He made an important contribution to African society, law and history, through his work in the government and public schools. His reputation was stained with his 1877 corruption trial, but he still strived to help the Reconstruction in the South and the South Carolina state.

• Born on February 1, 1837 in South Carolina
• Born a free man of color; his father was a Jewish journalist and mother was half black and half Native American
• Graduated from University of Glasgow, Scotland, 1861, Then spent three years in Presbyterian seminaries in London and Edinburgh
• Became pastor of Temple Street Congregational Church in New Haven, Connecticut in 1864
• Returned to South Carolina in 1865
• Becomes head of an American Missionary Association school after Thomas Cardozo's affairs; stays as principal until 1868; Helps lay foundations for the Avery Institute: a successful teacher training institute.
• Elected to state constitutional convention held in Charleston in 1868; resigns as principal of Avery Institute.
• Elected Secretary of State, 1868; he becomes the first black state official in the history of South Carolina
• Re-elected as Secretary of State in 1870
• Elected as state treasurer in 1872; he had many policies to restore the state's credit, adjust outstanding debts, reducing rate of taxation, etc.
• Attacked by newspaper after revealing that the state debt was $16 million, and over $7 million was contracted by the democratic government before the Reconstruction; it soon became evident that all of Cardozo's books were in order, and policies were good and honest for the state
• Violent democratic campaign brings and end to Republican rule in state in 1876; legislature convicts Cardozo of "irregularities"; convicted of stealing state funds in an unfair and predetermined trial; Governor Wade Hampton is forced to pardon Cardozo
• Becomes principal of Colored Preparatory High School from 1884 to 1896; the school is renamed to the M Street High School in 1891, then became known as Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
• Died July 22, 1903
• Important things he did and contributions to South Carolina during Reconstruction: the state constitution he worked on lasted until 1895; the parts he was most associated with - free schools, the system of taxation, terms and elections of public officials, and the system of county government - were maintained for longer.