Prince R. Rivers was a former slave from South Carolina who served as a soldier in the Union Army and as a state politician during the Reconstruction era. He escaped and joined Union lines, becoming a sergeant in the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, a Union regiment in the American Civil War.
He had gained literacy as a slave and after the war joined the Republican Party. He served as a delegate to the 1868 South Carolina Constitutional Convention, becoming known as an orator. He was one of three African-American founders of Aiken County in 1871, helped pick the site for the courthouse, and served as the state legislator from the county through 1874. He also served as a trial judge.