Born a slave in Alabama, he was freed in 1853 in the will of his white master and father, and moved to the free state of Ohio.

During the American Civil War, Atwood moved to the northwest, settling in East Saginaw, Michigan in 1863.

William Quincy Atwood was born a slave January 1, 1839 on the Shell Creek plantation in Wilcox County, Alabama near Prairie Bluff.

As a result, William and twenty-one other persons went north, settling in Ripley, Ohio, where he attended a colored school.

The ongoing American Civil War (1861-1865) made life difficult for a young African-American man who was not a soldier.

He marketed his lumber widely, selling wood in Toledo, Cleveland, Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, and elsewhere.

[1] Atwood may have played a role in preventing Saginaw African Americans from joining the Knights of Labor, especially in 1885 when lumber workers in the area struck.

With the support of the league, Atwood campaigned for presidential candidate Benjamin Harrison and served as a Michigan delegate-at-large at the 1888 Republican National Convention in Chicago.

The next year, the league put Atwood's name forward for the post of Washington, DC Recorder of Deeds.

[8] In 1890, Atwood was again a delegate at a national convention of colored men meeting, this time, in Washington, DC[9] and in 1895 in Detroit, Michigan.