Elias Hill (c. 1819 - March 28, 1872) was a Baptist minister and leader of a York County, South Carolina congregation that emigrated to Arthington, Liberia. In May 1871, during the Reconstruction era, he was among the victims in a series of attacks in York County against local blacks by members of the Ku Klux Klan. His situation received wide attention on account of his condition, as Hill had been stricken by an illness while a child which had left him crippled with his arms and legs in a withered state. He was known for preaching about rights and equality, and taught local children how to read and write. Early life Elias Hill was born in 1819 to Dorcas and Elias in York County, South Carolina. The elder Elias was possibly born in Africa. He was stricken with a disease at age seven in 1826 which left him crippled. Some observers described him as a dwarf, and he described the disease as rheumatism, but it was probably polio. It may also have been muscular dystrophy; in any case, he was crippled in one arm and leg. As an adult, his legs remained extremely skinny, his arms were withered, and his jaw was deformed. While still young, Hill's father purchased the freedom of his wife, Hill's mother, for $150. Hill's master included the crippled boy in the transaction. The Hills were owned by a famous Hill family, which included future Confederate general Daniel Harvey Hill. As a boy, Elias learned to read and write from white school children in York County. No one objected to having such a compromised child hanging around the school. Thus Hill gained certain privileges, but he was also ridiculed for his condition by other children. Daniel Harvey Hill was among those who taught Elias to read. Elias was very intelligent and driven, and his intellectual possibilities were not noticed by the white community around him due to his condition. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Hill worked as an ordained Baptist preacher moving from congregation to congregation in the South Carolina Piedmont. He also taught reading and writing. By 1871 at the age of 50 he was president of the local Union League. He regularly held political meetings at his cabin and was a popular and powerful preacher, serving a congregation in Clay Hill, near Rock Hill, South Carolina. Lynchings of Jim Williams, Solomon Hill,