 |
I. N. Cardozo's gravestone
Photo courtesy of author
|
Isaac Nunez Cardozo (b. August 8, 1856; d. April 3, 1898)
South Carolina. Born free. Mulatto.
Occupation: teacher.
Father's occupation: tailor, county auditor, pastor.
I. N. Cardozo (also spelled Cardoza in some sources) was born in 1856 in South Carolina to Henry and Catherine F. Cardozo. Henry was the son of a member of a wealthy Jewish family and a free women of color. Henry's brother was Francis L. Cardozo, the Secretary of State of South Carolina and a member of the state university Board of Trustees during Reconstruction.
The father Henry moved the family to Cleveland, Ohio in 1858 to "escape the oppressive laws of South Carolina." In 1860, he was working as a tailor. He brought the family back to South Carolina after the end of the Civil War, in 1868. Henry worked for the state Republican Reconstruction government, serving as an agent of the state land commission, as country auditor (for Kershaw Country from 1868-70), and as state senator (also for Kershaw Country from 1870-74).
The record of Isaac's education is confused. Oberlin College records state that he attended their college preparatory program alongside
Christopher C. McKinney from 1871-73. However, the records of Wesleyan Academy (in Wilbraham, Massachusetts) list him as attending their academy during the 1872-73 academic year. That year Cardozo's future UofSC classmate William Shrewsbury was also attending the academy.
On October 5, 1874, Isaac registered as a student at the University of South Carolina. He did not complete a degree at the university, although it is unclear when he left. He is listed in the January 1876 university catalogue, but Wesleyan University records indicate that he attended Wesleyan from 1875-77. Wesleyan records also state that Isaac attended Amherst College at some point, but the present author has been unable to confirm this in Amherst's records.
After Reconstruction, Isaac moved out west. By fall 1879, he was living in Topeka, Kansas and teaching at a public school. Newspapers reported positively on Isaac's employment, describing him as "a young man of good abilities."
Isaac moved further west in 1880. He joined his father in California. Henry had moved to Los Angeles to work at a Methodist mission. The two returned to Ohio the next year (in 1881). They settled in Cincinnati, and Isaac found work as a school teacher.
Isaac and his father returned to South Carolina in 1882. For a period of time, he served as president of the Haven Normal School. By the mid-1880s, Isaac had settled in the town of Orangeburg and become involved with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He began serving as a church pastor in spring 1885. He also continued his college education at Claflin University. In 1886, he was awarded an A.B. degree from the university.
Isaac was hired by Claflin after he completed his degree from the university. He was hired as a professor of historical theology. He later served as Instructor of English Bible Studies and University Chaplin. In summer 1887, Isaac participated in the state Colored Teachers' Institute. That year the institute was held in Orangeburg. Isaac helped organize the institute alongside his former classmates J. E. Wallace and Alonzo G. Townsend. Townsend was also faculty at Claflin at the time.
Isaac was active in local politics around Orangeburg. In April 1887, he was one of five African Americans that signed a petition presented to city counsel. The petition concerned the need for burial grounds for African Americans, and it was signed by representatives of the major churches (the M.E. Church, the 1st Congressional Church, the AME Church, and the Baptist Church). The petitioners explained that no space was available on the grounds that had traditionally been used for burials. The petitioners had been searching for a suitable new location but were hindered by a lack of funds. They asked city counsel for assistance (presumably by providing financial support). City counsel responded by notifying the petitioners that they would render assistance once the petitioners had designated a suitable location. Two years later (in April 1889), and presumably as an outgrowth of the petition, a "colored cemetery," the Orangeburg Cemetery, was founded.
Isaac's employment at Claflin came to a controversial end in 1890. On March 2, Isaac got into an argument with another professor, William J. DeTreville, at a faculty meeting. The next day, upon coming across Isaac on campus, DeTreville assaulted him with his cane, leaving Isaac seriously injured. Isaac's account of the incident, which was published in the newspaper, was as follows:
At the faculty meeting on Monday morning Prof. Detreville saw fit to remark that he was opposed to all revivals of religion in the institution. I at once remarked that his statement confirmed that which came to my ears by numberless Christian students and candidates for the ministry. I said that these charges had been coming to me as pastor of the college church for the past three or four years. I might here state that one of the greatest revivals the institute has ever enjoyed had just closed with the happy result of 63 conversations and 109 accessions to the college church. All this spiritual prosperity seemed to gave nettled the Professor very much, and he made efforts from time to time to nullify its effects as much as possible.
On Tuesday morning, as I began to descend the lower steps of the main college building, Prof. Detreville hastened down to me (having, as I afterward learned, been on a fruitless search for me the night before) and without the slightest warning, while still standing on the steps above me, dealt about three very severe blows upon my head with a large, knotted hickory stick. This stick at its large end was fully the size of a policeman's club, and catching hold of the smaller end with both hands he struck with all his force, shattering the bark from the stick in all directions. We fell to the ground together, and then he arose, got hold of the stick and in rapid succession he first felled me half way to the ground, then completely and finally while prostrate, he health about three more murderous blows upon my are skull and quickly hastened off the grounds.
No account directly from DeTreville is available, but a contemporary account in the The Times and Democrat newspaper provides a sympathetic perspective. The newspaper's account is broadly consistent with Isaac's, but it adds that DeTreville denied that he was opposed to revivals and said that he only objected because they were interfering with scheduled classes. Isaac responded by saying he didn't believe that statement. DeTreville understood this to mean that Isaac was questioning his truthfulness, and he took great offense.
This incident held more than personal significance because it occurred at a time of campus tension. Race relations had been worsening over the course of the 1880s. In particular, White politicians enacted voter suppression measures such as the Eight Box Law which greatly reduced the power of African American voters. These changes had a direct impact on Claflin as the state legislature reduced, and threatened to eliminate, financial support for the university, for example.
While the dispute between Isaac and DeTreville concerned religious activities on campus and not racial matters, it had a major racial undercurrent as DeTreville was a White South Carolinian who had worked for the Confederate government. Newspapers presented the incident as indicative of problems with race relations. For example, Pittsburgh Dispatch opined that the incident showed that "[t]he races do not seem to mix well." The Watchman and Southron, a newspaper in South Carolina, went further and presented the incident as the expected outcome of maintaining a racially mixed faculty:
It is not to be expected that a fusion faculty composed of heterogeneous elements, naturally antagonistic, could get along peaceably. When native white men, calling themselves gentlemen, accept positions where they are brought into daily contact with colored people, on a footing of perfect equality, they must make up their minds to put up with insolence and other unpleasant announces. We have always been opposed to the mixed faculty of Claflin
The White-run Orangeburg newspaper The Times and Democrat described the incident as "simply and purely a personal matter" but also described it in racialized terms. For example, the newspaper dismissed the behavior of Isaac and a supportive colleague, Alonzo G. Townsend, reporting that "[they] are mulattoes and are very bitter and aggressive towards the whites." The newspaper approved of DeTreville's actions, stating that Isaac "got what he deserved."
Claflin president L. M. Dunton, a White man from New York state, was presented with the difficult task of handling the matter. He learned of Isaac's assault shortly after it occurred, and he initially reacted by asking DeTreville not to return to campus for a few days. The morning after the assault, a committee consisting of the Orangeburg's (White) mayor and two (White) state congressmen visited the president and informed him that DeTreville was "willing and intended to" return to teaching. Seemingly as a way of obliquely asking the president to suppress any campus protests that might occur, the mayor further told the president that he had "always boasted of the excellent and uniformly gentlemanly conduct of Claflin's students as a body, but that should they make any demonstrations he would have to consider it a breech of the peace and act accordingly."
The mayor's concerns were not unfounded as Claflin students were greatly upset by Isaac's assault. The Pittsburgh Dispatch reported that the university was "in a state of open rebellion." Accounts of exactly how Claflin students expressed their angry differ in significant ways. The Times and Democrat reported that the students in DeTreville's classes threatened to leave the university if forced to attended courses taught by him. Other South Carolina newspapers like the Pickens Sentinel reported that students reacted more violently. According to the Sentinel, upon learning of the assault, hundreds of Claflin students organized for the purpose of lynching DeTreville. The Sentinel reported that White citizens reacted by organizing a group to oppose the students, and it appeared that a race riot would break out, but before this happened, President Denton restored calm by sending students back to campus and suspending university exercises. The Nashville Banner provided a milder version of the account presented by the Sentinel. The Banner also reported that students organized in protest, but rather than planning to lynch DeTreville, the students simply marched to the train station and demanded that DeTreville leave on the morning train.
Within a week or two of the incident, Isaac and his colleague (and former UofSC classmate) Alonzo G. Townsend submitted letters of resignation from Claflin. Their resignations were reported by the news, and public attention soon focused on how President Dunton dealt with DeTreville. Dunton made few public statements about the matter, but privately, he told Claflin trustees that he felt DeTreville's behavior constituted "grave misconduct."
Dunton and the trustees decided that both Isaac and DeTreville needed to resign, but securing DeTreville's resignation proved challenging. DeTreville first agreed to resign, but then withdrew his resignation after reading a news report that students had said they would refuse to attend his classes if he was retained as faculty.
The trustees responded to DeTreville's decision to withdraw his resignation by addressing the student behavior. On April 16, the university trustees passed a resolution requiring students to return to DeTreville's classes upon threat of expulsion. The resolution did not directly address DeTreville's behavior, but it did refer the matter to a three-person committee charged with recommending a course of action.
In early May, the three-person committee issued their report. The report did not address the incident between DeTreville and Isaac. Instead, it contained a statement by the Claflin math students stating that they were loyal to university authorities and would continue to attend their classes. However, at the same meeting the trustees accepted Isaac and DeTreville's resignations. (No mention was made of Townsend's resignation, but it appears that it was not accepted, and he continued to work at Claflin.) Their decision was affirmed by the Methodist Episcopal Church later that month when the church issued a public report that called DeTreville's actions a "brutal outrage" and recommended that he be relieved of his professorship or tried in court as a criminal.
The Yorkville Enquirer reported that, after resigning, DeTreville made plans to move to Houston, Texas and work in the cotton business. However, later records state that he moved to North Carolina and then returned to South Carolina, living in Columbia, during the late 1890s.
Isaac remained in Orangeburg and worked as a methodist pastor. In 1896, Claflin's neighbor the Colored State College (now South Carolina State University) opened, and Isaac was hired. At State College, he worked alongside his former classmates
J. C. Whittaker and J. E. Wallace. Isaac taught mental and moral science as well as pedagogics at State College. In 1897, Isaac and another State College faculty member objected to a proposed university resolution to celebrate Robert E. Lee's birthday (a state holiday).
During this time, Isaac continued his involvement with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was ordained as an elder in 1889. Isaac died in 1898 in Chester, SC, where he was working as a pastor. He is buried in
Randolph Cemetery in Columbia, SC.
Sources:
1).
Alumni Record of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn (1883).
2). Methodist Episcopal Church.
Minutes of the annual conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Volumes 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, G. Lane & C.B. Tippett for the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1773-1940.
3). 1860; Census Place: Cleveland Ward 4, Cuyahoga, Ohio; Page: 434
4). 1870; Census Place: De Kalb, Kershaw, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1499; Page: 174B
5). 1880; Census Place: Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio; Roll: 1027; Page: 505B
6).
Seventy-Fifth Anniversary General Catalogue of Oberlin College, 1833-1908. Oberlin, Ohio. 1909.
7).
Supplement to the Alumni Record of Wesleyan University, Sixth Edition, December, 1903. Middlesex County Printery. 1903.
8). Hine, William C.
South Carolina State University: A Black Land-Grant College in Jim Crow America. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2018.
9).
Catalogue of Claflin College of Agriculture and Mechanics Institue, Orangeburg, S. C: 1889-1890. Walker, Evans & Cogswell Co., Printers. Charleston, S. C. 1890.
10). "In Counties Adjoining."
The Yorkville Enquirer, April 9, 1898. p. 4.
11) "Educational Notes." The Daily Commonwealth [Topeka, Kansas]. November 11, 1879. p. 4.
12) The Times and Democrat [Orangeburg, SC]. February 2, 1887. p. 8.
13) "The colored teacher's institute." The Times and Democrat [Orangeburg, SC]. August 31, 1887. p. 8.
14) "An insult and a cane." The Times and Democrat [Orangeburg, SC]. March 5, 1890. p. 8.
15) The Manning times. [Manning, SC], March 5, 1890, p. 2.
16) "A colored chaplain cowhided." Evening star [Washington DC]. March 5, 1890, p. 7.
17) "A row in a nergo college." The morning news [Savannah, GA], March 5, 1890, P. 1.
17) "A College Row." Nashville Banner [Nashville, TN]. March 5, 1890. p. 4.
18) "Why the professor got mad." Clarksville evening tobacco leaf-chronicle [Clarksville, TN]. March 6, 1890, p. 1.
19) "Why he caned him." The daily state chronicle [Raleigh, NC], March 6, 1890, p. 1.
20) "Cowhided the college chaplain." The news and observe [Raleigh, NC], March 6, 1890, p. 1.
21) "Race war at Claflin University." The Appeal [Saint Paul, MN], March 8, 1890, p. 1.
22) "Two college rows." Pittsburgh Dispatch [Pittsburg, PA]. March 8, 1890. p. 1.
23) "The students are leaving." Pittsburg dispatch [Pittsburg , PA], March 9, 1890, p. 1.
24) "Big college in trouble." Wheeling register [Wheeling, WV], March 10, 1890, p. 1.
25) "The trouble at Claflin." The Times and Democrat [Orangeburg, SC]. March 12, 1890. p. 8.
26) "A caning at Claflin" The Fairfield news and herald [Fairfield, SC]. March 12, 1890, p. 1.
27) "A row at Claflin." Yorkville enquirer [Yorkville, SC]. March 12, 1890, p. 2.
28) "Trouble at Claflin." The watchman and southron [Sumter, SC], March 12, 1890, p. 2
29) "A caning at Claflin." The Pickens sentinel. [Pickens, SC], March 13, 1890, p. 1.
30) Keowee courier [Pickens, SC], March 13, 1890, p. 3.
31) The watchman and southron. [Sumter, SC], March 19, 1890, p. 2.
32) "The race war." The Butler weekly times [Butler, MO]., March 19, 1890, p. 2.
33) "Multum in parvo." The Appeal [Saint Paul, MN]. March 22, 1890. p. 1.
34) "A brutal outrage." Pittsburg dispatch [Pittsburg, PA], April 13, 1890, p. 6.
35) "The fight at Claflin." The Newberry herald and news [Newberry, SC]. April 17, 1890, p. 2.
36) Yorkville enquirer [Yorkville, SC], April 23, 1890, p. 2.
37) "The Claflin Rebellion" The Newberry herald and news [Newberry, SC]., April 24, 1890, p. 1.
38) Yorkville enquirer [Yorkville, SC], May 07, 1890, p. 3.
39) Huntsville gazette [Huntsville, AL], May 24, 1890, p. 2.
40) Yorkville enquirer. [Yorkville, SC], June 18, 1890, p. 2.
41) "Professorship in Claflin." The Newberry herald and news [Newberry, SC]., November 20, 1890, p. 2.
42) "Death of Mr. De Treville." The State [Columbia, SC]. September 12, 1897. p. 12.
1885: admitted to triaal
1886: remained on trial . appointed to Oraneburg
1886: admitted to full connection. traveling deacon of the first class. Dad died
1887: Orangeburg
1888: Orangeburg, traveling deacon of the second class
1889: elected and ordained elder, professor at Claflin
1889: Chaplin at Claflin
