Civil War: Black Sharecropper Finds Buried Treasure

Many a Southerner family buried their jewels, silver, and gold coins in the ground. Some Confederate soldiers died in battle, never to return to unearth it. 

Martha Richardson was a slave girl in Columbia, South Carolina. Martha and her brothers were working in the fields. As they chopped, her older brother’s shovel hit something hard. He dug more and saw it was the lid of a pot.

They removed the lid and saw it was filled with silver and gold coins. 

They quickly return to their family cabin to show the pot to their Mother, who begins to empty it.  She first tells the children to watch the door and see that no one enters.  She counts the coins and tells them the money amounts to $5,700.  ($5,700 is equivalent to $95,000 in today’s money).

She asks them to swear to tell no one about their find.

With the newly found wealth, Martha’s Mother bought 2 lots of land.  They continued to present a humble appearance and work as sharecroppers.  They built a house for the family and a cottage they  rented out.  Martha was eternally grateful for this money which allowed her family  to escape from debt and to find some relief from their hard toil.  Their lives were completely changed.  

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