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5 the slave Catherine and the kindness of strangers? On the 25th of January, 1865, David Lipscomb, a resident of Northern Spartanburg District, formally accused his slave, Catherine, before the local magistrate , Davis Moore, of the crime of arson.1 The magistrate summoned eight local slave holders to appear at David Lipscomb’s farm on the first day of February 1865 for Catherine’s trial. On that day in February five of the eight freeholders were chosen to act as judge and jury to try Catherine on the indictment which accused her of “maliciously burning his [David Lipscomb’s] stables, four head of horses & a quantity of fodder & shucks.”2 According to the trial records Catherine pled guilty; her trial proceeded immediately with the hearing of witnesses “she had to produce in her behalf as well as those against her.” The court record indicates no witnesses on Catherine’s behalf and the following account by the witnesses against her: Evidence in behalf of the State. J. C. Humphries sworn says that he was at Mr. Lipscomb on Saturday after the burning & being requested by Mr Lipscomb to go upstairs wher Catherine was that he accordingly done so in company with Mr. S. Littlejohn for the purpose of examing the girl. That she upon being interrogated by them she acknowledged that she took fire from her Mother’s house and sot fire to the chalf near the stables. That there was no other person present with her at the time she sot fire to the chalf. That she further said that her sister Silah went with her a part of [the] way with her when she started with the fire & went with her as far as the kiln[,] her sister discovering the fire asked her where she was going & she told her she was going to the stable that her sister stopped & would not go any further, that her mother knew when she went out of the house with the fire & said to her [“]you are going to do some 62 Individuals devilment,[”] that some time previous to that she heard her Mother say that her master had a full smoke house but she would not be surprised if [he] was to get up some morning & find it in coals, that her Uncle Mose sanctioned what her Mother had said. Samuel Littlejohn sworn says that he was present with Mr. Humphries at the time when the prisoner was examined by them, that he fully concurs with Mr. Humphries in the statement he has made as being fully correct.3 The “Court after mature consideration found the prisoner Guilty” and sentenced her to be hanged between the hours of twelve and two o’clock on Friday the 24th of February, 1865.4 Thus far the case seems ordinary as the accused pled guilty, and the state mandated death by hanging as the punishment for arson by a slave. However, things were not quite so straight forward as the court record indicated. In February 1865, Andrew Magrath, governor of South Carolina, was in Spartanburg where he had fled from the state capitol, Columbia, when he realized that General William T. Sherman and his Union army were headed in that direction . Among Governor McGrath’s papers in the South Carolina State Archives is a petition from people in Spartanburg District asking him to pardon Catherine. The petition is dated March 28, 1865. The records of Catherine’s trial which normally should be found amongst the records of the Spartanburg Magistrates and Freeholders Court are found among the governor’s papers.5 The petition is signed by seventy-four residents of Spartanburg District, including at least two of David Lipscomb’s immediate neighbors. Among the signers of the petition are Davis Moore (the owner of nineteen slaves), the magistrate with whom David Lipscomb filed his complaint and who acted as prosecutor in the case, and that of J. H. Garrison who was one of the jurors at the trial. The trial records are among Governor Magrath’s papers probably because the magistrate, Davis Moore, sent them to the governor along with the petition. This remarkable document requesting a pardon for Catherine bears investigation , for it contains information which does not appear in the trial records. The magistrate may have sent the court papers along with the petition in order to highlight these omissions. We might begin a study of this case by asking who Catherine was. The petition emphasizes her youth. Among David Lipscomb’s twenty-three slaves listed in the 1860...

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