154 Years Ago Today; Amy Spain is murdered by CSA - last slave executed

[Dennis Donovan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Spain


The Hanging of Amy Spain - contemporary engraving from Harper's Bazaar

Amy Spain (c. 1848 – March 10, 1865) was a teenage American slave who was executed by a Confederate military court in the dying days of the American Civil War. She was convicted of treason for stealing from her owner, and hanged from a sycamore tree in Darlington, South Carolina. She is believed to have been the last female slave to be legally executed.

Background
Spain was owned by Major Albertus C. Spain, a Mexican–American War veteran who owned a large property in Darlington, South Carolina, and had been a member of the South Carolina Secession Convention. She was about 17 years old at the time of her death, and was referred to as "mulatto", with sources noting her light skin. In early 1865, a detachment of the Union Army arrived in Darlington as part of the Carolinas Campaign.

Spain reputedly exclaimed "bless the Lord, the Yankees have come!". Many white residents (including almost all adult men) had deserted the town by that point, and the Union commander allowed slaves to take whatever belongings had been left behind. Spain and her brother Willie dragged some mahogany furniture from an abandoned warehouse, and later took "linens, sheets, pillow cases, flour, sugar, lard, and some furniture" from the home of their master.

Trial and execution
The Union Army soon moved on from Darlington, and its residents returned. A short time later Confederate troops (led by General Joseph Wheeler) re-occupied the town. Those who had stayed behind during the Union occupation reported that Spain had been the "ringleader" of the looting, and accused her specifically of guiding Union troops to places where valuables had been hidden. Spain was captured and charged with "treason and conduct unbecoming a slave" by a Confederate military tribunal; Major Spain reputedly acted as her defense counsel. She was sentenced to death, and hanged from a sycamore tree in the Darlington town square on March 10, 1865.

Aftermath
The September 30, 1865, edition of Harper's Weekly gave a somewhat embellished account of Spain's execution, proclaiming that "her name is now hallowed among the Africans". The story and its accompanying illustration were reprinted by many Northern newspapers. Harper's Weekly attributed the greater share of responsibility to Darlington's residents rather than the Confederate troops, stating that her execution "was acquiesced in and witnessed by most of the citizens of the town". In response, the Darlington New Era accused Harper's of committing "a wholesale slander upon our community", and said the town had made "every effort to reverse the decision of the court".

Major Spain was interviewed by the same newspaper, and said "Amy's temper was hot, hasty, and ungovernable, yet to me, as her master, she was always dutiful up to the unfortunate time when she exhibited traits of character, adopted a line of conduct, used expressions, and committed acts which contributed to the violent termination of her existence at the early age of seventeen".

[Sherman A1]

1. Very interesting story

Thanks for posting.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. This in unimaginably horrible

[DirtEdonE]

3. America's nazi holocaust

"treason and conduct unbecoming a slave"

How can a person enslaved in American chattel slavery, among the most brutal forms of slavery ever practiced, possibly conduct themselves in a becoming fashion?

"Behind every great fortune there is a great crime" and this nation was built on one of the greatest crimes ever committed by human beings. Our own nazi holocaust many, many times over.

And for over a century more, the myriad lynchings, the race laws, jim crow.

Warning - https://withoutsanctuary.org/

Did you know American race laws were too radical for nazi Germany?

https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10925.html

America the beautiful. And they'd do it all again tomorrow if they could.

[47of74]

4. Lincoln was far too magnanimous

We should have been much harder on the south after the war. Instead once we claimed outright slavery was defeated we didn’t do very much for over a century. We left the culture and institutions intact instead of doing the hard work of rooting them out and reforming them.

[cstanleytech]

7. Yup, one of the main things that should have been done was that everyone in the south

(not counting union prisoners of war being held by the south, slaves and southerners in the military that stayed loyal to the united states) should have been barred from holding any elected office as well as being appointed to any government office or voting for life.

[Roy Rolling]

10. Uneducated

Keeping people dumb and uneducated makes it easy to exploit them. That is now the "southern strategy".

What's left of nobility of the south is described by the book title "Confederacy of Dunces", it describe their modern-day decendants.

[DirtEdonE]

13. Kinda' like what I want to do with trump voters. lol nt

[Scubamatt]

11. The period after the Civil War

known as “Reconstruction” has been the victim of a historical “hit job.” Contrary to popular belief, real, meaningful reform was started, blacks’ rights to participate in all levels of society (including governmnet) were enforced and there was not the widespread corruption of the type popularized in Gone With the Wind. The negative view was popularized by Southern apologists as part of the “Lost Cause” mythology. Ultimately, though, the majority of the North was not committed to the long term effort, and the Democrats (recall that this was before the role reversal of the parties that started after the Depression) seized upon that, and some legitiamte instances of corruption, to reclaim control from the “Radical Republicans”. With the election of 1876 and the comporomise that lead to Hayes’ election, the North abandoned Reconstruction over the objection of many leaders who saw that the South was heading to Jim Crow. A fascinating, and depressing book covering this is : After Appomattox - Military Occupation and the Ends of War by Gregory Downs.

[DirtEdonE]

12. Yes! The losers went home as winners!

The south largely won the war considering they went home and conducted business as usual for more than another century, and in many ways do so to this day! Discrimination. Voter suppression. Ferguson, MO-style police states. War on drugs which is in reality a war on minorities. The cold-blooded murder of black and brown people on our streets under the guise of law enforcement. The list goes on.

The Souls of Black Folk
by
W.E.B. Du Bois

"It is the aim of this essay to study the period of history from 1861 to 1872 so far as it relates to the American Negro. In effect, this tale of the dawn of Freedom is an account of that government of men called the Freedmen's Bureau,—one of the most singular and interesting of the attempts made by a great nation to grapple with vast problems of race and social condition."

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/408/408-h/408-h.htm

Slavery by Another Name

"Slavery by Another Name is a 90-minute documentary that challenges one of Americans’ most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The film tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in the South in 1865, thousands of African Americans were pulled back into forced labor with shocking force and brutality. It was a system in which men, often guilty of no crime at all, were arrested, compelled to work without pay, repeatedly bought and sold, and coerced to do the bidding of masters. Tolerated by both the North and South, forced labor lasted well into the 20th century.

For most Americans this is entirely new history. Slavery by Another Name gives voice to the largely forgotten victims and perpetrators of forced labor and features their descendants living today."

http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/home/

It all sounds too hauntingly familiar these days.

[47of74]

15. I think the 13th is fatally flawed

Because it has that exception allowing for slavery as punishment for a crime exception.

It should be completely outlawed anywhere under the jurisdiction of the United States without exception. And violations punishable by life imprisonment or even death.

[JCMach1]

5. Damn it. Can you steal from your family home?

Damn I hate racism

[Farmer-Rick]

6. She probobly was Major Spain's daughter

The Southern slave owners were not above using both men and women slaves for sex and sexual abuse. There are some accounts of the sexual abuse the slaves were subjected to in the South. It is horrific. Many a child came out of that abuse.

Funny how slavery is mildly regulated and totally approved of by the bible. You would of thought an all loving and moral god would have gotten that one right. Don't eat shrimp but it's OK to own people. Strange god.

[DirtEdonE]

16. Different aliens during Old Testament and New? nt

[rawhideal]

8. Wheeler

Ever heard of Wheeler Dam

[marble falls]

9. Interesting expression: "last slave legally executed."

[brer cat]

14. "conduct unbecoming a slave"

So ends a life at age 17.