Benjamin S. Turner

Benjamin Sterling Turner
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alabama's 1st district
In office March 4, 1871 - March 3, 1873
Preceded by	Alfred Buck
Succeeded by	Frederick Bromberg
Personal details
Born	(1825-03-17)March 17, 1825 Weldon, North Carolina, U.S.
Died	March 21, 1894(1894-03-21) (aged 69) Selma, Alabama, U.S.
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican

Benjamin Sterling Turner (March 17, 1825, Weldon, North Carolina – March 21, 1894, Selma, Alabama) was an American businessman and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives representing Alabama's 1st congressional district in the 42nd United States Congress.

He was born into slavery in Halifax County, North Carolina near the town of Weldon. His parents were slaves. He was taken with his mother to Alabama at age five, as part of the forced migration of the internal slave trade. Turner received no early education. By clandestine study he obtained a fair education. He seems to have remained enslaved until the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863.

Turner engaged in mercantile pursuits. He set up a livery stable in Selma, Alabama. Joining the Republican Party after the Civil War, Turner was elected tax collector of Dallas County, Alabama in 1867. He next served as councilman of the city of Selma in 1869.

Freedmen were granted the franchise after the Civil War. Turner was unanimously nominated to be the Republican candidate from Alabama's 1st congressional district, which at that point encompassed Southwest Alabama. He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-second Congress (March 4, 1871 - March 3, 1873). He complained that northern Republicans living in his district had not supported him enough in his run for office. In Congress he worked to restore political and legal rights to Confederates who had fought against the United States in the American Civil War. He also fought for the repeal of the tax on cotton, on the grounds that it hurt poor African Americans.

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