Mystery of Pickens County Courthouse Face
The face is said to be the remnants of emancipated slave Henry Wells, who according to legend, was arrested in January 1878 for robbing of a store and burning of the Pickens County Courthouse on November 16, 1876. This is the county’s second courthouse as the first one was destroyed during the American Civil War (1861 – 1865). The arrest of Wells comes after the Reconstruction era (1865-1877), a period where the Reconstruction Amendments (Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments) guaranteed freedom and civil rights to the freed slaves.
