State Museum to display Bible from 1815

Columbia, S.C. (WCIV)–A Bible more than two centuries old that belonged to a white Charleston-based merchant and enslaver-turned abolitionist is now under the care of the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, museum leaders announced on Friday.

The 1815 holy book belonged to William Turpin. In it, he documented the names of 31 people he helped free between 1807 and 1826 during the height of the Antebellum Period.

According to the museum, the dozens of newly freed men and women were protected by relatives, closer personal friends and members of the Quaker-led Bush River Society of Friends.

One such individual listed in Turpin’s Bible was a man named Boston. Museum officials say Boston was freed in May of 1820, but seven years later, he was kidnapped from his home by slavecatchers.

Though his guardian, John Glen, purchased local ads in an attempt to achieve the “restoration of said fellow to his liberty,” Boston’s eventual fate is not clear. Turpin recorded his death in 1833 but did not make note of whether he died free or enslaved.

More information on Turpin’s Bible can be found online at scmuseum.org. The Bible is expected to be on display at the State Museum beginning this November.