First black Attorney in State of North Carolina. Served in the North Carolina House of Representatives, North Carolina Senate, represented New Hanover County, North Carolina, in the Constitutional Convention of 1875. Later, served as Vice President of the Colored Education Convention in Raleigh, North Carolina, was elected Lieutenant Colonel of the Fourth and Fifth Battalions, North Carolina Troops, and was President of the Discharged Union Soldiers Association. His father was George W. Mabson, a prominent white man in Wilmington, North Carolina. His mother was Eliza Moore, a black woman. He enlisted, February 15, 1864, in the 5th Massachusetts Colored Calvary as a Private and was mustered out in Clarksville, Texas, a full Commander Sergeant. He also served in the Navy. After the war, he studied law at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He married, Rosanna Patterson, September 13,1866, at Boston, Massachusetts. (bio by: Karen Mickel Bennett)