Charles D. Hayne
Quick Facts
Biography
Charles D. Hayne (1844–1913) was an African-American politician, tailor, and railroad investor from South Carolina. Hayne was born in 1844 in Charleston, South Carolina. He was the son of a white father and Isabella R., a free black mother. He was the nephew of powerful South Carolina politician Robert Y. Hayne. Educated in Charleston, he worked as a tailor during his early years.
After the civil war, Hayne was employed by the Freedmen's Bureau as a teacher and sent to Barnwell County, South Carolina. He was elected as a delegate to the South Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1868 and to the South Carolina House of Representatives in the same year. He was re-elected in 1870. In that year, he was part of the initial board of Enterprise Railroad, a black-owned railroad company. He also served on the board of directors of various other corporations as well. While in office, it was alleged that he received a $200 bribe for his vote on railroad-related legislation. In 1871, he accepted a bribe from Henry G. WorthingtonTwo years later, he was elected to the South Carolina Senate for a four-year term. He left politics with the end of Reconstruction in 1876.