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James Monroe Trotter (February 7, 1842 – February 26, 1892) was an American teacher, soldier, employee of the United States Post Office Department, a music historian, and Recorder of Deeds in Washington, D.C. Born into slavery in Mississippi, he, his two sisters and their mother Letitia were freed by their master, the child's father, and helped to move to Cincinnati, Ohio. He grew up in freedom, attending school and becoming a teacher. During the American Civil War, Trotter enlisted in the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the state's second black infantry regiment, and was quickly promoted; he was the second man of color to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the U.S. Army. After the war, he married and moved with his wife to Boston. He was the first man of color hired by the Post Office Department (now the United States Postal Service) there and worked with them for many years. He wrote a history of music in the United States which is still in print. In 1886 he was appointed by the Republican administration as the Recorder of Deeds in Washington, D.C., the highest federal position available at the time for African Americans. His son William Monroe Trotter became a rights activist and was founder and editor of the ''Boston Guardian'', a progressive African American newspaper. ==Early life and education== James Monroe Trotter was born on February 7, 1842, twenty-five miles south of Vicksburg in the once-thriving community of Grand Gulf, Mississippi, in Claiborne County, Mississippi, although some sources give Trotter’s date of birth as November 8, 1842. James was born into slavery; his mother Letitia was a slave and his father was her white master, Richard S. Trotter, then unmarried. After Richard Trotter married in 1854, he freed Letitia and their mixed-race children: James and two younger sisters, and sent them to Cincinnati, in the free state of Ohio. Young James attended the Gilmore School, a famous institution for freed slaves founded by Methodist clergyman Hiram S. Gilmore. There he studied music with William F. Colburn. His musical training served him well later on. In Cincinnati, James helped to support the family by working as a hotel bellboy and a riverboat cabin boy on a Cincinnati-to-New Orleans run. About 1856 the family moved on to nearby Hamilton. Trotter attended Albany Manual Labor Academy in Athens County, Ohio, which was notable for accepting students regardless of race and sex. Despite its name, it offered classical academic classes, as well as training in trades. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「James Monroe Trotter」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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