After the American Revolution ended, farmers were under mounting economic pressure as merchants and banks restricted credit at a moment when the colonies were experiencing a shortage of hard currency. Lacking cash to pay debts and taxes, many rural colonists faced the prospect of losing their land or even imprisonment, and they used a variety of methods to express their grievances against an economic and political system that seemed to be stacked against them. One response was to disrupt court proceedings against the indebted. This account, written by Judge John F. Grimke of South Carolina, describes the events of April 27 and 28, 1785, when a crowd of local citizens (whom Grimke characterized as “malcontents”) prevented the court from hearing cases. The crowd’s willingness to challenge the existing social order meant that Grimke’s faith in the area’s “gentlemen” to restore order proved mistaken.
. . . [O]n the morning of the 27th Gen. Henderson & Mr Brown waited on me at my Quarters and informed me of the arrival of the Malcontents the night before and that they were extremely resolute and determined to stop the proceedings of the Court of Common Pleas . . . I still flattered myself that if I could disconcert or suspend their operations but for a Day, that the Gentlemen of the District who were present would immediately collect a sufficient force to deter them from their proceedings. The presence however of these Gentlemen had no such Effect on their minds, for I had not taken my Seat on the bench in the Criminal Court above half an hour before one of the Party began to call over a list of several names . . . I soon suspected from the unusual agitation which I perceived the persons in Court to be in that this was intended as a signal and was preparatory to something more serious and probably decisive. I therefor ordered the Sheriff to enquire of him why he called out those names and who he was -- to which Questions as he would make no reply I commanded the Sheriff to apprehend him, so loud that Hill (for that was his name as I was afterward informed) must have heard me, but he was so far from being intimidated that he proceeded leisurely in calling over the list of names as before, whilst the Sheriff was employed in engaging several Persons to assist him to apprehend Hill. During this short Interval and Delay on the part of the Sheriff, I perceived a party collecting round Hill as with an Intention of repelling the Sheriff. Therefore, I rose from the Bench and thinking a further Exertion on my part was necessary, I questioned him concerning his behaviour and the Insult he was offering to the Court; hoping that it would daunt himself, prevent others from supporting him as they would be more immediately under my own Eye and give a further time for the Sheriff to collect a party for this business, but he replied to me tauntingly that it was “not many words that would fill a bushell,” and the persons surrounding him not relinquishing their stand as I reasonably expected, I turned to the Grand Jury and addressed them in a short speech adapted to awaken their Resentment for the Outrage offered to the Court and this Insult to the Laws of their Country. I hoped that by calling on them in so sudden and decisive a manner that it would certainly have operated on Hill and his party so strongly as to have caused them to have abandoned so impudent an attempt but I was again mistaken, which when I perceived during my address to the Grand Jury, I suddenly descended from the Bench and invited them to assist me in apprehending Hill. This step alarmed the Malcontents and they immediately fled crying out “here he comes, here he comes.” The Grand Jury surrounding me dismayed me from pursuing the fugitives, alleging that altho’ they were ready and willing to support the Dignity of the court, that they were sensible they would be overpowered by numbers. Perceiving that none of the Gentlemen of the most extensive influence in the District were present at this moment, I thought it most advisable to return to the Bench and resume the business of the Court. . . .
The Day following, the Court was occupied until 6 oClock in the Evening in the trial of the Criminals . . . In the mean time I employed a Gentleman . . . to attend the Conversation and Conduct of the several Companies collected in the town and to inform me whether the intended effect had taken place with regard to the Jury. He informed me that a very large majority of the Persons assembled at the Court approved of the intermission of the proceedings of the Court of Common Pleas, altho’ they highly condemned the mode which Hill and his Party had adopted to suspend its process . . . The Sheriff confirming the Report, I thought it needless on the next day to summon a Jury, as the same fears which had operated on the Original Jurors so forcibly would most probably be transmitted to them. . . . I adjourned the Court to the next sitting thereof in November.
