Kingstree jail fire

Kingstree jail fire

"Twenty-Two Negro Prisoners Burned to Death," detail of Southern Justice (Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, March 23, 1867)
Date	January 7, 1867 (1867-01-07)
Time	8 p.m. (EST)
Location	Williamsburg County Jail Kingstree, South Carolina
Type	Building fire
Cause	Unknown
Perpetrator	Unknown
Deaths	22
Non-fatal injuries	1 smoke-inhalation injury
Property damage	Four-story building destroyed
Arrests	3
Convicted	0
Charges	Reckless negligence, murder
Trial	April 10–12, 1867
Verdict	Not guilty

The Kingstree jail fire killed 22 prisoners on the evening of Monday, January 7, 1867, in the Williamsburg County seat of Kingstree, South Carolina, United States. One white prisoner escaped the building and survived, but all of the African-American prisoners, incarcerated on the third floor, were killed. Attempts to rescue the 19 men and 3 women left in the building were ineffective. By the time action was taken, the billowing smoke and heat were overwhelming.

The cause of the fire was never made public. Some sources speculate that the prisoners caused the fire, while others contest this claim. More than half a century after the fact, a book on local history alleged the fire was started by the building's solitary white male prisoner, who was reportedly in jail for unpaid debts. He may have had permission to roam the building unencumbered, while the freedmen (jailed for assorted non-violent charges) were kept upstairs behind locked doors.

There was apparently a marked delay in obtaining the jail keys and attempting a rescue, such that the U.S. Army had the responsible parties arrested and imprisoned. All three, Sheriff Samuel P. Mathews, deputy Jacob S. Beck, and assistant James P. Barrineau, were acquitted on charges of negligence and murder by a jury in a Williamsburg County court.