Eighty residents of Clarendon, Claremont, and Richland districts and St. John's and St. Steven's parishes seek a reward for a slave named Royal, who provided information about the location of the camp of a runaway gang leader named Joe, or Forest, which led to Joe's capture. During the administration of Governor Thomas Bennett (1820-1822), the executive branch offered a reward, as did the relatives of a white man named Ford who had been murdered by Joe; however, the runaway was "so cunning and artful as to elude pursuit." Emboldened by his success, he "plunged deeper and deeper into Crime, until neither fear nor danger could deter him first from threatening and then from executing a train of mischief we believe quite without a parrallel in this Country." They report that a number of "runaways flew to his Camp, and he soon became their head and their life." Joe inspired his followers with the "most Wild and dangerous enthusiasm" and he continued as leader of his band for four years, inculcating among his fellow slaves "the most dangerous notions" of "insubordination and insurrections." His activities kept whites in "a constant state of uneasiness and alarm." In October 1823, residents organized several infantry companies and scoured various sections along the Santee river and its tributaries, but the distances (sixty miles by land) and extremely hot weather wore them down. About to give up, they were surprised when a slave named Royal, belonging to Mrs. Perrin of Richland District, revealed the location of Joe's camp. The militia startled the runaways, who had a boat and muskets but failed to escape; Joe and three of his followers were shot and killed on the spot, and the others were dispersed. Most of them were either hunted down and killed, or captured and hanged. The petitioners therefore pray that "this slave on account of his good Conduct and faithfulness" be rewarded for the services he rendered.
Result: Referred to claims committee.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
