Benjamin Cudworth Yancey Jr.

Benjamin Cudworth Yancey Jr. (April 27, 1817 – October 24, 1891) was an American politician, lawyer, officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and diplomat.

Yancey, the brother of a leading Fire-Eater William Lowndes Yancey, was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He attended Franklin College (now known as the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences), the founding school of the University of Georgia in Athens, was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree in 1836. He also attended Harvard Law School.

Yancey married Sarah Paris Hamilton. In 1849, he was elected to the South Carolina General Assembly and served one term. He also practiced law in Hamburg, South Carolina at that time. He moved to Cherokee County, Alabama, and was elected to the Alabama Senate in 1855, serving as the president of that body. He was Minister to Argentina in 1858. During the Civil War, he was a major in Cobb's Legion.

For twenty years he owned a slave who eventually went by the name of Robert Webster, the son of Daniel Webster. He allowed Robert Webster to work in Atlanta during the Civil War, where Webster did quite well financially. After the war, Yancey lost his property and borrowed money from his former slave.

In 1867 he was president of the Alabama State Agricultural society, and he served as a trustee of the University of Georgia from 1860 to 1889. In 1875, Yancey was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives as a representative of Clarke County. He died in 1891.

References

• Centennial Alumni Catalog, Hargrett Rare Books & Manuscripts Library, University of Georgia
• History of the University of Georgia, Thomas Walter Reed, Imprint: Athens, Georgia : University of Georgia, ca. 1949, pp.388-390
• Political Graveyard entry for Benjamin Cudworth Yancy
• The Civil War: Diaries & Collected Papers, Middle Tennessee State University
• U.S. Department of State info for Ambassadorship to Yancy
• Cobb's Legion: Cavalry Battalion
• Virginians: The Family History of John W. Pritchett