Richard Harvey Cain was born a free black in Greenbrier County, Virginia on April 12, 1825.
In 1831 his parents moved to Gallipolis, Ohio where he attended school.
Seventeen years later, in 1848, he joined the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and became a minister in Muscatine, Iowa.
Cain moved to South Carolina in 1865 to lead a Charleston AME church and soon became involved in local politics.
In 1868, he was elected a member of the South Carolina State Constitutional Convention.
Later in the year he was elected to the South Carolina State Senate, a post he held until 1870.
Cain was editor and publisher of the South Carolina Leader which eventually became the Missionary Record.
