Clem and Minerva Bowden had to make their way home after night riders abducted them on a wintry night in the Upcountry region of South Carolina and viciously assaulted them in October 1870. “When we got home,” Clem said, “we could not kindle up a fire to warm ourselves by, if our children had not been there to kindle it for us.” Minerva was whipped “until she was helpless,” so grievously injured that “she could not get up the next morning.”8 Clem added, “I was severely hurt. I don’t ever expect in this life to get over it.”9
