Throughout history there were a number of high profile executions which occurred in
public.
During the Tudor times, Henry VIII’s wives and friends walked a very thin line between
the executioner’s axe and happiness.
The Tudor Monarch would execute two of his wives, and his closest advisors in Sir Thomas
More and Sir Thomas Cromwell after he turned on them.
But throughout towns and cities around England at the time there were many more people who
were being execute in from of large crowds.
In America this was the case also, many people were brought to town squares and were horrifically
killed.
But there was in America a dark history of slavery and of slaves being executed in a
number of disturbing ways.
Today we look at a teenage American slave who was executed from a tree in Darlington
South Carolina.
Amy Spain is remembered today for being the last female slave to have been executed.
Join us today as we look at her story and to support our channel, please make sure to
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Amy Spain was born around 1848, and she was a slave who was owned by Major Albertus C
Spain.
He was a veteran in the Mexican American war, and he owned a lot of and around Darlington
South Carolina.
He was a prominent member of the local community, and Amy Spain was just a young girl at the
time.
She worked at Spain’s settlement, and was given his surname showing who she belonged
to.
At the time the American Civil War was occurring, and she would be executed in the final days
of the conflict.
Amy would have worked in the rich cotton growing districts, and at the time a part of the union
army occupied the town of Darlington that she worked and lived in.
Amy when she saw the Union army coming in said, ‘Bless the Lord, the Yankees have
come,’ and she could not hold back her emotions.
She had been held a slave for some time, and she believed that as the Union forces entered
the town, that she was to be freed and that her slavery would come to an end.
She was most likely overcome with a huge outburst of emotions believing she would get her freedom.
At this time in the town, many white residents had left and deserted, and most of the adult
men had also left.
Because of this, the Union commander then allowed that inside of Darlington, any slaves
could take the belongings of the people that had left.
This was seen as a wholesome act for the slaves, and they were allowed the possessions of the
people who had abandoned, and many of these belongings belonged to white people, many
of whom owned slaves themselves.
Part of Sherman’s cavalry occupied the town, and they passed through and they treated the
women well and they did not say an unkind word to the slaves either.
But the men would have guilty consciences for allowing the slaves to in a sense take
the possessions of others.
Amy Spain and her brother because of the order took some mahogany furniture from one of the
homes, and they moved this to an abandoned warehouse.
They also took, ‘linen, sheets, pillow cases, flour, sugar, lard and some furniture,’
from the home of their former master.
They wanted to get even, and this was too right as they had been held for years, and
it’s likely Amy and her brother knew nothing else.
But the Union Army then moved from the town, and the residents came back.
They found many of their possessions missing, and then confederate soldiers led by General
Joseph Wheeler returned and took up barracks in the town again.
The people who remained then turned on Amy Spain, and they said that she was the one
who was the ringleader in looting and stealing the possessions.
She also said that she had told Union soldiers where the valuables inside certain homes were
hidden, and then the union soldiers took these places where they looted themselves.
Amy Spain the young 17 year old girl was then arrested and she was quickly sentenced to
death.
She had been charged and found guilty of ‘treason and conduct unbecoming a slave,’ by a confederate
military tribunal.
She even acted in her own defence, and it was said ‘Amy Spain heroically heard her
death sentence,’ and from her prison bars declared she was prepared to die.
She defied her persecutors and she amended the scaffold and declared she was going to
a place where she would received a grown of glory.
She was rudely interrupted by an oath from one of her executioner, to the eternal disgrace
of Darlington her execution was acquiesced in and witnessed by most of the citizens of
her town.’
She was to be hanged on a Sycamore tree inside the town square.
A rope was rapped around the tree, and then the block Amy was stood on was kicked out
from underneath her, and the rope tightened around her.
Amy Spain was just 17 when she was killed.
A newspaper reported her execution and said that ‘her name is now hallowed amongst Africans,’
and her story was printed in many newspapers.
In these publications, many of the residents of the town were blamed and they were considered
racists who persecuted her, and that they were angry because some menial possessions
were lost.
Major Spain her master was interviewed and he 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 17.’
His words were chilling, as the violent termination he referred to was the brutal execution of
a young girl who had been given permission to loot from Union soldiers, who treated her
well, and who would have freed her from slavery.
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