South Carolina governor candidate says she was unaware her ancestor owned dozens of slaves

When Catherine Templeton spoke at Bob Jones University earlier this month, she talked at length about her South Carolina heritage and her family’s involvement in the Confederacy.

“I think it’s important to note that my family didn’t fight because we had slaves,” the Republican candidate for governor said during her speech on Feb. 1. “My family fought because the federal government was trying to tell us how to live. We didn’t need them to tell us how to live way back then, and we don’t need them to tell us how to live today.”

Although Templeton did not specifically address whether her family owned slaves at the BJU appearance, she said after another recent speech in Greenville that she was unaware one of her ancestors owned 66 slaves.

“This campaign is about the future, not about the past," Templeton said in an interview after a speech Tuesday to the Upstate Republican Women at The Poinsett Club in Greenville.

She also said, "I embrace my family, warts and all."

Templeton declined a request for a follow-up interview on Wednesday, though her campaign communications director, Mark Powell, emailed a statement: "Catherine Templeton is completely focused on fixing the problems we face today — corruption running rampant in Columbia and a bloated state government that costs taxpayers too much."

More: GOP governor's candidate Catherine Templeton campaigns in Greenville

Templeton did not talk about the Confederacy in her speech on Tuesday, but she did in another Upstate appearance last year.

At a town hall meeting in Easley on Aug. 1, 2017, an event hosted by the Pickens County Republican Party, a man who identified himself as a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans asked Templeton about her views on “Southern heritage and Southern defense," according to published reports.

Templeton responded that she would not "rewrite history" by trying to tear down Confederate monuments in the state.

"I’m proud to be from South Carolina," she said. "I’m proud of the Confederacy."

The Upstate is regarded as a Republican stronghold where support for the Confederacy lingers.

In July 2015, four days before the state House of Representatives approved a measure to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds, more than 100 people attended a Confederate flag rally in Anderson.

Fifteen of the 23 lawmakers who voted against removing the banner were Upstate Republicans.

In her speech at Bob Jones this month, Templeton said her father was named for another relative who was wounded while fighting as a Confederate soldier during the Civil War.

"Someone asked me tonight if I’m from South Carolina. So my great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather came here in the late 1700s, and my family’s been here ever since," she said. "In fact, my father was named after Judge William Brawley, who fought for this state, fought in the Battle of Seven Pines, even lost an arm for this state."

Census records show that William Brawley's father, plantation owner Hiram Clark Brawley, owned 66 slaves in Chester County in 1860, two years before the Battle of Seven Pines happened in Virginia.

Some criticized Templeton for her remarks at Bob Jones University.

More: Catherine Templeton touts Confederate roots and outsider status

More: Democrats react to Catherine Templeton's Confederate comments

Bakari Sellers, a former Democratic state representative and CNN contributor, posted on Twitter, "How should we start Black History Month?... Let's go to Bob Jones and tout the Confederacy."

Joseph McGill, a Charleston historian and founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, said the number of slaves that Hiram Brawley owned in 1860 was "pretty substantial."

There were 909 slave owners in Chester County in 1860, and the number owned by Hiram Brawley ranked in the top 35, according to Census records compiled by the University of Virginia Library's Historical Census Browser, which is now closed, and socialexplorer.com, an award-winning data website.

Hiram Brawley died in 1862, and Chester County probate records show that his 66 slaves were valued at $32,200, an amount that would equate to more than $900,000 in today's dollars.

Scanned copies of the probate records were provided to The Greenville News by Carmen Harris, a U.S. history professor at the University of South Carolina Upstate. The News independently verified the accuracy of the records.

William Brawley returned home to manage the family's plantation for two years after his father died, according to historical reports. He later studied law in Europe and became a solicitor in South Carolina. He served in the South Carolina Infantry during the Civil War and was elected to the state House of Representatives and then Congress before being appointed as a federal judge in 1894, according to Biographical Directory of the United State Congress.

Chester County was a cotton-growing area in the mid-1800s.

"The cotton farmers were making big money," McGill said. "Economics had everything to do with it."

Templeton, a lawyer from Charleston, ran two state agencies under former Gov. Nikki Haley. The 47-year-old married mother of three is seeking elected office for the first time.

Templeton is among four Republicans challenging incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster in the June 12 statewide primary. The other GOP candidates are Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant of Anderson, Greenville businessman John Warren and former Lt. Gov. Yancey McGill.

Three Democrats — Charleston consultant Phil Noble, state Rep. James Smith and Florence attorney Marguerite Willis, who is a Greenville native — are competing for the opportunity to face the Republican nominee in the Nov. 6 general election.

Reporter Nathaniel Cary contributed to this report. Follow Kirk Brown on Twitter @KirkBrown_AIM and email him at kirk.brown@independentmail.com