harvey Cain (April 12, 1825 – January 18, 1887) was an American minister, bishop,abolitionist and politician. After theAmerican Civil War, he was appointed by BishopDaniel Payne as amissionary of theAfrican Methodist Episcopal Church inSouth Carolina. Cain served as aUnited States representative from South Carolina from 1873 to 1875 and 1877 to 1879. He also was one of the founders ofLincolnville, South Carolina.

Cain was born to a black father and aCherokee mother^[2] inGreenbrier County, Virginia, which is now inWest Virginia. He was raised inGallipolis, Ohio; Ohio state was a free state where he was allowed to learn to read and write. He attendedWilberforce University and divinity school inHannibal, Missouri. TheAmerican Civil War broke out while he was at Wilberforce. He and 115 students from the mostly black university attempted to enlist in theUnion Army but were refused.^[1]

Cain worked as a barber inGalena, Illinois, and worked on steamboats along theOhio River before he migrated to the South.

He had been licensed to preach for theMethodist Episcopal Church in 1844. His first assignment was in Hannibal, Missouri. In 1848, frustrated by the segregationist policies of the Methodists, he joined theAfrican Methodist Episcopal Church, an independent black denomination started inPhiladelphia. By 1859, he became a deacon inMuscatine, Iowa. In 1861, Cain was called as a pastor at theBridge Street Church inBrooklyn, New York. In 1862, he was ordained as an elder and remained at the Brooklyn church until 1865.^[1]

After the Civil War, Cain moved toCharleston, South Carolina, in 1865 as superintendent of AME missions and presided over theEmmanuel Church in that city. The AME Church attracted tens of thousands of converts to its denomination very rapidly.^[1]

Cain became active in politics, serving as a delegate to thestate constitutional convention in 1868.^[3] He representedCharleston County in theSouth Carolina Senate from 1868 to 1872. He also edited theSouth Carolina Leader newspaper (later renamed theMissionary Record). As editor, he hired future congressmenRobert B. Elliott andAlonzo Ransier.^[1]

He was elected as aRepublican to the43rd United states Congress in a newly createdat-large district. He was on the Committee on Agriculture, but focused more on thecivil-rights bill that eventually passed, in diluted form, in 1875. He gave noted speeches on the bill in January 1873. He did not run for re-election in 1874 after redistricting, but ran for the2nd district in 1876. He was elected to the45th United States Congress.^[1]

In 1877, while advocating in Congress for mail service to West African colonies, Cain became a member of the Liberian Exodus Joint Stock Steamship Company. In 1880, Cain was elected and consecrated abishop in theAfrican Methodist Episcopal Church; he served the episcopal district that comprisedLouisiana andTexas. He helped foundPaul Quinn College and served as its president until 1884.^[1]

Cain then moved toWashington, D.C., where he served as AME bishop over the Mid-Atlantic and New England states. He died in Washington on January 18, 1887, and was buried inGraceland Cemetery there, but may have been removed toWoodlawn Cemetery about a decade later, when Graceland closed and many of its interments were reburied in Woodlawn.^[4][5]

• List of African-American United States representatives
• List of Native Americans in the United States Congress
• African American officeholders from the end of the Civil War until before 1900

• Holt, Thomas C.Black over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina during Reconstruction. (U of Illinois Press, 1977).

• Congressional biography

• 1825 births
• 1887 deaths
• 19th-century African-American clergy
• 19th-century American Methodist ministers
• African-American abolitionists
• Abolitionists from South Carolina
• African-American United States representatives
• African-American Methodists
• African-American politicians of the Reconstruction era
• African-American state legislators in South Carolina
• African Methodist Episcopal bishops
• American Methodist clergy
• American Methodist missionaries
• American people of Cherokee descent
• Barbers
• American hairdressers
• Methodist abolitionists
• Native American members of the United States Congress
• Republican Party United States representatives from South Carolina
• People from Gallipolis, Ohio
• People from Greenbrier County, West Virginia
• Washington, D.C., Republicans
• Wilberforce University alumni
• 19th-century Native American people
• Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
• 19th-century United States representatives
• 19th-century members of the South Carolina General Assembly

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