Elias Hill

Elias Hill (c. 1819 - March 28, 1872) was a Baptist minister and leader of a York County, South Carolina congregation that emigrated to Arthington, Liberia. In May 1871, during the Reconstruction era, he was among the victims in a series of attacks in York County against local blacks by members of the Ku Klux Klan. His situation received wide attention on account of his condition, as Hill had been stricken by an illness while a child which had left him crippled with his arms and legs in a withered state. He was known for preaching about rights and equality, and taught local children how to read and write.

Early life

Elias Hill was born in 1819 to Dorcas and Elias in York County, South Carolina. According to the younger Elias his father was born in Africa. He was stricken with a disease at age seven in 1826 which left him crippled. Some observers described him as a dwarf, and he described the disease as rheumatism, but it was probably polio. It may also have been muscular dystrophy; in any case, he was crippled in one arm and leg. As an adult, his legs remained extremely skinny, his arms were withered, and his jaw was deformed. While still young, Hill's father purchased the freedom of his wife, Hill's mother, for $150. Hill's master included the crippled boy in the transaction.

The Hills were owned by a famous Hill family, which included future Confederate general Daniel Harvey Hill. Unable to perform manual labor, Elias learned to read and write alongside white school children on the Hill plantation. No one objected to having such a compromised child hanging around the school. Thus Hill gained certain privileges, but he was also ridiculed for his condition by other children. Federal officials described Hill as the 'chief spiritual, social and political adviser for all the Negroes in this section'. In February 1871, Hill met with local Ku Klux Klan (KKK) leaders to negotiate the safety of blacks in the community. The KKK worked to impose white supremacy in the postwar South. Around February 12, eight black men were killed by 500 to 700 whites in black gowns with masks; these murders were followed by nightly Klan raids for months.

The mob visited several other homes of men involved in the Union League militia, succeeding in gathering 23 guns but no other members. Members of the league swore vengeance, but did not act. 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, Hill stepped in to lead the League, now in disarray. In another raid, Hill's nephews, Solomon Hill and June Moore, were attacked and forced to renounce their Republican Party affiliation in the local paper, the Yorkville Enquirer.

This was the first episode of Ku Klux Klan violence which Merrill witnessed in York County, and he was unable to step in to protect the black citizens. Eight days after the attack, Merrill met with community leaders demanding change, although violence continued over the summer.

Emigration to Liberia Hill was afraid for his life and contacted Congressman Alexander S. Wallace and the American Colonization Society, seeking to escape the United States. Along with 135 other blacks, he sailed across the Atlantic to settle in Liberia in October 1871. Before leaving, he testified before a congressional committee that emigration was the best solution: "We do not believe it is possible from the past history and present aspect of affairs, for our people to live in this country peaceably and educate and elevate their children to any degree which they desire."

Conditions in Liberia were much worse than colonists had been told. Colonists believed that mortality and illness were low. However, as many as 20% of immigrants would die of malaria. And Hill discovered when he arrived that the government was in "great disorder". Liberia's president, Edward James Roye, was overthrown in late 1871 in the wake of a financial scandal and was assassinated in early 1872. Hill died of malaria on March 28, 1872, after only six months in Liberia.

Legacy The Clay Hill congregation remained in Arthington. Hill and Moore, run by Hill's nephews, became a major firm in Liberia and its success enabled the pair to endow a nearby Baptist institute.

The story of Elias Hill also inspired Katharine DuPre Lumpkin's novel Eli Hill, which was written in the 1950s and published in 2020 by University of Georgia Press.

The historian Brian Kelly recounts Hill's activist trajectory during Reconstruction to illustrate the 'steep reversal' from 'millennialist elation at jubilee to deep despondency a few short years later' experienced by African Americans between the end of the Civil War and the violent collapse of Reconstruction.