Brattonsville’s Little Known Fight for Freedom

Historic Brattonsville in South Carolina’s Olde English District is a little-known historic village with a big story. Its history began in the 1760s when three Bratton brothers settled here. The Brattons became wealthy slave owners. The village features over 30 structures, an 800 acre plantation, and a Revolutionary War battlefield site.

On a recent visit to Brattonsville for the By the Sweat of Our Brow Festival, I learned fascinating stories of its history from the American Revolution through Reconstruction. Did you know there was a Black version of Paul Revere and a lynching where justice was never achieved?

By the Sweat of Our Brow Festival

Every September, descendants of Brattonsville’s enslaved community gather to honor their ancestral legacy. Onsite period-dressed living history interpreters provide insights. Our docent, Carey Tilley, shared historical information.

One stone monument, The Battle of Huck’s Defeat Marker, tells about the battle that occurred nearby. The other is the only tombstone for an enslaved person in the Brattonsville Slave Cemetery. It reads, “sacred to the memory of Watt who died Dec. 1837 during the war he served his master Col. W. Bratton faithfully and his children with fidelity until his death. Polly, his wife who died July 1838, served the same family with equal faithfulness.”

A Patriot and a Slave

Tilley led us to the porch of a small white house—the former home of William Bratton in 1780. He told the story of a day that changed history. Most people in the backcountry of South Carolina sided with the king, but the Brattons were Patriots. When Charleston fell to the British, they considered South Carolina conquered and wanted to move on and take North Carolina.

But they knew troublemakers, including Colonel William Bratton, remained in the backcountry and they wanted to arrest them. They sent Captain Christian Huck, one of the proud Dragoons who considered themselves the elite fighters of the British Army, to the backcountry to carry out the arrests.

When they arrived, Colonel Bratton was gone. Huck harassed Bratton’s wife, Martha, who claimed she didn’t know her husband’s whereabouts. Huck’s men left and set up camp a short distance away at the Williamson Plantation.

Meanwhile, Martha sent one of the enslaved men, Watt, to warn her husband. Notably, at the time, the British allowed the enslaved to joint their side and be free. But Watt remained loyal to the Bratton’s. Had he joined the British, he would have gained his freedom but never saw his family again. It’s possible the Brattons treated their enslaved people decently, as most took the family name after Emancipation.

After Watt warned Colonel Bratton about the British, the Patriot Army—these were militia, not trained regulars—attacked the British at sunrise. The British Dragoons were considered the best fighting force in the world. But the Patriots took them by surprise, and it was a major Patriot victory. Casualties for the British were some 60 to 80 out of 130 men. Patriots lost one man.

The Brick House in Brattonsville

Another story revolves around a descendant of  plantation owner John Simpson Bratton, Sr., the youngest son of Col. William Bratton. His grandson John Ruffus Bratton is the villain of the story. John Sr. began the plantation store called The Brick House. He died before its completion and his widow finished the construction in 1843.

The Brick House served a variety of purposes in the community. A store occupied the largest room of the first floor and carried an inventory of dry goods, groceries, clothing, farm supplies, and hardware. As the center of the community, it served as a post office, and a voting place through 1861. In 1871 the Brick House’s story took a tragic turn.

The story is recreated through the award-winning exhibit “Liberty & Resistance: Reconstruction and the African American Community at Brattonsville 1865-1877.” Village historian, Zach Lemhouse, told the rest of the story.

The Tragic Story of James Williams

Before Emancipation, James Williams was owned by Samuel Rainey, John Bratton’s brother-in-law, but leased to John Simpson Bratton Jr. In 1865, Williams escaped and joined the Union Army. He served for about 18 months before returning home in 1866. He became an active civil rights leader in York County.

Between the fall of 1870 and the spring of 1871, there were around 600 beatings and 11 murders perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan in York County.

In 1869, Robert Kingston Scott, the governor of South Carolina, established the South Carolina National Guard to suppress the violence. Scott intended to establish an integrated National Guard, but that never happened.

Many of the companies became segregated and Williams became captain of Company A of the 14th Regiment of the South Carolina National Guard, an all-black company.

In the early morning hours of March 7, 1871, a group of Ku Klux led by Captain James Rufus Bratton, raided Williams’s home. His wife Rosa denied knowing his whereabouts. Bratton suggested looking under the floorboards. There they found Williams.

They lynched him and confiscated the guns the governor had given this National Guard company. The York County coroner was summoned to an inquest into the murder. On March 7, 1871, the coroner took Captain Williams’s body to the only public space in the general area where that inquest could be conducted, the general store at the Brick House.

A Story of Injustice

Following Williams’ death, President Grant passed the final piece of legislation in a set of three laws known as the Enforcement Acts, a series of laws that makes it illegal to be in the Ku Klux Klan. He also sent federal troops to York County.

At the Klan Trials in Columbia, Williams’s case led to 29 indictments, including James Rufus Bratton and James W. Avery–allegedly the head of the York County Klan.

Of these 29 inditements, one person, Robert Hayes Mitchell, stood trial and was found guilty. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a $100 fine.

Eight other people also pled guilty with a plea deal sentencing them to 18 months in prison and a $100 fine.

Others received no accountability for the murder.  James Rufus Bratton and other leaders fled to Canada. By the time he returned, Reconstruction ended. Bratton lived out his life and died of old age.

Lemhouse concluded, “I will tell you, for those of us who know the story, we are very well aware that his spirit is here. I mean, he couldn’t rest after that much injustice. Those feelings of what he tried to do, and I don’t know what kind of man he was, but he was trying to protect his people’s right to vote.”

 

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