Hamburg Massacre
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The Hamburg Massacre (or Hamburg Riot) was a key event of South Carolina Reconstruction. Beginning with a dispute over free passage on a public road, this ugly incident concluded with the death of seven men, and launched the Democratic campaign for South Carolina's redemption.
In the 1876 election year, exasperated South Carolina Democrats were split between two courses of action. The 'Cooperationists' (or Fusionists), impressed by the reforming administration of Governor Daniel H. Chamberlain, saw hope in combining with him and other Republican conservatives. The risk here was in Chamberlain's lack of control over his own internally divided party. Militant 'Straight-Outs' demanded a pure, sweeping victory, but revolutionary efforts would be required to overcome the Republican majority.
Naturally, only one united course could bring about a change. The shots fired at the Hamburg Massacre crystallized support around the 'Straight-Outs'. The ensuing violent and bitterly contested election campaign gained undivided control of South Carolina for the Democrats, and set the stage for the following 75 years of Jim Crow.
Hamburg, a defunct market town across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia, had been repopulated by black freedmen since the end of the War. On July 4, 1876, two neighboring white farmers in a carriage passed along Hamburg's Market Street. They met the local [black] company of South Carolina State Militia under command of one Doctor Adams. It is fair to suppose that the Militia were parading before onlookers in a centennial Independence Day celebration. After a harsh exchange of words, the farmers forced their way through the parade.
Both parties complained before the local court in Hamburg, Trial Justice Prince Rivers presiding. The case was continued, until July 8, when Edgefield attorney Matthew Calbraith Butler appeared as the farmer's counsel. In the previous year, an Edgefield militia company had been disarmed after some friction. M. C. Butler now demanded that the Hamburg company disband, and turn their guns over to him personally. As armed white men gathered in the vicinity, the Militia refused to disarm and, with perhaps fifty men, repaired to their armory in the Sibley building near the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad bridge. Firing began with two men falling in the heat of battle - McKie Meriwether, white, and Hamburg's Town Marshal James Cook, black. Outnumbered, discouraged by a small cannon brought from Augusta, and running out of ammunition, the Militia slipped away but not without capture of perhaps two dozen of their men. As evening progressed into night, five of these prisoners were killed, and what was now a mob proceeded to loot the town.
[edit] Consequences
The incident gained nationwide attention. Northerners viewed the killing as the natural consequence of Southern white racist supremacy. M. C. Butler's expectations and the depth of his involvement are unclear, but association with the bloody violence damaged his later career in the U. S. Senate. White South Carolinians saw virtue in the action, and repeated the attack, at the town of Ellenton, two months later. Wade Hampton III probably found the incident distasteful, but rallied the Red Shirts in his 1876 campaign for Governor. Benjamin Ryan Tillman magnified his own role and used it to spur a successful run for Governor of South Carolina in 1890.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Allen, Walter (1888). Governor Chamberlain’s Administration in South Carolina, A Chapter of Reconstruction in the Southern States. Negro Universities Press (1969 reprint). ISBN 083711537X.
- Holt, Thomas (1979). Black over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina during Reconstruction. University of Illinois Press, 173-207. ISBN 0252007751.
- Vandervelde, Isabel (1999). Aiken County: The Only South Carolina County Founded During Reconstruction. Reprint Company Publishers. ISBN 0871525178.
