Prince Rivers

Prince Rivers (1824–1887) was a former slave from South Carolina who served as a soldier in the Union Army and as a state politician during the Reconstruction era. He escaped and joined Union lines, becoming a sergeant in the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, a Union regiment in the American Civil War.

He had gained literacy as a slave and after the war joined the Republican Party. He served as a delegate to the 1868 state constitutional convention, becoming known as an orator. He was one of three African-American founders of Aiken County in 1871, helped pick the site for the courthouse, and served as the state legislator from the county through 1874. He also served as a trial judge.

Born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina, Prince R. Rivers worked on the Henry Middleton Stuart, Sr. (1803–1872) or H.M. Stuart plantation known as Oak Point or Pages Point. He served with the household staff and as carriage driver, among the elite of the estate's slaves, and learned to read and write. He escaped from slavery in 1862 after his master moved with his slaves to Edgefield County. Rivers stole one of Stuart's horses and rode through the Confederate lines to Beaufort, which was occupied by Union troops. He volunteered to enlist in the Union Army. By the summer of 1862, more than 10,000 slaves had fled from Lowcountry and Midlands plantations to join Union lines along the coast.

Rivers was among the slaves (and their families) declared free in 1862 by Union General David Hunter under Congress' Confiscation Act of 1861. Hunter's decision was considered controversial, and the general was prohibited from enlisting former slaves. But they served in "Hunter's Regiment" with unpaid status for a time, and Rivers said he never regretted it.

In 1863, Rivers became a non-commissioned officer in the newly formed 1st South Carolina Volunteers of the United States Colored Troops. His commanding officer, Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, wanted to promote him to a commissioned rank but was prevented by his superiors because of Rivers' race. Higginson said of Rivers in an 1865 article in The Liberator, "No anti-slavery novel has described a man of such marked ability. He makes Toussaint perfectly intelligible; and if there should ever be a black monarchy in South Carolina, he will be its king."

...
Wikipedia