Benjamin Cudworth Yancey Jr.

Who was Benjamin Cudworth Yancey Jr.?

Benjamin Cudworth Yancey Jr. 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, 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 degree in 1836. He also attended Harvard Law School.

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