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Forgotten Men of History: Alexander Twilight
The first African American to hold a state seat, graduate from college and was an accomplished builder to boot
History often, whether arbitrarily or intentionally, moves great people from places of remembrance to the forgotten. There is no telling how many people are truly and unfairly forgotten, but there are a whole host of accomplished people who had survived on the periphery of modern history, but just barely. It is these people that I endeavor to give a new, if brief, time in the spotlight of modern attention. Alexander Twilight, an African American born in the 18th century on a remote farm, is one such person.
Alexander Lucius Twilight was a remarkable man. Born in 1795 in Bradford Vermont, Alexander Twilight would be raised in the nascent United States of America and go on to accomplish a litany of things most would have considered impossible for a man of his race and background at the time. As the first few US presidents strove to forge a path for the new country, slavery was sinking it deep and destructive roots into the southern states, and European powers continued to stomp around the world with destructive and clumsy force, Alexander was carving out a simple life of incredible firsts. This list would grow steadily over his life to include the first degree…
