"Benjamin Anthony Boseman"{1840-February 23,1881}

Physician,Politician,Postmaster,was free born in New York in to Benjamin A.& Annaretta Boseman.He was the oldest of five children,two girls and three boys.Benjamin grew up in Troy,New York where is daddy served as a steward on the steamboat Empire in the mid-1800s and then as a sutler (a civilian merchant selling provisions to the army).
He was educated in the segregated schools of Troy and showed an interest in becoming a  physician.At the age of 16,he began an eight year apprenticeship in the office of prominent Troy Physician Dr.Thomas C.Brinsmade,before completing his education at the medical School of Maine at Bowdoin College,where he received his medical degree in 1864.
With his degree in hand,Benjamin turned his efforts towards obtaining a position as a surgeon with the Union Army during the American Civil War.After writing to Acting Surgeon General Joseph K.Barnes requesting a position as a surgeon with the "colored regiments,"Benjamin received an appointment as a contract acting assistant surgeon.He was assigned to a recruiting position for the United States Colored Troops (USCT) at Camp Foster in Hilton Head,South Carolina,and served for a year examining recruits and tending to sick and wounded soldiers of the 21st regiment of the USCT.
After the war ended,Benjamin remained in South Carolina taking up residence in Charleston set up a successful medical practice.He met and married Virginia Montgomery they had two sons Benjamin & Christopher.In 1868,Benjamin was among several African Americans who were elected to Congress for the first time in South Carolina.He became the only,politician,African American or white,elected to three consecutive terms in the South Carolina House of Representatives during Reconstruction.During his term,he introduced several pieces of legislation in an attempt to outlaw racial discrimination in the state.
In additional to his political service as a representative,he was appointed physician to the Charleston City Jail in 1869 by South Carolina Governor Robert Scott.He served on the Board of Regents of the state Lunatic Asylum and was appointed to the board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina.After completing his third term as Congressman,he became the first African American postmaster of Charleston,appointed by President Ulysses S.Grant in 1873.
Benjamin died in South Carolina.