"William Benjamin Gould"(1837-May 25,1923)

Was a former slave and veteran of the Civil War.William was born a slave to a slave woman and perhaps an Englishman.He lerned to read

William & his six sins.

and is known for his details in a diary about his work as a plaster.He was owned by the Nixon family and worked on the Bellamy House.On September 21,1862,William escaped with seven other slaves by rowing a small boat 28 nautical miles down the Cape Fear River and out into the Atlantic Ocean where the USS Cambridge of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron picked them up as contraband.Prior to the escape,William had been owned by Nicholas Nixon,a peanut planter and slave owner in Wilmington.After escape,William joined the U.S.Navy and believed he was "defending the holliest of all causes,Liberty and Union.Beginning with his time on the Cambridge and continuing through his discharge at the end of the war he kept a diary of his day-to-day activities.According to John Hope Franklin,William's diary is one of three known diaries in existence written during the Civil War by former slaves.William chronicles his trips to the northeastern United States,Holland,Belgium,Spain,Portugal,and England.The diary is distinguished not only by its details and eloquent tone,but also by its author's reflection's on the conduct of the war,his own military engagements,race, race relations in the Navy,and what African Americans might expect after the war and during Reconstruction.After he was discharged from the Navy at the Charleston Navy Yard in Massachusetts,he married Cornelia Read.In November 1865.She was a former slave who was then living on Nantucket and they corresponded throughout the war.The Goulds moved to Milton Street in Dedham,Masschusetts,and together they had two daughters and six sons.In Dedham, William "became a building contractor and community pillar.William "took great pride in his work" when he resumed work as a plaster and helped to build the new St.Mary's Church.One of his employees improperly mixed the plaster and even though it was not visible by looking at it,William insisted that it be removed and reapplied correctly.William helped to build Episcopal Church of the Good Shepard in Oakdale,Square,as a parishioner and not as a contractor.It may have been the Episcopal church he attended in Wilmington as a slave that taught him to read and to be able to keep his diary.William was extremely active in the Charles W.Carroll Post 144 of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).He"held virtually ever position that it was possible to hold in the GAR from the time he joined including the highest post,commander,in 1900 & 1901."Five of his sons would fight in the World War I and one in the Spanish-American War.A photo of the six sons and their daddy,all in military uniform,would appear in the NAACP's magazine,The Crisis,in December 1917.William's great-grandson would describe them as "family of fighters.