Prince R. Rivers (1824–1887) was a former enslaved man 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
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
.
He had gained literacy as an enslaved man and after the war joined the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
. He served as a delegate to the
1868 South Carolina Constitutional Convention
The Constitution of the State of South Carolina is the governing document of the U.S. state of South Carolina. It describes the structure and function of the state's government. The current constitution took effect on December 4, 1895. South Carol ...
, 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.
Early life and education
Born into slavery in
Beaufort, South Carolina
Beaufort ( , a different pronunciation from that used by the city with the same name in North Carolina) is a city in and the county seat of Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1711, it is the second-oldest city in South ...
, 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,
[Matthew Pinsker, "General Hunter “Confiscates” Prince Rivers"](_blank)
8 November 2012, Emancipation Digital Classroom 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.
[W. Scott Poole, ''South Carolina's Civil War: A Narrative History''](_blank)
Mercer University Press, 2005, p. 77 He volunteered to enlist in the Union Army with the First South Carolina Volunteers. By the summer of 1862, more than 10,000 slaves had fled from Lowcountry and Midlands plantations to join Union lines along the coast.
Serving the Union Army
Rivers was among the slaves (and their families) declared free in 1862 by Union General
David Hunter
David Hunter (July 21, 1802 – February 2, 1886) was an American military officer. He served as a Union general during the American Civil War. He achieved notability for his unauthorized 1862 order (immediately rescinded) emancipating slaves ...
under Congress'
Confiscation Act of 1861
The Confiscation Act of 1861 was an act of Congress during the early months of the American Civil War permitting court proceedings for confiscation of any of property being used to support the Confederate independence effort, including slaves.
...
. 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
The United States Colored Troops (USCT) were regiments in the United States Army composed primarily of African-American (colored) soldiers, although members of other minority groups also served within the units. They were first recruited during ...
. His commanding officer, Colonel
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson (December 22, 1823May 9, 1911) was an American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, politician, and soldier. He was active in the American Abolitionism movement during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with ...
, 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
Liberator or The Liberators or ''variation'', may refer to:
Literature
* ''Liberators'' (novel), a 2009 novel by James Wesley Rawles
* ''The Liberators'' (Suvorov book), a 1981 book by Victor Suvorov
* ''The Liberators'' (comic book), a Britis ...
,'' "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."
The 1st South Carolina Volunteers and other African-American soldiers were promised at enlistment in writing to be paid the same as other soldiers. However, under the
Militia Act of 1862
The Militia Act of 1862 (, enacted July 17, 1862) was an Act of the 37th United States Congress, during the American Civil War, that authorized a militia draft within a state when the state could not meet its quota with volunteers. The Act, for ...
, were paid less than half that. They and their supporters lobbied the government but did not gain full pay until June 1864, when an Act of Congress granted them equal pay, including what they were due retroactively. Nearly 180,000 African Americans served in the war and were critical to Union victory.
Reconstruction era
After the war, Rivers returned to the Edgefield District, eventually settling on a farm outside
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
, which became a black-majority town in this period, with a thriving community. He entered the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
and became active in state politics. He had reportedly learned to read and write while a slave, and proved to be a skilled orator and essayist.
[Jim Nesbitt, "County, once booming, now shadows town it used to rival"](_blank)
, ''Augusta Chronicle'', 16 February 2004 He served as registrar for
Edgefield County
Edgefield County is a County (United States), county located on the western border of the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 25,657. Its county seat and largest municipality is Edge ...
in 1867. In the South Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1868, he was the delegate from Edgefield.
He was elected as a state legislator and later as a trial judge, and was deeply involved with Reconstruction politics. Rivers was one of three African-American founders of Aiken County, established by the state legislature in 1871 during Reconstruction, and he helped pick the site for the county courthouse. After a redistricting in 1872, Rivers was the state representative from the newly organized Aiken County. He later served as mayor, county coroner and justice of the peace, all local offices newly available to black candidates.
In 1876, Prince Rivers was the judge in a hearing in Hamburg related to events on July 4, when white farmers claimed that an all-black unit of the National Guard blocked the street by their parade on Independence Day. The hearing was attended by more than 100 armed members from nearby
Red Shirts chapters, among the thousands of armed white men in rifle clubs; the farmers' lawyer demanded that the black militia be disarmed. Though Rivers tried in a separate meeting to persuade the local Guard militia to give up their weapons, and the white paramilitary to back down, his efforts failed. The freedmen retreated to the armory and held off an attack by the white militia, in which one white man died. They tried to escape after seeing the white militia bring up a cannon. Two blacks were killed on the street, and the white militia captured about 25 freedmen who had left the armory. They
murdered four outright later that night while holding them as prisoners at what was called the Dead Ring, and wounded seven other black men.
After the trial, Rivers' home was burned and property stolen or destroyed by Red Shirts. Violence continued in the following weeks as the white militia worked to suppress black voting in the Upland counties, with a massacre of an estimated 30-100 blacks over several days in September in
Ellenton.
[Mark M. Smith, “'All Is Not Quiet in Our Hellish County’: Facts, Fiction, Politics, and Race - The Ellenton Riot of 1876,” ''South Carolina Historical Magazine,'' Vol. 95, No. 2 (April 1994), 142-155](_blank)
The Democrats regained control of the state legislature and governor's office in 1876, in an election marked by fraud. It was settled in a national compromise by which the Republican administration agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South, officially ending Reconstruction.
In South Carolina, white Democrats passed laws to impose segregation and "
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
", and continued violence at elections, but African-American
George Henry White
George Henry White (December 18, 1852 – December 28, 1918) was an American attorney and politician, elected as a Republican U.S. Congressman from North Carolina's 2nd congressional district between 1897 and 1901. He later became a banker ...
was elected to US Congress in the 1890s. In 1895 the Democrats passed a new constitution that included requirements that effectively
disfranchised blacks in the state. After the rise of whites and imposition of
white supremacy
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...
, Rivers worked as a house painter and coachman until his death at age 65.
[Poole, W. Scott. ''South Carolina's Civil War: A Narrative History.'' Mercer University Press, 2005.]
References
External links
* Higginson, Thomas Wentworth
''Army Life in a Black Regiment'' online text at Gutenberg Project.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivers, Prince
1824 births
Union Army soldiers
African Americans in the American Civil War
1887 deaths
House painters
People from Beaufort, South Carolina
People from Hamburg, South Carolina