Early Life and Education
Alexander Lucius Twilight was born September 26, 1795 at Corinth, Vermont. His father Ichabod Twilight was free, of mixed-race, and a Revolutionary War veteran. His mother Mary, also free, was described as white or light-skinned.
Twilight worked for a neighboring farmer in Corinth, starting around 1803 when he was 8. For the next 12 years he read, studied, and learned mathematics while working in various farm labor positions.
Twilight enrolled in Randolph’s Orange County Grammar School in 1815 at the age of 20. From 1815 to 1821, he completed all secondary school courses as well as the first two years of a college level curriculum.
Twilight then attended Middlebury College in 1821, where he graduated in 1823. His baccalaureate degree made him the first African American to receive a degree from an American institution of higher learning, although this fact was not made widely known until Amherst College claimed to have awarded the first bachelor's degree to an African American to Edward Jones in 1826.
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