South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876
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The South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876 were a series of
The following incidents took place mostly in
In 1875 Charleston had a population that was 57% black, with a Charleston County population that was 73% black. Having had a tradition of a well-established class of free people of color in the city, African Americans organized to defend themselves during this volatile period.[2]
By suppressing the black majority in Edgefield County and election fraud (2,000 more votes were counted than the total number of registered voters in the county), the Democrats elected Wade Hampton III as the Democratic candidate by a narrow margin of slightly more than 1100 votes statewide. They also carried the state legislature.
July
Hamburg massacre
Located across the
September
Charleston
By September, Charleston seethed with political activity. Following two Democratic meetings earlier in the week in which blacks explained why they had left the Republican Party, on the night of September 6 in
No Democratic rifle clubs intervened that evening after consultation with the police; they feared provoking a larger riot.[2] Their officers met the next day, making a plan to have rifle clubs available at short notice every night when political meetings were held. Tensions remained high in the city but their officers met the next day, and guns for sale in the city were quickly gone. Two nights later the Democrats met at Hibernian Hall without incident.[2] The inability of Governor Chamberlain and the local law authorities to preserve the peace convinced the people of the state of the failure of Republican rule. Southerners portrayed the actions of freedmen as menacing, trying to win over public opinion in the North.[6] Northerners found the continuing insurgency in the southern states to be disheartening. Historian Ehren K. Foley noted that the event "demonstrated the continued mobilization and strength of both the Republican party and the African American community in the low country of South Carolina. The event also demonstrated the willingness of both sides to deploy force for political ends."
Ellenton Riot
In September 1876 the Ellenton riot occurred. It started September 15 and lasted to the 21st. The initiation of the Ellenton riot began when a white posse attempted to serve warrants of arrest issued by an African-American Magistrate Prince Rivers[1] for two people suspected of breaking and entering. The events escalated until two white men and 39 African-American were killed. The most notable being Simon P. Coker who served as a member of the Legislature from Barnwell[2][3]
October
Cainhoy
In Charleston County, leaders of the political parties arranged some of what they called discussion meetings, as the Democrats were still seeking Republican audiences, and both parties would have speakers. Given the tensions and violent incidents, they agreed that attendees should not bring arms (rifles and shotguns) into the meetings.
In the South, men of both races regularly carried pistols, which were not counted as "arms."[2] The leaders had asked the men to leave those weapons behind, and many blacks had stashed their weapons in the swamp and an old house near the church. When some young whites found the rifles, they approached the meeting. One gun discharged accidentally and the crowd began to disperse; one of the whites shot an elderly black man, who was killed. Blacks raced to retrieve their arms and pursued the retreating Democrats, who had only pistols and were outnumbered.
The incident at Cainhoy resulted in the death of one black man and five to six whites, plus wounding of an estimated 16 to 50.[2][7] It was the only one of these political incidents in 1876 in which more whites were killed than blacks. According to Reynolds, the black Republicans avoided being taken by surprise by the Democrats and succeeded in running them off.[7] Most historians note that the Democrats were put off balance by the black resistance. With the threat of retaliatory attacks by the whites, Governor Chamberlain sent a company of Federal troops to the town to prevent any more bloodshed.
Edgefield
On October 17, a group of six white men of the
Mt. Pleasant
At
November
Charleston
In Charleston on the afternoon of November 8,
A number of the black policeman joined the rebellion instead of restoring order.
Beaufort
During election night of November 7 in
See also
- South Carolina gubernatorial election, 1876
- History of South Carolina
Notes
- ^ Ehlen K. Foley, "Sites of Violence: Cainhoy Riot," Citations: "Plan of the Campaign of 1876" Archived 2014-11-05 at the Wayback Machine, Papers of Martin Witherspoon Gary, South Caroliniana Library, Columbia, South Carolina, accessed 26 October 2014
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Melinda Meeks Hennessy, "Racial Violence During Reconstruction: The 1876 Riots in Charleston and Cainhoy", South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 86, No. 2, (April 1985), 104-106 (subscription required)
- New York Times, 21 May 2000, includes Chapter One online of the book.
- ^ This refers to Colonel A.P. Butler (1826-1902), seated as State Senator from Aiken County in 1877, not U.S. Senator Andrew Butler
- ^ Gasper Loren Toole II, Ninety Years of Aiken County Memoirs of Aiken County and Its People, Chapter IV: The Red Shirts and Reconstruction", 1958, hosted at Genealogy Trails, accessed 27 October 2014
- ^ Williams, p126
- ^ a b Reynolds, p380
- ^ a b "The Charleston Riot" (PDF). The Newberry herald. Newbury S.C. 1876-11-16. p. 2. Retrieved 2015-02-06.
References
- Drago, Edmund L. (1998). Hurrah for Hampton!: Black Red Shirts in South Carolina during Reconstruction. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1-55728-541-1.
- Edgar, Walter (1998). South Carolina A History. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 1-57003-255-6.
- Reynolds, John S. (1969). Reconstruction in South Carolina. Negro University Press. ISBN 0-8371-1638-4.
- Williams, Alfred B. (1935). Hampton and his Red Shirts; South Carolina's Deliverance in 1876. Walker, Evans & Cogswell Company.
- Budiansky, Stephen (2008). The Bloody Shirt: Terror After the Civil War. Penguin Group (USA) Inc. ISBN 978-0-670-01840-6.
Congressional Serial Set U.S. Government Printing Office, 1877