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Hanging
of Amy Spain |
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View of Darlington
Court-House and the sycamore-tree where Amy Spain, the negro slave,
was hung by the citizens of Darlington, South Carolina |
| AMY SPAIN |
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One of the martyrs of the cause which gave
freedom to her race was that of a colored woman named Amy Spain, who was a resident of the town of
Darlington, situated in a rich cotton-growing district of South Carolina. At the time a portion of the
Union army occupied the town of Darlington she expressed her satisfaction by clasping her hands
and exclaiming, "Bless the Lord the Yankees have come!" She could not restrain her emotions. The
long night of darkness which had bound her in slavery was about to break away. It was
impossible to repress the exuberance of her feelings; and although powerless to aid the advancing deliverers
of her caste, or to injure her oppressors, the simple expression of satisfaction at the event sealed her
doom. Amy Spain died in the cause of freedom.
A section of Sherman's cavalry occupied the town, and without doing any damage passed through. Not
an insult nor an unkind word was said to any of the women of that town. The men had, with guilty
consciences, fled; but on their return, with their traditional chivalry, they seized upon poor Army,
and ignominiously hung her to a sycamore-tree standing in front of the court-house, underneath
which stood the block from which was monthly exhibited the slave chattels that were struck down by
the auctioneer's hammer to the highest bidder.
Amy Spain heroically heard her sentence, and from her prison bars declared she was prepared to
die. She defied her persecutors; and as she ascended the scaffold declared she was going to a place
where she would receive a crown of glory. She was rudely interrupted by an oath from one of her
executioners. To the eternal disgrace of Darlington her execution was acquiesced in and witnessed by
most of the citizens of the town. Amy was launched into eternity, and the "chivalric Southern
gentlemen" of Darlington had fully established their bravery by making war upon a defenseless African
woman. She sleeps quietly, with others of her race, near the beautiful village. No memorial marks her
grave, but after-ages will remember this martyr of liberty. Her persecutors will pass away and be
forgotten, but Amy Spain's name is now hallowed among the Africans, who, emancipated and free,
dare, with the starry folds of the flag of the free floating over them, speak her name with holy
reverence. |
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