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 incident concluded with the death of seven men, and launched the Democratic campaign for South Carolina's redemption or removal of the civil rights of the black population.

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[edit] About

Hamburg, a defunct market town across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia, had been repopulated by black freedmen since the end of the War. Tensions in the area had been rising for some time as witnessed by a large enrollment into the local militia[1]. On July 4, 1876, two neighboring white farmers drove in a carriage down Hamburg's capacious Market Street. They met the local [black] company of South Carolina State Militia drilling under command of Captain D. L. "Dock" Adams. After an exchange of words, the farmers at their insistence passed through the ranks of the parade[1][2].

The farmers complained of obstruction of a public road 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 counsel. M. C. Butler demanded, without legal authority[1], that the Hamburg company disband, and turn their guns over to him personally.

As armed white men gathered in the vicinity, the State 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 the white men proceeded to loot the town [3].

The official report ends with this statement;

... the facts show the demand on the militia to give up their arms was made by persons without lawful authority to enforce such demand or to receive the arms had they been surrendered; that the attack on the militia to compel a compliance with this demand was without lawful excuse or justification; and that after there had beens some twenty or twenty-five prisoners captured and completely in the power of their captors, five of them were deliberately shot to death and three more severely wounded. It further appears that not content with thus satisfying their vengeance, many of the crowd added to their guilt the crime of robbery of defenceless people, and were only prevented from arson by the efforts of their own leaders.

—[1]

[edit] Consequences

Benjamin Tillman
Benjamin Tillman

The shots fired at the Hamburg Massacre terrorized the Republicans and crystallized support around the uncompromising 'Straight-Out' faction of the Democratic party[4]. The ensuing violent and bitterly contested election campaign gained undivided control of South Carolina for the Democrats.


The Massacre gained nationwide attention (e.g. Harper's Weekly, August 12, 1876). White South Carolinians saw virtue in necessity and repeated the lesson in full at the town of Ellenton, also in Aiken County, two months later[5]. 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[6]. Benjamin Ryan Tillman magnified his own role and used it to spur his campaigns for Governor and then Senator of South Carolina[7].

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Official Report 1876. Retrieved on 2007-12-24.
  2. ^ Allen, Walter [1888] (1969). Governor Chamberlain’s Administration in South Carolina, A Chapter of Reconstruction in the Southern States. Negro University Press, 314. ISBN 0-8371-1537-X. 
  3. ^ Allen, Walter [1888] (1969). Governor Chamberlain’s Administration in South Carolina, A Chapter of Reconstruction in the Southern States. Negro University Press, 314-317. ISBN 0-8371-1537-X. 
  4. ^ Holt, Thomas (1979). Black over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina during Reconstruction. University of Illinois Press, 173-207. ISBN 0-252-00775-1. 
  5. ^ Allen, Walter [1888] (1969). Governor Chamberlain’s Administration in South Carolina, A Chapter of Reconstruction in the Southern States. Negro University Press, 385-387. ISBN 0-8371-1537-X. 
  6. ^ Martin, Samuel J. (2001). Southern Hero: Matthew Calbraith Butler. Stackpole Books, 226. ISBN 0811708993. 
  7. ^ Simkins, Francis Butler (1944). Pitchfork Ben Tillman, South Carolinian. University of South Carolina Press (2002 reprint). ISBN 157003477X. 
  • Senate Investigation Report - South Carolina in 1876 - US Congressional Serial Set 44th-2nd S.misdoc 48. Key source document with hundreds of pages of original testimony
  • Vandervelde, Isabel (1999). Aiken County: The Only South Carolina County Founded During Reconstruction. Reprint Company Publishers. ISBN 0-87152-517-8.  Interesting compilation of local history
  • Budiansky, Stephen (2008). The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox. Viking Penguin. ISBN 0670018406.  Strongly written Reconstruction version of Profiles in Courage with well researched section on the Massacre