Amos T. Akerman

Who was Amos T. Akerman?

Amos Tappan Akerman served as United States Attorney General under President Ulysses S. Grant from 1870 to 1871. A native of New Hampshire, Akerman graduated from Dartmouth College in 1842. Upon graduation Akerman worked with young boys as Headmaster in North Carolina and as a tutor in Georgia. Having become interested in law Akerman studied and passed the bar in Georgia in 1850; where he and an associate practiced law. In a dual role as an attorney and a farmer making a living; Akerman owned eleven slaves. When the Civil War started in 1861, Akerman joined the Confederate Army and achieved the rank of Colonel.

After the Civil War ended in 1865, Akerman joined the Republican Party during Reconstruction and became an outspoken attorney advocate for African American civil rights in Georgia. Akerman, upon President Grant's appointment as his U.S. Attorney General, vigorously prosecuted the Klan in the South under the Enforcement Acts. Akerman was assisted by Sol. Gen. Benjamin Bristow in the newly established U.S. Department of Justice. Att. Gen. Akerman decided important land grant cases that concerned railroads in a rapidly expanding West. Akerman also ruled on the United States first federal Civil Service Reform law implemented by President Grant and the U.S. Congress. After he resigned office, Akerman continued in his thriving law practice in Georgia and was highly popular in the state.