Biography
Starling Clayton, whose first name also appears as Sterling, was executed with Martin Carter in Barnwell District, South Carolina, for assisting fugitive slaves. The case is recorded in the Espy chronology under “Aid Runaway Slave,” and legal-history references identify State v. Clayton and Carter as an 1858 South Carolina prosecution for assisting fugitives. Later execution chronologies give February 25, 1859, as the hanging date. The surviving summaries do not identify the people they helped or establish Clayton’s organizational ties.