Historic Brattonsville in McConnells, S.C. is working on a new exhibit focusing on four people enslaved at the plantation at the center of the historic site. Bob, Lewis, Henry and James Williams all fled Bratton Plantation in search of freedom. The exhibit will be part of the Network to Freedom program of the National Park Service which supports work on the Underground Railroad and sites connected to African American freedom seekers.
Jim Williams will be the central figure in the new exhibit. Williams had been enslaved for thirty years when he saw an opportunity to escape during the Civil War. Williams joined the Union army and after the war he returned to the area where he had been enslaved and led civil rights efforts there during Reconstruction. He helped organize the local Union League to defend Blacks against mounting attacks from the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1871 hundreds of whites in York County, where the Brattonsville plantation is located, participated in mob attacks on African Americans and Klan night rides. Eight blacks were murdered. On March 6, 1871 a group of seventy Klansmen, led by a former Confederate surgeon, captured Jim Williams and lynched him. Klan violence continued for moths afterwards, although elements of the United States Seventh Cavalry were active in efforts to suppress it.
Major Lewis Merrill, a Civil War veteran, led Company K of the Seventh Cavalry into York after the killing of Jim Williams. The army major found that Blacks were so terrified that some were sleeping in the woods at night in fear of Klan raids. According to Merrill “I never conceived of such a state of social disorganization being possible in any civilized community.” The violence so frightened the local community that many Blacks left the county, with some seeking refuge in Liberia.
On October 20, 1871, with authorization from President Grant, Merrill’s cavalrymen began a roundup of Klansmen that the captain had spent months gathering evidence against. More than a hundred accused Klansmen were arrested in a few weeks.
Until the 21st Century, the Brattonsville site was basically a Moonlight and Magnolias place of historic whitewashing. The Bratton family’s enrichment through the ownership of slaves and the family’s leadership of the Klan were barely acknowledged.
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That’s remarkable I’m going to do some background on my family
I am a 5th generation descendant and am happy to answer questions. lbratton@tuskegee.edu
That’s my great great grand father my grand fathers Grand father I’m so sadden by the news of this but I’m so happy to know that his name lived on an he will forever live thru me Leila Higginbotham his First born grandsons first born Granddaughter my Grand Fathers name is Bratton Higginbotham His mother is Rose who is the daughter of James Jim’s Only Son Henry Bratton I can’t wait to come visit
Leila, I have been looking for your family! My great-great-grandfather, Green Bratton, was Henry’s (and his sister’s) father so we are related. You posted in 2022 so this may be a long shot to reach you, but maybe someone else seeing this can connect us! Everyone at Brattonsville knows me so you when you visit, just ask!