The students of the Radical University: William Shrewsbury

William H. Shrewsbury (b. 1858)
South Carolina.  Mulatto.
Occupation: butcher, hack stable.
Father's occupation: butcher.

William Shrewsbury was born to George Shrewsbury and an unknown mother.  William's parents were free persons of color, and he was raised in Charleston.  William's father George was a butcher. George had reportedly grown up poor, but by the time William was born, George numbered among the 15 wealthiest free blacks in Charleston.  In 1860, he owned 12 slaves and possessed real estate worth $5000 (roughly the equivalent of $150,000 in 2020).

The father George played a role in Charleston city politics.  He was appointed commissioner of the City Alms House under the Democratic mayor John Wagener (1871-72), unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in 1872, and was elected city alderman on the slate of the Republican mayoral candidate George Cunningham (1873-74).  George was well-regarded by the whites of South Carolina.  One newspaper described him as someone who "belonged to a colored class in Charleston who have long been equally distinguished by their high order of respectability, and their perfect devotion to their native State and City....  Their relations to their white fellow-citizens were of the kindest long before the war, and were not only not disturbed, but indeed, confirmed and strengthened by that struggle."

The son William left South Carolina in Fall 1872 to attend Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, entering as a second year student.  The academy was originally founded by the  Methodist Episcopal Church for the purpose of educating clergy.  Future UofSC professor E. B. Otheman had graduated from the academy in the 1840s, and his father Edward Otheman sat on the Board of Trustees during the 1870s.

By the time William entered, Wesleyan Academy offered a general education program (similar to a modern high school) and was nondenominational, although the school remained closely affiliated with Methodism.  Enrollment typically stood at around 500 students.

Wesleyan Academy records list future U of SC student I. N. Cardozo as also attending 1872-73.  However, it is unclear if Cardozo actually attended as he is also recorded as being an Oberlin student at this time.  William attended Wesleyan until Fall 1874, when he left to return to South Carolina and attend the University of South Carolina.

William registered at the University of South Carolina on October 5, 1874.  William's father George died the year after William entered school, on March 7, 1875.   William had left the university by January 1876.

After leaving the university, William returned to Wesleyan Academy, reentering in the 1876-77 academic year.  Wesleyan records are incomplete, so it is unclear when he left and whether he received a degree.

By 1879, William had returned to Charleston and was working as a "dealer in wood." The next year he was working as a butcher, his father's trade, but starting around 1883, he began running a hack stable, offering carriages and wagons for hire.  William last appears in the historical record in the 1884 Charleston City Directory.

Sources
1). Powers, Bernard E.  Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885.  University of Arkansas Press.  1994.

2). 1860; Census Place: Charleston Ward 8, Charleston, South Carolina; Page: 492

3). 1870; Census Place: Charleston Ward 6, Charleston, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1487; Page: 544A

4). Charleston, South Carolina, Marriage Records South Carolina Department of Archives and History, April 2, 1879, Columbia, South Carolina.

5). 1880; Census Place: Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina; Roll: 1222; Page: 355D

6). Charleston, South Carolina, City Directory, 1884

7). Charleston, South Carolina, City Directory, 1883

8). "George Shrewsbury."  The free citizen, March 13, 1875, p. 4.

9). Annual catalogue of the Wesleyan Academy; Wilbraham, Mass., 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876.