Victim’s Viewpoint: Charner Gordon
Written by Nathan Johnson, UCCRP History + Research Committee Chair; Park Manager, Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site
On January 4, 1871, Charner Gordon was one of five Black men removed from the Union Jail by a group of white men and forced to walk about a half-mile north of the town, where he was murdered. His life was taken from him, cut short when he was only 21 years old.
Before his murder, Charner Gordon probably had looked forward to the future. He had experienced rapid change and exciting progress in his short lifetime, from the abolition of chattel slavery to the inclusion of Black people as citizens of the United States through constitutional amendments.
Charner had been born into slavery in South Carolina around 1849.[1] It is unknown who enslaved him and his mother Mary Johnson (also known by the surnames Herndon and Prater). Charner was enslaved through his entire childhood, but as he became a young man, there was hope on the horizon. In early 1865, the defeat of the Confederacy resulted in the emancipation of four million people throughout the nation. The 16-year-old Charner was among the roughly 11,000 people freed from slavery in Union County, where they formed a clear majority over the county’s 8,000 or so freeborn citizens, the overwhelming majority of whom were white.[2]
As people like Charner emerged from slavery and war, they faced new possibilities, challenges, and choices. In 1867, Charner’s mother Mary contracted for him to work for former slaveholder Samuel J. Ray for one year. Hiring out Charner may have been a difficult decision for Mary, but it brought her $60 in silver or gold, paid in full on the first day of 1868.[3] This was likely the first time that she or Charner were compensated with money for their labor.
The money that Charner earned probably enabled his mother Mary to buy an acre and a half of land by 1868.[4] And it was the fact that Mary was able to buy land that may have enabled her to gather together her children – possibly all separated during slavery – under one roof in a house that she owned. By 1870, her sons Charner Gordon and Balaam Abrams (as well as another possible son Adolphus Johnson), her daughter Susanna Abrams, and her grandson John Cannon all lived in her household.[5] Although no personal papers or accounts survive to shine light on more of Mary’s story, her strength and determination are apparent, even through the limited perspective of census records, contracts, and deeds.
It is no stretch to assume that Charner looked up to his mother. Mary had accomplished in less than five years what only some formerly enslaved people were able to do. It is also no stretch to assume that Charner looked up to his older brother Balaam, who seized further opportunities for equal citizenship for Black people.
Balaam was old enough to register to vote in 1868.[6] He, along with other Black men in Union County, cast ballots in 1868 and 1870 that revealed the power of their newfound citizenship rights. They elected a state senator, three state legislators, three county commissioners, and a school commissioner.[7] Six of these eight newly elected men were Black and all eight of them were Republican, signaling a sea change in state politics, where Democrats previously had a stronghold and restricted the ballot to only white men.
The period in which all this change occurred is known as Reconstruction, and it is the historical context in which a group of men decided to murder Charner Gordon. Sometime after 1869, Charner joined his brother Balaam and enrolled in the state militia.[8] Although Charner likely was proud or eager to serve in the militia, his enrollment set him on a collision course that he could not foresee. He did not know his life would be taken as part of a terrible wave of racial violence, perpetrated and excused by people who believed that Black men had no right to govern or serve in South Carolina.
In the last few days of Charner Gordon’s life, he sat in a jail cell, awaiting trial for a murder for which there was flimsy evidence of his involvement. That trial never happened. In the last few minutes of his life, Charner found himself in the hands of criminals, pleading for mercy from men who showed him none.
Charner was one of many Black men who were unjustly lynched throughout the South. His accomplishments, plans, and dreams for life as a freed man were severely cut short. Charner's ultimate sacrifice was remembered during those days and still today as we memorialize victims of the Jail Raid Lynchings of 1871 in Union County, South Carolina.
[1] 1870 Federal Census for Union Township, Union County, South Carolina, p. 11. It can be said for certain that Charner and his mother were enslaved because they are referred to as “freed boy” and “freedwoman” in the labor contract below.
[2] Population numbers are based off the 1860 federal census and slave schedules for Union County, South Carolina.
[3] Agreement between S.J. Ray and Mary Herndon, U[nion] D[istrict], January 17, 1867. Records of the Field Offices for the State of South Carolina, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
[4] Union County Clerk of Court, Book B20, pp. 346-350. It is worth noting that Mary transacted for this land on January 13, 1868, almost immediately after she would have received the money for Charner’s work. Mary Prater had a one-year mortgage on the property, which the previous owner sold to her for $100. Mary must have paid the mortgage as she later sold the land to her son Balaam Abrams for $100 in 1878. See Union County Clerk of Court, Book G25, pp. 253-254. Mary then can be found in the 1880 census living in her daughter Susanna Abrams’ household. See 1880 Federal Census for Enumeration District 108, Town of Newberry, Newberry County, South Carolina, p. 6. Balaam held onto his mother’s land (and likely lived there) until he sold it in 1918.
[5] 1870 Federal Census for Union Township, Union County, South Carolina, p. 11. It is worth noting that John Cannon, born in 1868, was the first freeborn child in this household, and that Adolphus Johnson, who was attending school, was the first person in this household to legally gain the ability to read and write.
[6] Unionville Precinct Registrations, Abstracts of Voter Registrations Reported to the Military Government, 1868, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.
[7] Hiram W. Duncan (white) was elected state senator in 1868. Simeon Farr (Black), Junius S. Mobley (Black), and Samuel Nuckles (Black) were elected state representatives in 1868. Simpson Giles (Black), John Tinsley (Black), and H.R. White (white) were elected county commissioners in 1870. G. Berry Cannon (Black) was elected school commissioner in 1870.
[8] Balaam Abrams appears in the Unionville section (men between 18 and 30 years old) of the Military Enrollments for Union County, Adjutant and Inspector General of South Carolina, Military Department Records, South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Charner Gordon cannot be found in these records.
