Henry Cardozo (1830 - 1886) was a carpenter, shipbuilder, county auditor, and state senator in South Carolina.

Early life

Cardozo was born September 1830. Cardozo's mother, Lydia Weston, was

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

and Native American, a former slave. His father, Isaac Cardozo, was

Sephardic Jewish Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...

. He had two sisters, Lydia and Eslander. His brothers Thomas W. Cardozo and

Francis Lewis Cardozo Francis Lewis Cardozo (February 1, 1836 – July 22, 1903) was an American clergyman, politician, and educator. When elected in South Carolina as Secretary of State in 1868, he was the first African American to hold a statewide office in the Uni ...

were educators and became politicians during the

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

. Their father was Isaac Cardozo who died in 1855. Henry was working as a shoemaker by age 14. He also worked as a carpenter and shipbuilder.Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. ''Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising.'' GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p428-431 He apprenticed with a manufacturer of

threshing machine A threshing machine or a thresher is a piece of farm equipment that threshes grain, that is, it removes the seeds from the stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed, threshi ...

s. In 1855, he married Catherine F. McKinney in Charleston, SC. His sister Eslander married Catherine's brother Christopher McKinney. In June 1858, he and his family (wife, son, mother, two sisters, brother-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, nephew) left

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 ...

on the steamship Nashville for New York. According to the US census in 1860, his mother and sisters were living together in Cleveland, Ohio, and Henry worked as a tailor in that city and lived with his wife and their sons Isaac (age 4) and William (age 1).

Political career

After the US Civil War ended 1865, he moved back to South Carolina. He served as County Auditor of

Charleston County Charleston County is located in the U.S. state of South Carolina along the Atlantic coast. As of the 2020 census, its population was 408,235, making it the third most populous county in South Carolina (behind Greenville and Richland counties). ...

and was elected to the state senate from Kershaw County, serving 1870 to 1874. He also became a Methodist preacher and was later pastor of the Old Bethel United Methodist Church. He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and died on February 21, 1886. He is buried in

Randolph Cemetery Randolph Cemetery is a historic cemetery for African-Americans in Columbia, South Carolina. It was established in 1872 and expanded in 1899. It was named for Benjamin F. Randolph (1820–1868), who was reburied at the cemetery in 1871. Randolph ...

with eight other

legislators.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cardozo, Henry 1830 births 1886 deaths South Carolina state senators African-American politicians during the Reconstruction Era African-American state legislators in South Carolina Burials in South Carolina American people of Sephardic-Jewish descent Politicians from Charleston, South Carolina