On or about this date in 1896 my great-grandfather, Black James William, mortgaged his land--formerly belonging to his wife, my great-grandmother-- to buy a horse/mule or two. This story has been a part of the family legacy for over 100 years mainly because James William died sometime between signing the promissory note in September of 1896 and my grandfather's birth in 1897. This led to my great-grandmother having to work not only to raise three children-- aged two, four, and six according to the 1900 census-- but also to pay James William's debt.
Now I have no knowledge of what led to James William's demise after the mortgage was signed, but I have often speculated. I imagine someone incensed in that James William-- a Negro not even 30 years old, in rural South Carolina in the fall or 1896-- had a "mare about 4 years old" and a note on which he had signed his own name. This was less than twenty years after Rutherford B. Hayes brought an end to reconstruction; A Negro who could read and cipher was perceived as a treat; a Negro who had more property or assets that a white man was considered an affront to common decency: Men were lynched for doing less.
Speculation aside, I need to do more research and see if there is a death certificate in the state archives. The family narative requires clarification.
