Gilbert Pillsbury was the Reconstruction mayor of

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

, and he served one term from 1868 to 1871. He ran against William Patton and Chancellor Lesesne. Due to election challenges, he was installed as mayor only in May 1869. He was again nominated for a second term in 1871, but lost to

Johann Andreas Wagener Johann Andreas Wagener was the forty-third mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, serving one term from 1871 to 1873. He also served as an officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Biography Wagener was born in Sievern ...

. Pillsbury attended

Phillips Academy ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover , state = Ma ...

but did not graduate. He argued that the school's "vigorous pro-slavery restrictions" forced him to leave after he helped found an Abolitionist Society on campus. He joined over fifty students in advocating for abolition following lectures in 1834 by

George Thompson (abolitionist) George Donisthorpe Thompson (18 June 1804 – 7 October 1878) was a British anti-slavery orator and activist who toured giving lectures and worked for legislation while serving as a Member of Parliament. He was arguably one of the most importan ...

and

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he found ...

on campus. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1841 and served in the

Massachusetts State Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member sen ...

in 1854. Pillsbury was an abolitionist who, during the Civil War, headed to the South as an agent of the Freedman's Bureau. He was originally stationed in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina before moving to Charleston, South Carolina with his wife in October 1865. In Charleston, he worked to educate freed slaves and was placed in charge of abandoned property. In 1870, Pillsbury lived at 9 George St. (today a parking lot across from the Spoleto Festival USA Headquarters), and from 1872 to his death on January 4, 1893, he lived in Massachusetts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pillsbury, Gilbert 1893 deaths Dartmouth College alumni Democratic Party Massachusetts state senators Mayors of Charleston, South Carolina People from Henniker, New Hampshire South Carolina Democrats 1813 births 19th-century American politicians