HAMBURG, S.C. - This once-proud river and railroad town, a rival to Augusta three decades before the Civil War, is now a flooded and almost forgotten Aiken County hamlet, overshadowed by a far brighter skyline to the west and the ragged highway that climbs the incline that bears its founder's name, Schultz Hill.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
|
|
Have a thought?
Go to the Forums or Chat.
|
|
|
|
Prince R. Rivers, from left, Charles D. Haynes and Samuel J. Lee, all S.C. state Representatives, were the founders of Aiken County
Special
|
|
Aiken historian Owen Clary says the creation of Aiken County was the result of reconstruction politics.
Ron Cockerille/Staff
|
|
More than most places, though, Hamburg is the cradle of Aiken County, the only South Carolina county born during the racial violence of the Reconstruction era.
On March 10, 1871, Aiken County was created by an act of a Legislature dominated by blacks and Radical Republicans, according to Isabel Vandervelde's history of the county.
Two of the three black lawmakers central to the county's genesis owned farms just outside Hamburg and called the town their home: ex-slave and Union Army combat veteran Prince Rivers and freeman Samuel J. Lee, the speaker of the House and the first black man admitted to the South Carolina Bar.
The other prime player was Charles D. Hayne, a freeman from one of Charleston's elite, light-skinned families who also served in the Confederate Army, defending the city against attacks by Union troops, including Mr. Rivers' unit. He served as Aiken's postmaster until 1880.
Five years after Aiken County was born, open warfare between white Democrats and ex-Confederates on one side and former slaves and Radical Republicans on the other was a catalyst of Reconstruction's demise. In the Hamburg Massacre of July 1876, two blacks and one white were killed in battle and five blacks were summarily executed by white paramilitary forces. Another deadly clash was the Ellenton Massacre, in which 30 blacks were killed.
Like the river-covered streets of Hamburg itself, the story of Aiken County's birth and the role played by an ex-slave and two freemen is not widely known.
"They never told me about what happened before I was born," said Jerry Cannon, 96, who lived in predominantly black Hamburg with his uncle in 1920 and remembers toting breakfast to his father, who worked in a nearby brickyard. "Nobody told me that."
Mr. Rivers, Mr. Hayne and Mr. Lee are listed on a courthouse stone-and-bronze marker celebrating Aiken County's 125th anniversary, but their race is not. Nor is there mention of the South's occupation by federal troops.
More telling, perhaps, is the small gilded frame hanging in the Aiken County Historical Museum on Newberry Street that displays reproduced sketches of three of the black co-founders: Mr. Rivers, Mr. Lee and Mr. Hayne.
This illustration hangs next to a larger, glass-encased Confederate battle banner and is dwarfed by a gigantic oil portrait of Confederate cavalry Gen. Wade Hampton, who served as governor and U.S. senator and titular leader of the white counterrevolution.
Aiken County's creation story wasn't taught to black schoolchildren growing up in the county during the 1930s and '40s, said the Rev. Nathaniel Irvin Sr., the pastor of Old Storm Branch Baptist Church.
"When it comes down to the founding of Aiken County, it wasn't in print," said the Rev. Irvin, 74, who was born in the Boggy Branch section east of Hamburg. "And once it got into print, it hasn't been given emphasis by the people in authority."
"It's a whisper."
It's also an event rooted in the deadly animosity between Hamburg, the seat of black political and military power in Aiken County, and Edgefield, the center of the Red Shirt counterrevolution, masterminded by two ex-Confederate generals from Edgefield County, Martin Gary and Matthew C. Butler.
A future governor and U.S. senator, "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman of Trenton, was a Red Shirt lieutenant present at the Ellenton and Hamburg massacres.
Their political opposites were Mr. Rivers, arguably the political boss of Aiken County for almost six years after its creation, and Mr. Lee, who became speaker after blacks and Radical Republicans swept into power with the passage of the Reconstruction Act in 1867.
Mr. Rivers headed the commission that drew the new county's boundary lines, carving huge hunks out of Barnwell, Edgefield, Lexington and Orangeburg counties. Dubbed "The Black Prince" by newspapers of the day, including the Edgefield Advertiser, Mr. Rivers led the commission that selected the site of Aiken County's present-day courthouse.
An ace carriage driver and skilled orator and essayist who reportedly learned to read and write while a slave on a Lowcountry plantation near Beaufort, Mr. Rivers wore many political hats. He was a state legislator and a county commissioner; he was also the county registrar and an adjutant general in the black militia, and he later served as mayor, county coroner and justice of the peace.
His farming neighbor, Mr. Lee, was the free mulatto son of a Confederate general, served as a soldier in the Confederate army and was wounded twice. After the war, he was a leader of the black militia, according to Ms. Vandervelde's book Aiken County: The Only South Carolina County Founded During Reconstruction.
Much of what is now Aiken County, including the eastern half of Aiken and the textile mills of William Gregg in Horse Creek Valley, was part of what was then known as the Edgefield District. Edgefield was the 10th wealthiest county in the nation in 1850 and a jurisdiction known for hot-blooded adventurers such as William Travis, the martyred leader of the Alamo.
It was also a seat of power for ardent secessionists such as Gov. Francis Pickens. Its first two incorporated towns were Edgefield, future home of the late Strom Thurmond, and Hamburg, founded in 1821 by Henry Schultz, a German immigrant who had a black wife.
"My theory is that Aiken County was born out of spite," said Owen Clary, a local Aiken historian. "The Radical Republicans in charge of the Legislature wanted to punish Edgefield and Barnwell. They said, 'All right, we'll cut you down to size.' The formation of Aiken County was imposed from above by the state Legislature. It was not a popular uprising."
It is here where the historical take on the co-founders of Aiken County begins to divide sharply. Some historians see them as corrupt pawns of the Radical Republicans and federal occupation forces.
"Prince Rivers and his cronies pretty much controlled Aiken County until 1876," Mr. Clary said. "You can see who ran the county back then."
In her book, Ms. Vandervelde disagrees.
"Blacks need real heroes, and no figure is more heroic than The Black Prince, ex-slave Prince Rivers, one of Aiken County's co-founders. ... His record as a legislator is that of a thoughtful man dedicated to ideals," she wrote.
After the counterrevolution of 1876, Mr. Rivers moved to Aiken, named for William Aiken of Charleston, first president of the South Carolina Railroad and Canal Co. In the 1880 census, Mr. Rivers listed his occupation as house painter.
He worked at the Highland Park Hotel, writes Ms. Vandervelde, and dusted off his skills as a coachman, driving a carriage for William C. Langley. He died April 13, 1887, at age 65 of Bright's disease, a deterioration of the kidneys, and is buried in Columbia.
The Rev. Irvin, noting the bridges and highways named for Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, thinks Mr. Rivers' name should also be on a public edifice.
"Prince Rivers' name isn't highlighted, and it ought to be," he said. "If you're going to be historically inclined, you ought to publicize what these men did to create this county under dire circumstances."
Reach Jim Nesbitt at (803) 648-1395 or jim.nesbitt@augustachronicle.com.
