Biography of william hooper councill

William Hooper Councill (July 12, – ) was an American former slave and the first president of Huntsville Normal School, which is today Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University in Normal, Alabama.^[1]

Life

He was born a slave in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on July 12, , to William and Mary Jane Councill.^[2] His father escaped to Canada in and made several unsuccessful attempts to free his family.^[3] The young William Hooper Councill was taken to Huntsville, Alabama by slave traders in He and his mother and brothers were sold as enslaved people from the auction block at Green Bottom Inn to Judge David Campbell Humphreys.

At this auction, he saw two of his brothers sold in and never heard from them again.^[4]

During the American Civil War, he and his remaining brothers were taken into rural areas to keep them from the Union Army, but before the end of the war, they escaped to Union lines.

They attended, o