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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John Rhodes | July 13, 1853 | at Feathery Bay, Horry County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Although it appears that the said John Rhodes has been missing ever since the day before Fall Court 1852, yet there is no proof to them that the said John Rhodes has ever been murdered |
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John Roe | September 11, 1868 | at William Elliott's, Kershaw County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that John Roe was killed ... by a gun shot on the right side of the back & that the said gun was fired by William Elliott & that he was excusable in firing the said gun at & killing the said Roe |
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John Rowland | August 22, 1825 | at the Presbyterian Church known by the name of the Ebenezer meeting house, Fairfield County, SC | knife |
do say upon their oaths that one John Brown, late of the district aforesaid, on the 4th day of June 1825, did commit a violent assault on the said John Rowland by the infliction of two greivous and dangerous wounds on the body of the said John Rowland John Rowland died, on the 19th instant, then and there feloniously killed and murdered the said John Rowland against the peace of the said state. |
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John Simmons | March 21, 1810 | at John Simmons, Laurens County, SC | rifle |
do say upon their oaths that on the 20th day of March 1810 that about a half mile from his house the said John Simmons was cild [sic] by a Rifle ball shot by John Hall by his own confession which said ball went through the write [sic] arm and into his write [sic] side of him the said John Simmons said was the Cause of his Death but we believe that it was innocently - Done by him the said John Hall and not in mallice [sic]... |
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John South | September 30, 1818 | at Allen Clarks, Laurens County, SC | stone |
doth say on their oathes - after the Exammination of the body of said John South they found the head of the said John South cut and his mouth mashd. Or broken by a stroke made their on - and from Information the said stroke was made by Richard Manning with a stone which we believe to be the Cause of Death of said John South deceased. |
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John W. Buchanan | July 18, 1936 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC | rock |
upon their oaths do say that John W. Buchanan received in _____ County a mortal wound by Rock in the hands of Ed. Mack, Jr. |
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John W. Meeks | May 4, 1872 | at Brown & Rice's Mill, Anderson County, SC |
do say that. . .the said John W. Meeks was killed by gun-shot wound, and violent battery with gun on the back of his neck |
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John Webb | March 26, 1899 | at Edgefield Court House, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do Say that the aforesaid John Webb came to his death by Gun Shot wounds inflicted by weapons in the hands of Robert Coile[?], Dan Coward Hill Howard, and R L Burnett as principals, Milledge Reece and A.J. Corley as accessories |
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John Williams | August 21, 1898 | at S H Nicholson, Edgefield County, SC | stick |
on their Oaths do say, that the aforesaid John Williams came to his death by a blow with a stick in the hand of Ed Brooks |
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John Wilson | July 26, 1817 | at Laurens Court House, Laurens County, SC | stake |
do say upon their oaths & affirmations that the said John Wilson decsd. Son John came to his death on the twenty sixth day of July in the year aforesaid by a stroke or strokes with a part of a fence rail or stake on the forehead of the said John above the left Eye and the Jurors aforesaid upon their oaths and affirmations aforesaid do say that from the Evidence... before them that a certain John Wilson decsd. son of James then and there with the fence rail or stake aforesaid did Kill and murder against the peace of the said state. |
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John Wyatt | May 25, 1834 | at House of Harry Gant[?], Union County, SC |
do say upon thare oaths than one Ellis Fowler [?] of said District not having god before his eyes but Being moved and Seduced by the Instirgation of the devil . . .shoot the [?] and give to the said John Wyatt . . .one mortal wound of the breast |
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Johnson | Johnsons infant | June 18, 1875 | at Roberts Tuckers, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: That it was the child of Henretta Johnson that rivers found dead in the woods near the Robert Tucker House and that from appearance that it was the propper time for it to be deliverd and if the child was not murderd She intendedto murder it and it was don on or about the 11 of June 1875[.] |
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Johnson Peterson | March 9, 1892 | at Deny[?] S.C., Edgefield County, SC | pistol |
upon their oaths do Say - that this Jury of inquest believes that the Said Johnson Peterson Came to his death ... by a gun Shot wound Said wound being Made as we believe by a pistol in the hands of Pickens Smith |
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Jor.[?] Seabrook | JUST TESTIMONY, Fairfield County, SC | pistol | |||
Joseph Burgess | boy | October 16, 1824 | at the premises of Mrs. Hales[?], Union County, SC | gun |
say upon their oaths the said Joseph Burgess in manner and form came to his death by a stroke or blows withs with a gun across his right ear and the back part of his head. Supposed to have been effected from every circumstance in our view by George McKnight |
Joseph Butler | October 8, 1836 | at John H. Byrds, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon their oaths, that said Robert Campbell of Laurens District & state afod. Not having the fear of God before his Eyes but being moved and seduced by the devil on the 1st day of October in the year 1836 with force and arms at John H. Byrds in the district aforesaid in and upon the said Joseph Butler then and there being in the peace of God and of the said State feloniously, voluntarily and of his own malice aforethough made an assault; and that the aforesaid Robert Campbell then and there with a certain knife made of Iron... of the Value of Fifty cents which he the said Robert Campbell then and there held in his right hand, the aforesaid Joseph Butler, in and upon the left part of the belly of the said Joseph Butler a littlebelow the navel of the said Joseph Butler then and there feloniously struck and pierced with the knife aforesaid in and upon the aforesaid part of the belly a lttle below the navel of the said Joseph Butler a mortal wound the breadth of one Inch and a half and the depth sufficient to let out his bowels which said mortal wound the aforesaid Joseph Butler after lingering until the eighth day died... |
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Joseph Hughes | July 25, 1853 | at the house of James A. Price, Union County, SC | stick or board |
upon their oaths do say that James A. Price did . . .at his own house in the said District with a club, stick or board hit the said Joseph Hughes over the head inflicting three severe wounds in the forehead and bruising the head nearly all over |
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Joseph Riddle | April 10, 1856 | at Hamburg, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, that the said Riddle came to his death by a wound or stab with some cutting instrument inflicted just under the left ear by some hand to this jury unknown |
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Joseph W. Glover | September 2, 1844 | at Charles Comptys[?] Hotel, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say the he came to his death by the discharge of a pistol in the hands of Lovett Gomillion loaded with [?] Bullets which load of shot entered the said Joseph W Glovers body a little above the nipple on the right side of the breast . . .said pistol was discharged by said Gomillion in a street fight between himself and said Glover in self defence |
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Joshua Hammond Jr. | September 6, 1849 | at a place belonging to John Bauskett[?] on little horse creek, Edgefield County, SC | fence rail |
upon their oaths do say that the said Joshua Hammond Jr came to his death by Sunday[?] blows inflicted by the hands of John Green Jr & Julius Green with a gun[?] & fence rail and that John Green senior was aiding and abetting at the time at a place on the Hamburg Road belonging to John Baushkett[?] on little horse creek now occupied by Benjamin Davis |
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Julia Long | November 22, 1883 | at the residence of David Long, Anderson County, SC | shovel |
do say that the deceased Julia Long came to her death by natural causes. |
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Julia Mundy | June 17, 1881 | at Jas H Banknight, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that the said Julia Mundy Came to her death from a pistol shot and fired by Josh Mundy her husband and made one mortal wound in the Right breast of her |
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Julia Van | June 20, 1892 | at the plantation of Mr Joe Thurmond, Edgefield County, SC |
Upon their oaths do say that Rial Williams Killed the said Julia Van by misfortune and contrary to his will |
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Julius Metskie | June 27, 1887 | at Valley Falls, Spartanburg County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Julius Metskie came to his death by a gun shot would inflicted in the head by George S. Turner at Valley Falls |
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Keal Johnson | colourd man | October 20, 1866 | at J.M. Proctors Residence, Edgefield County, SC | pistol |
upon there Oaths do say that he came to his death. . .by a Pistol shot from the hands of G.J. Smith entering the left side of the mouth and came out at the back side of his head |
Kenneth M. Douglas | October 17, 1946 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Kenneth M. Douglas received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by 32 Pistol in the hands of M. Stuart Funderburk |
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Kitty | April 27, 1865 | at David Owens's, Laurens County, SC |
upon their oaths do say. That they have thoroughly Examined the body of the decd Kitty and find no marks of violence on the body sufficient to cause death, and so the Jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid do Say that the deceased came to her death by some cause unknown to them... |
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L. F. Pinson | December 17, 1890 | at the Residence of Jabe Pinson, Laurens County, SC | rock |
upon their oaths do say, That the said L.F. Pinson came to his death by a blow inflicted on the head with a rock at the hands of Coleman Nelson |
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L. Roy Lavender | June 9, 1838 | at Lucey Lavenders, Fairfield County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that one James Sessions[?] feloniously voulantary and of his own malice aforethought made an assault uppon the said L.R. Lavender with a [?] dirk knife made of Iron and Steel of the value of $1.25 [?] Mortal Wound . . . which Mortal Wound by the Stab of Said Knife the said L.R. Lavender came to his death. |
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Lankin Suber | February 22, 1884 | at the Vance Place, Laurens County, SC | knife |
upon their oaths do say that the said Lankin Suber came to his death on the 21st day of February AD 1884 by cuts from a knife in the hands of Frank Jamison and so the Jurors aforesaid upon their oaths do say That the aforesaid Frank Jamison in manner and form aforesaid Lankin Suber then and there feloniously did Kill against the peace and dignity of the same State aforesaid. |
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Larken Bramblett | June 8, 1838 | at the House of Newton Bramblett, Laurens County, SC |
do say upon their oaths that Hiram Holcombe of the state and District aforesaid, on yesterday evening the 7th Inst. Betweeen sundown & dark, did feloniously, voluntarily and of his own malice aforethough with a certain shot gun shoot and wound the said Larken Bramblett in the breast neck and head, of which said mortal wounds the aforesaid Larken Bramlett then and there instantly died, and so the said Hiram Holcombe, then and there feloniously killed and murdered the said Larken Bramblett, against the peace of this State. |
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Lee Ryan | September 27, 1877 | at the plantation of Abram F Broadwater, Edgefield County, SC | iron instrument |
upon their Oaths do say that the said Lee Ryan came to his death from wounds inflicted upon the head by some Iron Instrument in the hands of Some one to the Jury unknown and that Alice Ryan was an accessory to the Crime |
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Leonard Clark | July 3, 1946 | at Jefferson, SC, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Leonard Clark received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by 38 Pistol in the hands of Bill Sowell |
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Leonard Dixon | October 27, 1934 | at Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, SC | shotgun |
upon their oaths do say that Leonard Dixon received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by Shot gun in the hands of Frank DeBerry on the 26 day of October 1934, and that form such mortal wound deceased died in South Carolina on October 26-1934. |
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Leroy Boan | May 22, 1934 | at Pageland, Chesterfield County, SC | pistol |
upon their oaths, do say: He came to his death by Gun shot wound in the hand of Brutus Cagle |
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Levi H. McDaniel | March 9, 1859 | at or near the 17 mile Post on the Scotts Ferry Road, Edgefield County, SC |
upon there oaths do say that. . .the deceased came to his death by a Pistol shot in the left side near the region of the heart fired from the hands of one James H. Jones |
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Lewis | slave | March 27, 1865 | at or near the residence of [?] Gossett, Spartanburg County, SC |
that he came to his from a gun shot wound through the neck passing out at his jaw and the said show was from a gun in the hands of some person unknown |
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Lewis | negro man, boy | March 14, 1861 | at Charles Hammonds Brickyard, Edgefield County, SC | pistol |
upon there oats do say that the said Lewis did come to his death. . .By the discharge of a pistol on Sunday the tenth ist in hands of Benja[?] Glanton |
Lewis Bartie | July 26, 1864 | at Mount Zion Church, Edgefield County, SC | shotgun |
upon there oaths do say that the said Lewis Bartie the deceased came to his death. . .by a wound received from a Double Barrel shot gun in the hands of James Green |
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Lewis Green | free man of color | September 17, 1859 | at the Williamston Hotel, Anderson County, SC | arsenic |
do say that the said Lewis Green came to his death by poisioning with arsnick at the Williamston Hotel. . . on the night of the seventeenth day of September. . . the said poison being administered at the said Hotel somewhere about the thirteenth day of September...the medium of a certain sponge cake or pudding by some person or persons unknown |
Lewis Hall | in Fairfield County, South Carolina, Fairfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say, That Lewis Hall was killed on the 9th day of January 1883, in Fairfield County in what manner and with what instrument unknown to the Jurors |
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Lewis Moore | November 30, 1891 | at the plantation of Robert Smith, Edgefield County, SC | pocket knife |
upon their oaths do say that one Lewis Moore . . .came to his death from wounds in right arm inflicted with pocket knife in the hands of Robert Bauknight (Col) |
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Lewis Trabough | July 14, 1913 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths, do say: Lewis Trabough came to his death From pistol shot in the hand of Ben Gardner. |
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Lilie May Dove | November 29, 1943 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC |
upon their oaths do say that Flossie Sellers received in Chesterfield County a mortal wound by 22 Caliber rifle in the hands of Lillie Mae Dove |
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Lindsay Adams | August 2, 1933 | at Cheraw, Chesterfield County, SC | iron bar |
upon their oaths, do say: that Lindsay Adams came to his death by being struck on the head with an Iron bar in the hands of Arthur Adams |
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Littleberry Sullivan | July 28, 1808 | Laurens County, SC | |||
Lizzy | three negro children | October 2, 1846 | at the house of Philip Brogden, Edgefield County, SC | axe |
upon their oaths do say the said Riller Lizzy and Rose were feloniously Killed and Murdered in the negro house of said Philip Brogden on the night of the 1st inst by breaking their sculls with an axe and cutting the throats of Riller & Lizza by the hands of their own Mother named Clarisy the property of said Brogden |
Louisa Laudon | October 11, 1869 | at Dorns Steam Mills near Rocky Creek, Edgefield County, SC | knife |
upon their oaths do say That Louisa Laudon came to her death by a knife in the hands of some person or persons unknown |
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Lucinda Clantice | May 1, 1849 | at the late residence of Lucinda Clantice, Laurens County, SC | stick |
do say upon their oath that one Nancy Morgan late of the District aforesaid not having God before her Eyes but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil on the 29th day of April in year 1849 at Joel L. Andersons Saw Mill in the District aforesaid in and upon the said Lucinda Clantice then and there being in the peace of God and of the said State feloniously voluntarily and of her own laaice afore though made an assault and that the aforesaid Nancy Morgan then and there with a certain wooden Stick which She the said Nancy Morgan then and there held in her hand the afore said Lucinda Clantice; upon the left sideof the head about three Inches above the left Ear together with other wounds to wit one on the left arm one on the left hip one of the left lef of the said Lucinda Clantice... the afore said Nancy Morgan did then and there feloniously kill and Murder the Said Lucinda Clantice agains the peace of this State... |
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Lucious Perry | November 8, 1891 | at the plantation of Ben Boatwright, Edgefield County, SC |
upon their oaths aforesaid do say that the aforesaid Lucious Perry came to his death by a gun shot wound in the hands of Ben Curry Willfully and that Henry Robertson was aiding and abetting the same |