William Aiken Jr.

William Aiken Jr. (January 28, 1806 – September 6, 1887) was an American statesman, planter, and Southern Unionist who served as the 61st governor of South Carolina from 1844 to 1846. He also served in the state legislature and the United States House of Representatives, running unsuccessfully for speaker of the House in 1856 in "the longest and most contentious Speaker election in House history."

Early life

Aiken was the child of William Aiken Sr., the first president of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company, and Henrietta Wyatt. Unfortunately, William Sr. was killed in a Charleston carriage accident and never saw his namesake town of Aiken, South Carolina. Aiken graduated from the College of South Carolina (now the University of South Carolina) at Columbia in 1825 and engaged in agriculture as a planter, entering politics in 1837. He was a member of the State House of Representatives 1838–1842, and served in the State Senate 1842–1844. His term as governor ran from 1844 to 1846.

Personal life

In 1831, Aiken married Harriet Lowndes Aiken, the daughter of Rep. Thomas Lowndes and the granddaughter of Gov. Rawlins Lowndes. Together, they had a daughter, Henrietta Aiken Rhett (1836–1918).

In 1862, Henrietta Aiken married Confederate Major Andrew Burnet Rhett, the son of Robert Barnwell Rhett, a prominent " Fire-Eater".

Following the Dred Scott decision, Aiken began traveling to more temperate Northern locations in the summer with some of his slaves, and became an early patron of the University of Minnesota, loaning it some $28,000 (approximately $750,000 in 2016 terms).

Throughout the American Civil War he was a loyal Unionist, though he never took up arms against the Southern Confederacy and his friends were nearly all Secessionists.

He was a successful businessman and planter and lived in Charleston, South Carolina. Aiken's first cousin, D. Wyatt Aiken served as a Confederate States Army officer and five-term U.S. Congressman. Aiken died at Flat Rock, NC, September 6, 1887, and was interred in Magnolia Cemetery at Charleston, South Carolina. His house, the Aiken-Rhett House, is part of the Historic Charleston foundation

Congressional service

Subsequent to his service as governor, Aiken served in the U. S. House of Representatives for the Thirty-second Congress, and he was returned to the Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Congresses, from March 4, 1851, to March 3, 1857. In December 1855, Aiken was a leading candidate for Speaker of the House of Representatives. After two months and 133 ballots, Aiken lost the race to Nathaniel P. Banks by a vote of 103 to 100, in what has been termed "the longest and most contentious Speaker election in House history". In 1866 he was elected to represent his district in the Fortieth Congress, while the state was under a provisional governor, and he was not seated.

Jehossee Island, slavery, and wealth

Aiken was one of the state's wealthiest citizens and a slave owner. He inherited and grew one of the largest rice plantations in the state—Jehossee Island—with over 700 enslaved on 1,500 acres under cultivation, almost twice the acreage of the next largest plantation. By 1860, Aiken owned the entire Jehossee Island, and the plantation produced 1.5 million pounds of rice in addition to sweet potatoes and corn.

After the American Civil War, the Jehossee Plantation regained its preeminence, producing 1.2 million pounds of rice. Descendants of the Aiken family, the Maybanks, still own part of the island, having sold the remainder in 1992 to the U.S. as part of the ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge.

After end of the American Civil War and emancipation, Aiken quickly adapted to paid labor and even increased his business after the war. He paid his formerly enslaved workers every Saturday after the war, unlike many Southern landowners who used sharecropping or debt peonage to keep freedmen trapped in near-slavery.

A formerly enslaved man named Elijah Green said in a 1930s interview: “Mr. Ryan had a private jail on Queen Street near the Planters’ Hotel. He was very cruel… He was the opposite to Governor Aiken who live on the northwest corner of Elizabeth and Judith streets.”

Aiken also claimed that after the war, some demoralized protectors of the Freedmen's Bureau in Beaufort sent a gunboat to his country home on Jehossee Island and looted it of all its remaining furniture and treasures. Aiken's northern interviewer wrote that “the governor's favorite sideboard stands in the house of a citizen of Boston, as a relic of the war.” Aiken also claimed, “that he had lost nearly all his property in the war (some seven or eight million dollars) but if he saved enough for his support he should not mourn the loss.”

Unionist sentiments

In 1830, at the age of 24, Aiken attended a nullification dinner, where many of his peers offered toasts in support of the idea of South Carolinian independence. Thirty-one years before the outbreak of the American Civil War, Aiken stood and spoke: “The Union—Let not the hasty and ill-timed resistance on the part of the South sever forever the golden links with which we are so beautifully united."

In an 1865 interview, Aiken said, "No, I have never cast my lot with them (the secessionists). I told them they were wrong from the first. I gave a toast for the Union at a nullification supper in 1830, and offended all my young associates, and since the rebellion commenced I have not been to Richmond or Montgomery, and have declined office from Mr. Davis (President of the Confederacy) for myself and friends. When Mr. Davis was my guest recently in Charleston, I defended the Union, and scouted the absurd doctrine of secession in a conversation with him. Since the war began I have never said nor done a thing of which my conscience accuses me as an act of disloyalty to the nation."

Aiken continued, "These have been four dreadful years," ,"but I told the rebels from the beginning what the end would be. I have been disappointed in only one respect—I told them I would give them two years to be conquered in, and it has taken four. They have fought desperately; every boy partook of the fanaticism and went into the fight, and the woman cheered them on and gave their jewels and treasures to the cause. You of the North know nothing of the war in this respect. Every family in the South is bereaved, and I told them it would be so."

Renaming of Aiken Fellows Society

In October 2020, College of Charleston President Andrew Hsu announced the removal of Aiken’s name from the Honors College’s top scholars program, renaming the "Aiken Fellows Society" to the "Charleston Fellows." This decision was made alongside the removal of Bishop Robert Smith, the college’s first president, as the namesake for one of the college's graduating student awards and donor society. Hsu wrote, "These actions, along with the forthcoming documentary, are just some of the many efforts underway to address diversity, equity and inclusion on campus. As Vice President of Inclusion and Access and Chief Diversity Officer Rénard Harris stated earlier this semester, this is a Year of Action." Harris told the ''City Paper'' he was “excited” to see the school moving away from using Aiken and Smith’s names. In March 2025, the College of Charleston announced that the Office of Institutional Diversity will be dissolved and its functions integrated into other areas of campus.

References

Attribution
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External links

SCIway Biography of William Aiken Jr.NGA Biography of William Aiken Jr.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aiken, William
1806 births
1887 deaths
19th-century American planters
Burials at Magnolia Cemetery (Charleston, South Carolina)
Democratic Party South Carolina state senators
Democratic Party governors of South Carolina
Democratic Party members of the South Carolina House of Representatives
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina
Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves
Politicians from Charleston, South Carolina
Southern Unionists in the American Civil War
University of South Carolina alumni
University of South Carolina trustees
19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives
19th-century members of the South Carolina General Assembly