Charles Caldwell (politician)
Charles Caldwell was a Reconstruction era political and state militia leader in Mississippi. He held office as a state senator and county commissioner before being assassinated in 1875.
A former slave, he was a delegate to Mississippi's 1868 Constitutional Convention. He worked as a blacksmith in Clinton, Mississippi, a small town about 12 miles from Jackson in Hinds County, Mississippi.
Political violence in Clinton included the Clinton Riot after a political rally of African Americans. Governor Adelbert Ames authorized a militia in response and put Caldwell in charge of it in Clinton but later backed down and disbanded it.
The U.S. Congress reported on election violence and Caldwell's assassination.
