A Brief Moment in the Sun: Francis Cardozo and Reconstruction in South Carolina

Abstract

Neil Kinghan offers an intriguing biography of Francis Cardozo, the first African American to hold statewide office after the Civil War. As secretary of state, and later treasurer of South Carolina, Kinghan reevaluates Cardozo’s historical significance as an instrumental figure in the postwar reconstruction of the state. The primary aim of this book is to “give [Cardozo] the recognition he deserves and restore his place in African American history of the nineteenth century.” In so doing, Kinghan addresses the “still inadequate recognition of the achievements of the period and almost none of the contribution of Francis Cardozo.” The author uses Cardozo’s achievements as minister, educator, and politician to critique the understanding – popularized after Redemption – of Reconstruction as a “tragic era.” Far from a period of failure, he emphasizes Cardozo’s tangible contributions to the enduring successes that African Americans could carry forward after Reconstruction’s demise, and into Jim Crow.