Gould, William Benjamin, 1837-1923

William Benjamin Gould (November 18, 1837 – May 25, 1923) was a former enslaved person and veteran of the American Civil War, serving in the U.S. Navy. His diary is one of only a few written during the Civil War by a formerly enslaved person that has survived, and the only by a formerly enslaved sailor. He was born in Wilmington, North Carolina to an enslaved woman, Elizabeth "Betsy" Moore, and Alexander Gould, an English-born resident of Granville County, NC. He was enslaved by Nicholas Nixon, a peanut planter; Gould worked as a plasterer at the antebellum Bellamy Mansion in Wilmington, North Carolina.

On September 21, 1862, Gould escaped with seven other enslaved men.

After his service in the Civil War, Gould married in 1865 and worked as a plasterer on Nantucket; he later settled in Dedham, Massachusetts. In Dedham, Gould became a building contractor and pillar of the community.

Gould kept a diary of his day-to-day activities in the Navy; this diary is one of three known diaries in existence written during the Civil War by former slaves, and the only one by a Union sailor.