Robert Woodward Barnwell

Robert Woodward Barnwell (August 10, 1801 – November 5, 1882) was an American slave owner, planter, lawyer, and educator from South Carolina who served as a Senator in both the United States Senate and that of the Confederate States of America. Barnwell was a public defender of slavery and secession; he personally owned at least 128 enslaved persons. Biography He was born in Beaufort, South Carolina on August 10, 1801 into a prosperous and influential family. His father Robert Barnwell had served in the Continental Congress and the U.S. Congress. He was also the great uncle of one of the most influential fire-eaters, Robert Barnwell Rhett. This Robert woodward Barnwell began his advanced education at Beaufort College, then graduated from Harvard. He returned home to manage the family plantation. Robert Woodward's political career began in 1826 when he served in the South Carolina state House of Representatives for Beaufort County. He held that office until 1828, when he was elected to the U.S. Congress. He served as a congressman from 1829 until 1833. Barnwell supported nullification and feared that Andrew Jackson was "bent on enforcing his mandate at the point of a bayonet." (He declined to run again in 1832.) From 1833 to 1841 he was head of the South Carolina College, now known as the University of South Carolina, in Columbia. Barnwell was appointed to the United States Senate after the death of Franklin H. Elmore on May 29, 1850. He served only from June until December, when after a special election Robert Barnwell Rhett replaced him. During this period the tenuous balance between the northern and southern Senators required such short-term appointments. His one distinction in the Senate involved the admission of California as a state. He opposed statehood in vain, but then had the good grace to introduce and present the credentials for one of her new senators, John C. Frémont.