Book-burning takes place in South Carolina during trial of man for circulating anti-slavery literature
Harold Wyllys, a young area farmer, went on trial in Greenville, South Carolina charged with circulating Hilton Helper's controversial book on slavery called The Impending Crisis. During a break in the trial, outside the courthouse, copies of Helper's book and other offending publications were ceremonially burned before large crowds. Wyllys was convicted later that day and sentenced to a year's imprisonment. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Francis Vincent, Vincent's Semi-Annual United States Register.... 1st of January and 1st of July, 1860 (Philadelphia: Francis Vincent, 1860), 261.