The final departing words of Charles Caldwell.
Charles Caldwell, a blacksmith born in Mississippi during the 1830s, became the first Black person to kill a White person and be found “not guilty” by the courts. When Caldwell was born, slavery was an integral part of the economic and social livelihoods of Southerners, a lucrative trade that enabled them to amass wealth while disregarding the rights of others. Enslaved people had a low standard of living and endured humiliation and degradation.