Homicide
In 1827, a slave named Ambrose escaped from his owner Berryman Burger. Like most runaways, Ambrose did not make the dangerous trek north but remained in the area, a practice called ‘lying out.’ In most cases, such slaves kept a low profile, living off the land or from scraps gleaned from friends and compatriots in the quarter. Ambrose, however, took a different path, waging guerrilla war against slavery and local slaveholders. Over the course of more than a year he broke into barns, slaughtered hogs and poultry, pillaged smokehouses, burned outbuildings, destroyed cotton, and generally behaved like a local Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and returning to his fellow slaves. Within months, Ambrose had induced other runaways to join him, and he was regarded by local planters as a “desperate character ... capable of any act of villainy” who should be killed on sight.
Early in the morning of September 24, 1828, a local white man, Kirkland Harmon, surprised Ambrose in his camp and gunned him down as he rose. Ambrose winced as the buckshot “enter[ed] his back loins & hips,” and he bled out on the ground. His one-man rebellion was effectively over. Without the coroner’s inquest convened over his body, however, we would know nothing of his rebellion; the record of his death is the only record we have of his life. How many Ambroses were there? It is hard to know. To its credit, Ambrose’s band picked up his mantle and continued to operate in the area as a plague to local planters.
I was not surprised to learn that such local resistance was quashed and that slaves like Ambrose were routinely murdered. I was surprised to learn how often the coroner responded. In her WPA interview, the former slave Mittie Freeman remembered the coroner as “that fellow that comes running fast when somebody gets killed,” and the coroner is mentioned in quite a few of the most famous slave narratives, including those by Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown. The coroner was often the only magistrate mentioned because he was the only ‘outside’ law the slaves ever saw. We will never know precisely how many enslavers murdered their slaves and effortlessly covered it up. But in cases where the murderer was someone other than the enslaver, or where the enslaver failed to cover it up, there usually was an investigation, at the very least because property had been destroyed, and someone expected compensation.
Reflecting on the South he was forced to flee because of his Unionism, John Aughey noted: “Of course the laws which exist in every state against the murder or torturing of slaves are about as well observed as might be laws enacted by wolves against sheep-murder.” But in the coroners’ inquest there was actually a subtle game of community standards going on. Standing over the body of a slave and surveying the grim damage, a coroner’s jury was often perfectly comfortable recommending that a white be indicted. And at coroner’s inquests slaves were allowed to testify. The actual jury nullification came later, in the courtroom, when the mangled body was not actually present and the murderer was let off. But by then he had been held up to public scrutiny; his judgment and decency had been questioned publicly and legally. It is less than justice, but it is not nothing, a fact which slaves themselves recognized. When the coroner came a-runnin’, many slaves thought he might bring justice with him from some far off, saner place. And in his own Narrative, Frederick Douglass tells the story of an unnamed slave girl whose mistress “pounded in her skull” with a piece of firewood because she allowed a baby to cry uncontrollably and wake the household. “I will not say that this murder most foul produced no sensation. It did produce a sensation. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Mrs. Hicks, but incredible to tell, for some reason or other, that warrant was never served, and she not only escaped condign punishment, but the pain and mortification as well of being arraigned before a court of justice.” It is hard to believe that for all he’d seen of the institution of slavery, Douglass still thought it capable of any justice at all.
What does not make it into many of the slave narratives, including Douglass’s, is the violence that existed within the slave community. Enslavement does not magically transform all who endure it into savvy, self-sustaining freedom-fighters. If we are going to grant the enslaved their full humanity we must grant that, like any other group of people, they occasionally fought, fornicated, and got into petty disputes that sometimes took a murderous turn. To be sure, as historian Steven Hahn has noted, the slave quarter produced one of the most radical and transformative politics ever seen in America, a politics that produced Nat Turner and Frederick Douglass and finally brought down a $3.5 billion dollar interest. But in coroners reports we get a glimpse of the violence that existed within the slave community that we knew had to be there. Thus did the enslaved of the Haile plantation turn their children over to Tamer, the enslaved nurse, on their way out to the fields, little knowing that she liked to punish the children by tying them too close to a fire, a practice that was only discovered when she finally cooked one of them to death. Or take the case of an enslaved man named Dick who became so jealous that he pulled a log from a fire and murdered the man who was staying in the cabin of a woman he wanted to sleep with.
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Today, the typical homicide in the United States involves one man shooting another, and this is equally true in the CSI:Dixie database. Comparatively speaking, the CSI:D sample has a higher percentage of male victims and a lower percentage of gun use. Today firearms are used in 68% of American homicides; in the CSI:D sample guns are used 52% of the time. Today 77% of homicide victims are male; in the CSI:D sample 88% are male (and virtually all of the perpetrators are men). Put bluntly, in the nineteenth century south, violent death was a more exclusively male province, and Death had more faces.
Interestingly, though, in the CSI:D database virtually none of the gun-related homicides are related to robbery. Most are the product of the highly combustible combination of anger and alcohol. The last words of J. Edward Sims were typical: “Shoot you damed cowardly son of a Bitch.” Or take this poignant exchange:
Tom Rutland (firing): “I will kill you, you son of a bitch.”
William Padgett (bleeding): “You have already.”
In the strange alchemy of the male brain, friends became mortal enemies in an instant, often over trivialities. “How in the hell did you Gap up My ax?” Gus Settler demanded to know of Allen Holmes in March 1882. I hardly know what a gapped-up axe looks like, but I do know that returning a borrowed tool in less than satisfactory condition is no grounds for murder. Settler disagreed and shot Holmes dead.
Infanticide
Life in the Faulknerian world of CSI:D was especially cheap for children. Catherine Berry, a domestic in the R. C. Poole household, was told that she would be terminated if she was indeed pregnant. In an awful feat of endurance, she continued with her chores until, doubled over with pain, she snuck away to give birth in the potato shed. Reeling from the loss of blood, she still managed to strangle the baby and fling it into the Pacolet River, where it washed up at the feet of some fishermen. When Peggy Bedenbaugh felt her first contractions, she went out to a corner of the yard, gave birth in a hole, and covered the baby over with dirt. Luly Collins threw her baby down a well. Nancy Owens swept hers under a brush pile. All had denied for months that they were in the “family way”; all had killed the evidence; all were indicted for murder.
Or take the case of Jane Arnold. On September 7, 1857, Brazeal Cox and his wife found sixteen-year-old Jane Arnold stretched out on the ground with a baby beside her, bleeding from its umbilical cord. When Arnold became aware of the couple she called out to Mrs. Cox, who wrapped the dying infant in Arnold’s apron and took it into the Arnold home. Mrs. Cox then returned and asked the girl why she hadn’t given birth indoors. Because her daddy was “doging” her, she said, and had cast her from the house. “She seemed to be grieving,” Cox told the coroner in a model of understatement, “but [I] don’t know what for, whether on the part of her dead child or the abuse of her father.”
Three years later, at four in the morning, a shivering Jane Arnold knocked at the door of a neighboring farm. She was cold and unkempt, but she couldn’t make up her mind to stay. Instead she returned to the abandoned schoolhouse where she had taken her latest baby, born in the middle of the road, to die of exposure.
The coroners’ office reveals a world where men force women into sex and women pay the price for it, in embarrassing pregnancies, social stigma, and the occasionally desperate attempt to cover up the evidence. In 1829 a fire in Thomas Welsh’s smoke-house revealed a small cubby in which a full term child had been secreted in a jar of lime. It is impossible to know whether this was an infanticide or a child who had been stillborn. Regardless the mother was covering up something. Occasionally that something was an interracial liaison. More often it was simply a pregnancy out-of-wedlock. Many of the cases reveal that the women had been trying for some time to induce an abortion. ‘Home remedies’ for pregnancy mentioned in the CSI:D sample include savin powder mixed with turpentine, red bark bay tea, and the ashes of dried corn cobs. In this sense some of the infanticides might be considered extremely late-term abortions. One unnamed mother, for instance, gave birth to a stillborn child who bore unmistakable marks of abuse en utero. M. Lipscomb was found doubled over a fence having apparently bled out in a botched, self-induced abortion.
Almost sadder is the number of women who were held to account for the ‘murder’ of infants who had most likely died of crib death or SIDS. Often sent back to the cotton field within days of giving birth, enslaved mothers were understandably exhausted, and they often slept with their infants so they could breast feed in a haze and go back to sleep. When they occasionally awoke to dead babies, they were unfortunately as susceptible as their doctors and enslavers to believe that they had smothered their children in their sleep, a phenomenon which only enhanced their reputation as uncaring and unnatural mothers.
NEXT: Suicide
Murder Cases Tried in South Carolina, 1887-1900
Year | Number of Homicides Tried | Not Guilty Verdicts | Guilty Verdicts | Cases Dismissed or Continued | Percentage Found Guilty |
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1887 | 79 | 54 | 11 | 14 | 13.9% |
1888 | 117 | 61 | 36 | 20 | 30.1% |
1889 | 120 | 69 | 30 | 21 | 25.0% |
1890 | incomplete returns | - | - | - | - |
1891 | 151 | 76 | 46 | 29 | 30.0% |
1892 | incomplete returns | - | - | - | - |
1893 | incomplete returns | - | - | - | - |
1894 | incomplete returns | - | - | - | - |
1895 | 210 | 112 | 67 | 31 | 31.9% |
1896 | 201 | 110 | 67 | 24 | 33.3% |
1897 | 215 | 120 | 64 | 31 | 29.7% |
1898 | 248 | 105 | 96 | 47 | 44.0% |
1899 | 205 | 83 | 97 | 35 | 47.3% |
1900 | 224 | 127 | 71 | 26 | 31.7% |
Credit: John Hammond Moore, Carnival of Blood: Dueling, Lynching, and Murder in South Carolina, 1880-1920 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006), pp. 130-131, taken from Reports and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina
Homicide Inquests
Name![]() |
Deceased Description | Date | Inquest Location | Death Method | Inquest Finding |
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James W. Allred Sr. | September 21, 1940 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC | automobile |
upon their oaths do say that James W. Allred, Sr. received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by Automobile Collision in the hands of Wade A. Outlaw |
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James Walls | at the Tevin Pines', Fairfield County, SC | baseball bat |
upon their Oaths do say the deceased came to his death at Ware's base ball ground, the 5th of Sept 1891 from a blow on the head with a base ball bat in the hands of Charles Young. |
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Jane | slave | March 10, 1863 | at Anderson Court House, Anderson County, SC |
do say that she came to her death on sabath the eighth day of March?at the residence of her master A. A. Morse, of deceased hastened or made premature by the maltreatment of her Master A. A. Morse and his mistress Mrs. C. T. [?] Morse, and more particularly on the part of the latter, and....that the said slave Jain the said A. A. Morse & C. T. Morse, by misfortune, and contrary to their will |
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Jane Young | February 11, 1853 | at the late residence of Mrs. Jane D. Young, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Mrs. Jane D. Young came her death by [being] shotint he left breast feloniously, wilfully & maliciously by a gun in the hands of Hiram a negro slave the property of L.W.R. Blair |
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Jarrett | February 9, 1809 | at the House of James Loughridge, Laurens County, SC | hoe |
do say upon their oaths that at the House of the aforesd. James Loughridge in the Village aforesaid on the ninth day of the Instant upon view of the body of the said boy saith that the aforesaid Boy on the night of the Eighth Instant died by the hands of James Loughridge aforesaid through Several Strokes from the Edge and corner of an Iron Hoe, and a large stick. |
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Jason Hendrick | [no location given], Chesterfield County, SC |
[No official declaration] |
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Jasper Deal | January 18, 1880 | at Greenville, Greenville County, SC | pistol |
upon their oaths do say that . . .the said Jasper Deal came to his death from the effect of a pistol shot wound in the hands of Henry Townsend. The ball entering the head just below the left eyebrow and passing directly through the brain to the back of the head. |
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Jasper Thomas | March 28, 1934 | at Cheraw, S. C., Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: We the undersigned jurors find that Jasper Thomas, colored, came to his death aobut 6:25 P.M. Thursdday, March 22nd 1934 by pistol wound at the hands of John Mack, colored. |
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Jeff Evins | March 24, 1895 | at the residence of Jeff Evans, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Jeff Evans came to his death by Pistol Shot fired from the hands of Will Smith, and so the jurors afore said do say that the afore said will Smith in mann. And form then and there feloniously did kill against the peace and dignity of the State afore said... |
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Jerry | slave | June 6, 1857 | at the residence of Rev. J.K. Mendenhall on Lyttleton Street within the bounds of the Town of Camden, Kershaw County, SC | jug |
upon their oaths do say that the said negro boy Jerry came to his death from a blow on the left side of the head ... inflicted by a jug in the hands of Bob a slave of Thomas E. Shannon |
Jesse Weatherford | September 4, 1849 | at the plantation of Mrs R Blaylock, Edgefield County, SC | shotgun |
upon their oaths do say the said Jesse Weatherford was killed & murdered at the plantation of Mrs Rossita Blaylock . . .by a negro man named Jo the property of Mrs Rositta Blaylock by the said Jo shooting the said Jesse Weatherford in the left side and arm with a shot gun loaded with powder & leaden shot |
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Jim | slave | June 19, 1858 | at the plantation of A.H. Boykin, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said negro Jim came to his death. . .from three wounds inflicted on and across the face by some weapon or instrument to the jury unknown in the hands of Dick a slave of William Sanders |
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Jim | negro boy | July 23, 1855 | at Wade Holsteens, Edgefield County, SC | knife |
upon their oaths do say, that the said Jim a negro boy. . .was there killed by a knife in the hands of Tom a negro boy belonging to James D Watson and as the knife belonged to Philip a negro boy belonging to the estate of A. J. Padget which said boy Philip was in compnay with the said Tom at the time |
Jim | April 26, 1856 | on the Public Road leading from Conwayboro, to Bull Creek Ferry, Horry County, SC |
upon their Oaths do say, that the said slave Jim Came to his death from the effect of Gun shot wounds--discharged from a Gun in the hands of J.s W. Holiday, his (the said Slave imployer) said slave at the time being in a state of insubordiation, and we the Jurors, do say that the aforesaid Jo.s W. Holiday did in self defence and contrary to his will, Kill and slave the said boy Jim |
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Jim McKie | October 26, 1898 | near John starks, Edgefield County, SC |
do say that Jim McKie came to his death from gun shot wounds in the hands of some unknown parties |
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Jno Fuller | October 6, 1890 | on the plantation of Melmoth Hooker, Laurens County, SC |
by their oaths do say that the said Jno Fuller came to his death "From Gun Shot wounds in the hands of Perry Gray without cause." |
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Jno. C Swearingin | April 24, 1895 | at Edgefield CH, Edgefield County, SC |
the said Jno C Swearingin came to his death by a gun shot wound in the hands of B. L. Jones |
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Joe | slave, boy | September 13, 1860 | at the residence of D. M. Glover, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there Oaths do say the said Joe came to his death. . .from the effects of a gunshot in the hand of G M Broadwaters the shot taking affect in the left leg and thigh thereby producing his death |
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Joe | negro man, boy | March 5, 1865 | Greenville County, SC |
who came to his death from a gun shot wound in the breast at the hands of Midleton Patterson |
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Joe | June 26, 1837 | at the house of John Holley, Fairfield County, SC |
are of the opinion that he [Joe] came to his death by a wound in his abdomen near his navel about one inch in Length committed on the body of Joe by the Hand of one Robert Freeman on the 22nd of June 1837. |
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Joe Coleman | near Willing, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say: that the Said Joe Coleman came to his death by gun shot wounds, by the hands of person or persons unknown to the Jury, but suspicion and evidence points to William Woodward principal and we further think that he had accessories[.] |
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Joe Weston | January 31, 1895 | in Edgefield County, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that the said Joe Weston aforesaid came to his death from gun shot wounds in the hands of parties to us unknown |
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John Adamson | August 23, 1825 | Kershaw County, SC |
do find [that] John Adamson came to his death by a gun shot in the right side before the right rib which shot penetrated the body through the intestines and the shot lodged in the left side of the body . . .but who discharged the gun. . . the jurors. . . cannot report |
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John Agner | December 26, 1883 | at Mr. John Agner's, Edgefield County, SC | knife |
upon their oaths do say we find John Agner Jr came to his death by wounds in his body inflicted by a knife. . .By a knife in the hands of one of the following named parties. Washington Hamilton James Hamilton or Perry Hamilton. |
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John Butler | October 23, 1850 | at the House of Mr Seth Butler, Edgefield County, SC | knife |
upon their Oaths do say that the said John A. Butler was killed & murdered by some person or persons to the Jurors unknown |
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John David Twiggs | September 15, 1864 | in Hamburg, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that Doct J D Twiggs came to his death by Pistol shots in the hands of R. J. Butler sen on the Publick Rode |
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John E. Elsmore | November 28, 1869 | at the house of John E. Elsmore, Edgefield County, SC | pistol |
upon their oaths do say That he came to his death from the effect of a blow or blows on his head inflicted by the hands of Wm Pickens Elsmore with a Pistol |
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John E. Paul | June 14, 1892 | at Edgefield CH, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the deceased John Paul came to his death. . .from the effects of a gun shot wound in the hand of one Henry Griffin and that Guss Longstreet and Sidney Longstreet were accesors |
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John G. Gorley | July 26, 1866 | Anderson County, SC | rope |
the said John G. Gorly came to his death?by having been hanged by the nexck until his body was dead, by means of a certain of a certain grass rope fastened to the limb of a certain oak sapling near to the spot where the bones then lay....and that Henry J. Knauff of Pendleton village...and John Baskins and Thompson Oliver...did there and there feloneously hang and murder the said John G. Gorly |
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John Gary Baker | July 20, 1936 | at Augelus, Chesterfield County, SC | pistol |
upon their oaths do say that John G. Baker received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by Pistol shot in the hands of Walter Jowers |
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John Goodlett | December 28, 1880 | at Greenville CH, Greenville County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the deceased John H. Goodlett came to his death from a wound on the head how caused the Jury are unable to say |
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John H. Anderson | March 21, 1891 | at Tom Anderson place, Edgefield County, SC |
came to his death by a gun shot Wound in the hands of one Henry Ryan |
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John H. Kelley | December 21, 1882 | on the [?] Road near the city of Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, SC | knife |
upon their oaths do say that said ... came to his death from a cut or stab in the left breast with a knife in the hands of Patrick Henry |
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John Henry King | October 29, 1865 | in Hamburg, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say he was Killed by a Pistol shot from the hands of a colord Soldier belonging to the U S Troops now station in Augusta Ga the name of said Soldier not known |
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John Inlow | October 1, 1852 | at Hill's Factory, Spartanburg County, SC | stick |
upon their oaths do say that they believe John Broughton did kill him the sd. Inlow. . .with a stick about five feet long & about 2 1/4 inches in diameter |
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John James | April 13, 1892 | at the Traynham place, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that at his residence in Laurens County on or about 12 oclock on the 18th day of April AD 1892 the said John James came to his death by two gunshot wounds said wounds being made by a Pistol fired by one Stribbling deputy for B.F. Balleu Sheriff and so the jurors aforesaid do say that the aforesaid Stribbling deputy for B.F. Balleu sheriff in manner and form aforesaid John James then and there did Kill against the peace and dignity of the said State aforesaid. |
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John Jefferson | March 17, 1936 | at Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that John Jefferson received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by Draarn in the hands of Aiken Jefferson |
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John Kellett | July 24, 1876 | at the residence of John Kellet, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the aforesaid John Kellet in manner and form aforesaid on the morning of the 19th inst was shot by some person or persons unknown by us |
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John Kirk | November 28, 1826 | near the house of Ezekiel Jenkins, Fairfield County, SC | stick |
do say upon their oaths that one negro man to wit Harry belonging to Ms. Martha Ann Dickson with a stick about three feet long and the size of the wrist of a man struk and and gave the said John Kirk said stick upon aforesaid occipital bone with three other wounds...so the said negro man Harry then and there feloniously killed and murdered the said John Kirk |
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John Larke | December 14, 1884 | at J D Sullivans place, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the aforesaid John Larke came to his death on J D Sullivans place in Laurens County on the 13th day of December AD 1884 by a pistol shot in the hands or believed to be in the hands of N D Franks while the discharge of his official duties. And so the jurors aforesaid upon their oaths aforesaid do say that the aforesaid N D Franks in manner and form aforesaid John Larke then and there feloniously did Kill and slay against the peace and dignity of the same State aforesaid. |
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John Laudrum | October 11, 1869 | at Dons Steam Mills near Rocky Creek, Edgefield County, SC | knife |
upon their oaths do say: That he said John Landow[?] came to his death by stabs in the body from a knife in the hands of some person or persons unknown |
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John M. Tillman | May 6, 1860 | at Mr J.A Tillmans Steam Mill, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that. . . J. M. Tillman was shot. . .with fire arm in the hands of George R Mays the Ball entering the brest neat the Pit of the Stomac Passing through the right side internily come near out under the right arm |
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John McKinny | September 26, 1894 | at W P. Lipfords[?], Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that. . . John Mckenny. . .came to his death by gun shot wound in the hands of Jessie Bostie and Edmon Jones and others unknown |
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John Moore | November 19, 1880 | Greenville County, SC | |||
John Nickle | October 30, 1853 | at the House of David Owens, Laurens County, SC | whip |
upon their oaths do say That after having the body of the Decd. John Nickle exposed & after examining the body & all the circumstances that the sd. John Nickle came to his death from a severe whipping inflicted upon the body of the sd. Decd. On the 24th of October Inst (Monday) about 3 or oclk in the afternoon by William Hazle of the state & District aforesaid and that the said whipping as proven by witnesses examined & as exhibited upon the body as exposed to the undersigned, was inflicted... willfully by the sd. William Hazel against the peace the humanity & dignity of the same State aforesd. This Inquest concur in the opinion that as before stated that as the sd. Decd. John Nickle was but a youth - he being about six years of age - his health at the time of the infliction of the whipping as before state being feeble, & suffering with disease are of opinion that the diseased health of the boy & the whipping as a secondary cause... |
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John Peagles | November 30, 1846 | at Camden, Kershaw County, SC | pistol |
upon their oaths do say that the said John Peagles came ot his death from a pistol shot fired by the hands of Wm. B. Hamilton |
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John Pedeu[Peden?] | February 11, 1851 | at the house of John S. Pedeu[?], Greenville County, SC | rifle |
upon their oaths do say. . . came to his death. . . in consequence of a wound received on the sixth instance from a rifle ball |
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John Pettigrew | January 17, 1843 | at the Irish buying ground, Kershaw County, SC | knife |
upon their oaths do say that on the 27th day of last December one Bennett Dozier of Kershaw District did wound with a knife the deceased John Pettigrew of Kershaw District so as to cause his, John Pettigrew's death on Sunday the first day of January |
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John Pitts | June 11, 1842 | at Elias Ford's, Kershaw County, SC | shotgun |
by their oaths do say that the said John Pitts was willfully and feloniously shot by Elias Ford with a long shotgun loaded with powder & large shot and ball somewhere near the residence of Elias Ford |
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John R. McMillan | March 5, 1879 | at Winnsboro, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that aforsaid John McMillin came to his death in Winnsboro on the 4 day of March 1879. from a wound by pistol received on the 16 of Feb 1879. in the hand of some person to the jurors unknown[.] |