GREER, S.C. — I think most folks would agree burning someone at the stake would certainly qualify as cruel and unusual punishment. 

It’s just the kind of extreme form of capital punishment our forefathers had in mind when they put that prohibition into the United States Constitution. 

They, no doubt, had heard stories and read accounts of people who had been put to the torch in Europe during the Middle Ages for heresy and similar charges leveled by the Church. 

Even in the early days of America, this barbaric form of criminal execution happened on at least a couple of occasions. 

In Roxbury, Mass., in 1681 an enslaved woman named Maria was burned publicly after being convicted of setting her master’s home ablaze. 

Again, in Massachusetts, as late as 1755, another enslaved woman named Phillis (sic) was burned alive after being convicted of attempting to poison her master. 

It would be hoped that after 1755 and the establishment of our nation some 20 years later that a kinder, gentler spirit would prevail and there would be no more horrendous executions by fire. Perhaps we learned our lesson.

Enter Nimrod Underwood. He was the “high sheriff” of Greenville County, S.C., between the years 1824 and 1828. 

Little is known about Underwood’s years as Greenville County’s chief law enforcer, but one terrible event would come to define who he was, and how he dealt with criminal activity. 

The late Greenville County historian Mann Batson included this story in his book, “A History of the Upper Part of Greenville County, South Carolina.” He cited a contemporary newspaper account as follows:

“Mr. Pete Garrison arrived home late in the evening and went into a dark building to get fodder for his horse. He surprised a man who was hiding in the building and Mr. Garrison was killed. The killer was arrested, brought to Greenville and condemned to die. Sheriff Nimrod Underwood hired a man to burn the condemned prisoner at the stake. The execution took place on Pendleton Street about one mile from the courthouse. The sheriff had 30 men as guards. There were four men who stood around the altar (pyre) with lightwood torches, and the sheriff stood with his sword drawn over his right shoulder. When he brought it down, the four men put their torches to the tar and shavings.”

Other details about this tragic event are sketchy, and probably for good reason. The citizens of Greenville were undoubtedly anxious to put this barbaric episode behind them. 

I could not find the name of the victim nor the year this all took place, but, of course, we assume it was during Sheriff Underwood’s tenure, which was, as we mentioned previously, between 1824 and 1828. 

Strangely enough, this wasn’t the last recorded execution by fire in the United States, or even in South Carolina. 

The last documented burning took place in 1830 in Abbeville, S.C., where an enslaved man named Jerry was brutally burned at the stake.