Benjamin S. Turner

Benjamin Sterling Turner was an American businessman and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives representing Alabamas 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.

Source: Wikipedia