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Rep. Edward Bates

Former Representative for Missouri’s 1st District

Bates was the representative for Missouri’s 1st congressional district and was an Adams. He served from 1827 to 1829.

Legislators who enslaved Black people

Bates was among more than 1,800 legislators who enslaved Black people. The Washington Post compiled the first database of slaveholding members of Congress by examining thousands of pages of census records and historical documents. Bates was one of them.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Dec 1827 to Mar 1829, Bates missed 68 of 233 roll call votes, which is 29.2%. This is much worse than the median of 16.2% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Mar 1829. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: