Benjamin Antony Boseman Jr. (July 30, 1840 – February 23, 1881), sometimes misspelled Bozeman, was an African-American physician and state legislator. He was born in Troy, New York, son of Benjamin and Annaretta Boseman, the oldest of five children.[1] In the 1860 U.S. Census he is described as mulatto. His father was a steward on a steamboat, and then sutler.[1]
At the end of the war he opened a medical practice in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1869 he was appointed physician to the Charleston City Jail.[1] He married Virginia Montgomery[1] and they had two children.[4] Another source says that he had a son Christopher and a daughter Ana, and that Virginia was mulatto.[5]: 348
In 1869, the South Carolina Legislature, beginning the misspelling of his name as "Bozeman", appointed him and Francis L. Cardozo trustees of South Carolina College, predecessor of the University of South Carolina.[8] He was also appointed to the Board of Regents of the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum.[1]
In 1872, he was nominated for Comptroller General of South Carolina, but he declined the nomination.[9][5]: 351
In 1873, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Boseman the first Black postmaster of Charleston.[10] His salary was $4,000 (equivalent to $101,733 in 2023). He invested in railroad and phosphate mining.[11] Boseman served as postmaster until his death in 1881, at the age of 40 (not 41).[12]
^Parks, Marlene K. (2017). New York Central College, 1849–1860. 2 volumes. Vol. I, part 2, alphabetically. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN978-1548505752. OCLC1035557718.
^ abHine, William C. (1982). "Dr. Benjamin A. Boseman Jr.: Charleston's Black Physician–Politician". In Rabinowitz, Howard N. (ed.). Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Period. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. pp. 335–362. ISBN0252009290.