From House servant to Senate
This is a great man who believed in Civil Rights for all men.
Blanch K. Bruce
This individual was born to an enslaved woman and a white planter who worked hard and became the second black man to serve in the Senate. He was a first-generation black legislator from the Civil War Era.
Being Educated for The Future
Bruce was a slave who worked as a house servant and had certain privileges, as per the slave standards. He served on various plantations in Virginia, Mississippi, and Missouri. Bruce was fortunate enough to be schooled by a private tutor named William, his half-brother from his father’s side. He was allowed to play with his brother on the plantation, and it is said that his father arranged for Bruce to do an apprenticeship so that he could learn a skill.
Civil War
During the Civil War, Bruce was not free. His father, Perkinson, took the family’s plantation and relocated to Missouri. However, the violence in the area persisted, prompting Bruce to flee to Kansas. According to a newspaper interview in 1886, Bruce was able to gain his freedom in Kansas.
