Jim Williams (militia leader)

Jim Williams (c. 1830 – March 6, 1871) was an African-American soldier and militia leader in the 1860s and 1870s in York County, South Carolina.

He escaped from the Rainey plantation during the Civil War and joined the Union Army, where he eventually fought under General William Tecumseh Sherman in Georgia and the Carolinas[dubious – discuss].

After the war, Rainey changed his surname to Williams and returned to York County and married a woman named Rose, with whom he fathered two kids, and a previous son from his first Wife Olli Dunovant or Dunnavant who was possibly of Barbadian descent .

Caldwell used a knife to hack at William's fingers until he released, whence he "died cursing, pleading and praying all in one breath.

[3] The mob visited several other homes of men involved in the Union League militia, succeeding in gathering 23 guns but no other members.

Companies B, E, and K of George Armstrong Custer's Seventh U.S. Cavalry led by Major Lewis Merrill arrived in the area to try to quell the violence.

[4] In October 1871, Hill and his nephews led a large group of local blacks immigrating to Liberia to escape the violence.