Harper, Robert Goodloe

Harper, Robert Goodloe

(1765–1825) lawyer, public official; born near Fredericksburg, Va. He served briefly during the American Revolution, graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) in 1785, and settled in Ninety Six, S.C., where he practiced law, taught school, and entered politics. He became a prominent Federalist leader in the U.S. House of Representatives (S.C., 1795–1801) before leaving public service in 1801 to practice law in Baltimore. A founding member of the American Colonization Society (1817), he suggested the name Liberia for the proposed African colony for freed slaves.