The State vs. the Dead Body of Barbara Milam

Date: 
September 25, 1850

Deceased

Barbara Milam
Sex: 
Female
Race: 
White
COD Category: 
Homicide
COD: 
Sharp Instrument
COD Method/Implement: 
axe
COD Inquest Finding: 

upon their oaths do say that She came to her Death by violence inflicted upon her person and by burning, the bruises having been first inflicted. They find the bruises & cuts upon and about the head and face inflicted with an axe or other heavy weapon - from the circumstances they conclude the blows to have been inflicted by the negro woman Eliot, the property of Milam the husband of Deceased.

Coroner

Coroner: 
John C. Nabors
Coroner Title: 
Coroner

Location

Inquest Location: 
at T R Milams
County: 
Laurens County, SC

Source

South Carolina Department of Archives & History
Columbia, SC

Perpetrator

Perpetrator: 
Eliot
Perpetrator Slave Status: 
Enslaved
Inquest Images: 
Laurens_Cor_D5852_0496.jpg
Laurens_Cor_D5852_0497.jpg
Laurens_Cor_D5852_0498.jpg
Transcription: 

Turner Milam says he left Home early in the morning leaving his wife the deceased at the house and the negro woman Elliot was in a field close to the house say 20 yards - no one else about house says when he returned he found Barbara Milam his wife lying in the house dead and in flames her body very much burned. Her person bloody with the appearance of many bruises & cuts as if... with an axe. Says Eliot changed her clothes since he left this morning...

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