Charles Charity Annals of Newberry, Part Two by John A. Chapman, page 508 "Charles Charity was a negro; an old man when I first knew him, which was more than fifty years ago. I saw him as he visited my father (his guardian). He had been freed by the General Government, and for several years before his death received a pension on account of service rendered as a private soldier in the Revolutionary war. Of these services there can be no doubt, as his identity has been satisfactorily traced. His appearance to a child of four or five years was simply awe-inspiring. Of medium height, spare build, straight and erect, but beginning to totter, his motion quick and nervous, his voice short and husky, his complexion black, his head covered by a mass of semi-kinky hair as white as wool, his eyes fierce and glistening set in their deep ebony sockets - all combined to make up a figure never to be forgotten. True to the peculiarities of his race, he delighted in magnifying his exploits, his deeds of daring and hairbreadth escapes, on occasions of general muster. When the patriotism of the country was expected to exhibit itself, then Charles Charity was central figure, honored by the undivided attention of the uninitiated "melish." But the proudest thought of Charles Charity's life was that he had once belonged to a gentleman and was therefore no ordinary free negro. How he came to be an enlisted soldier is not definitely known, but from his own account it is believed that he was in the beginning of the war the body servant of a young officer serving under General Sumter; that by the vicissitudes of war said officer was cut off, and that Charles, being enamored by the excitement of war, asked to be enrolled as a soldier, which request was granted; and thus his name stands to this day among the honored defenders of our common country. Some time after the war Charles married a slave woman, the property of John Hatton, who lived on Patterson's Creek in Mollohon, and there he died and was buried; and though his name is inscribed on our Nation's archives as one of her noble defenders, his dust sleeps on the banks of Patterson's Creek in Mollohon without a tablet to mark his last resting place. This is a FREE website. If you were directed here through a link for which you paid $ for, you can access much more FREE data via our Newberry County index page at http://genealogytrails.com/scar/newberry/index.htm Also make sure to visit our main Genealogy Trails History Group website at http://genealogytrails.com for much more nationwide historical/genealogical data and access to our other state/county websites.