Albert Pruitt (Prewitt, Pruit, Prewit) was born into slavery in Albemarle County, Virginia, in December 1830. He worked as a farmer, and at some point before the war, he was sold to Richard (Dick) Prewit. Prewit lived in Lawrence County, Alabama, and owned at least 87 slaves by 1860. Albert Pruitt married Rebecca Jones on his owner's plantation around 1849. As he recalled in 1899, "[I was] married by the law of my master and he gave us a wedding at his house."

During the war, Pruitt escaped the plantation and made his way to Corinth, Mississippi. On April 11, 1863, he enlisted in Company A of the 2nd Alabama Colored Infantry Regiment. His enlistment records describe him as 5 feet, 7 inches tall, with black eyes, black hair, and a black complexion. The army officially organized the regiment on November 20, 1863, in Pulaski, Tennessee, and in June 1864, it became the 110th USCT Infantry Regiment. Pruitt became very ill in May 1864, and the army transferred him to a series of hospitals to recuperate. Decades later, he claimed he had been a prisoner of war in Mobile, Alabama, at some point late in the war. While the details of his alleged imprisonment are unclear, it is possible he was captured by Confederate forces while recuperating in a Union hospital, perhaps when Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest attacked the town in late September 1864. Whatever the case, his service record shows that he did not rejoin his regiment for duty until June 1865. The 110th USCT was stationed in Gallatin, Tennessee, and at various other points in the Department of Tennessee for the rest of the conflict. Pruitt mustered out with the rest of his regiment in Huntsville, Alabama, on February 6, 1866.

After the war, Albert and Rebecca lived together in Alabama, where they had four children: Sherman, born around 1865; Dashe (Dosia), born around 1873; Mary, born around 1875; and Albert, Jr., born around 1877. In 1882, the family moved to Lamar County, Texas. Pruitt's health steadily deteriorated, and he suffered from poor appetite, impaired vision, rheumatism, deafness, heart disease, and senile debility. He began receiving a pension of $10 per month in 1899, and the government increased it to $15 over the next few years. Rebecca died in 1905, and Albert passed away no later than May 1908, when he was dropped from the pension rolls.