{{short description|American politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Reverend | name = Henry Weston Cardozo | image = Henry Cardozo.png | caption = | office =Member of the South Carolina Senate<br>from Kershaw County | term_start = November 22, 1870 | term_end = March 17, 1874 | predecessor = Justus K. Jillson | successor = Frank Carter | birth_date = September 1, 1830 | birth_place = Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1886|2|21|1830|9|1}} | death_place = | module = {{Infobox person | embed = yes | burial_place = Randolph Cemetery,<br>Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. | alma_mater = | known_for = | political_party = Republican | occupation = {{hlist|Auditor|carpenter|cobbler|machinist|minister|politician|shipwright|tailor}} | spouse = {{marriage|Catherine F. McKinney<br />|1853}} | children = 6 | relatives = Francis Lewis Cardozo <small>(brother)</small> <br> Thomas W. Cardozo <small>(brother)</small> <br> Benjamin N. Cardozo <br><small>(distant relative)</small> | awards = }} }}

'''Henry Weston Cardozo''' (September 1, 1830 – February 21, 1886) was an American carpenter, cobbler, county auditor, shipwright, tailor, Methodist Episcopal minister, and Reconstruction era South Carolina state senator.

==Early life== Henry Weston Cardozo was born in September 1830. Cardozo's mother, Lydia Weston, was a former slave of African American and Native American ancestry. His father, Isaac Nunez Cardozo, was Sephardic Jewish of Portuguese descent.<ref name=Post>{{cite book|last1=Woody|first1=Howard|last2=Beard|first2=Davie|title=South Carolina Postcards: Camden|page=35|publication-place=Charleston, South Carolina|volume=VIII|date=2003|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=0738515035|oclc=755103522}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Lewis|first=Femi|title=Francis Lewis Cardozo: Educator, Clergyman and Politician|date=March 6, 2017|website=ThoughtCo|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/francis-lewis-cardozo-educator-clergyman-45263}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Waldfogel|first=Sabra|url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/jews-and-slavery-isaac-cardozo-and-lydia-weston|date=August 1, 2014|title=Jews and Slavery: Isaac Cardozo and Lydia Weston|website=Jewish Book Council|accessdate=Jan 4, 2021}}</ref> He was the eldest sibling and had two sisters, Lydia and Eslander. His younger brothers, Francis Lewis Cardozo and Thomas W. Cardozo, were educators and also became politicians during the Reconstruction era. Their father, Isaac Cardozo, died in 1855. Henry was working as a shoemaker by age 14. He also worked as a carpenter and shipbuilder.<ref name="Simmons1887">Simmons, William J. (1887) ''Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising.'' Cleveland, Ohio: George M. Rewell & Co. pp. 428-431 {{ISBN|1468096818}}</ref> He apprenticed with a manufacturer of threshing machines.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

In 1855, he married Catherine F. McKinney in Charleston, South Carolina. 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 aboard the steamship ''Nashville'' on the way to New York.<ref>The Charleston Daily Courier. Charleston, South Carolina. June 28, 1858. p. 4</ref> According to the 1860 census, his mother and sisters were living together in Cleveland, Ohio, and Henry worked as a tailor in that city while living with his wife and their sons Isaac (age 4) and William (age 1).

==Career== After the American Civil War ended in 1865, he moved back to South Carolina. He served as County Auditor of Charleston County and was elected to the state senate from Kershaw County, and assumed office on November 22, 1870. He also became a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church<ref name=Post/> and was later pastor of the Old Bethel United Methodist Church. He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and died on February 21, 1886.<ref>{{cite news |title=Macon Weekly Telegraph Archives, Mar 2, 1886, p. 13 |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/macon-weekly-telegraph-mar-02-1886-p-13/ |accessdate=31 May 2020 |work=NewspaperArchive.com |date=2 March 1886 |language=en}}</ref>

He is buried in Randolph Cemetery with eight other Reconstruction era legislators.<ref name="Randolph">{{cite book|title=National register of Historic Places - Randolph Cemetery|publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior|date=December 12, 1994 |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/366494ba-e325-41ba-ab71-846b854c69f2 |accessdate=31 May 2020}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{succession box | title = Chairman of the Kershaw County Republican Party | before = Unknown | after = Unknown | years = 1868–1869}} {{s-off}} {{s-par|us-sc-sen}} {{s-bef|before=Justus K. Jillson}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of the {{nowrap|South Carolina Senate}} from Kershaw County |years=1870-1874}} {{s-aft|after=Frank Carter}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardozo, Henry}} Category:1830 births Category:1886 deaths Category:Republican Party South Carolina state senators Category:African-American politicians of the Reconstruction era Category:African-American state legislators in South Carolina Category:American people of Portuguese-Jewish descent Category:County auditors in the United States Category:State political party chairs of South Carolina Category:Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church Category:Politicians from Charleston, South Carolina Category:American people of Portuguese descent Category:19th-century members of the South Carolina General Assembly