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Furman's Legacy of Slavery: A Digital Exhibition: Belton Oscar Mauldin '1860
Belton Oscar Mauldin, a graduate of the class of 1860, provides a daily account of life and activities for the year 1860 in this journal. Among the entries for January, Mauldin documents:
1. Professor James P. Boyce purchasing a slave of Mauldin’s uncle’s at auction;
2. President James C. Furman cancelling class for his students to attend the hanging of a black man in April;
3. Mauldin's following President Furman around Greenville County to attend his secession speeches in December; and
4.Mauldin’s participation in a series of vigilante actions against Jewish merchants in Greenville in late December, just after secession was declared.
The following year, Mauldin put off plans to travel in Europe and enlisted with the 2nd S.C. Cavalry, where he served until 1865. After the war, he became a commercial salesman based in Charleston.
In terms of the economic value of enslaved persons, the numbers come to us by way of a student journal of Belton Oscar Mauldin, from 1860 (microfilm, Special Collections). More importantly, the journal even indicates the participation of Furman’s own faculty. Furman faculty member and founder of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, James P. Boyce bought a person for $4000 ($114,100 today), although the journal expresses that “everybody” thought he overpaid. Twenty-four children, separated from their families, were also part of the auction, and ranged from 2 to 12 years old.