Liberty Billings



Liberty Billings (1823–1877) was an American officer in the Union Army, a Unitarian minister, and a state senator.

Billings was born in Saco, Maine in 1823. He was educated at Thornton Academy and later graduated from Meadville Theological School in 1848.

Billings served as Lieutenant Colonel of the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry which in turn became the 33rd United States Colored Infantry during the American Civil War. He was a Republican (Radical Republican) during the Reconstruction Era and served as a state senator in Florida. He was involved in the constitutional convention that developed the 1868 Florida Constitution. Billings has been honored posthumously as a Great Floridian.

He was deemed ineligible to participate in the constitutional convention and was voted out along with others accused of being residents of other states.

The Billings House located in the Fernandina Beach Historic District in Fernandina Beach, Florida.