Mitcham War

Historical marker detailing Mitcham Beat and the Mitchum War. near McEntyre, Alabama.

The Mitcham War was a bloody conflict that occurred in Clarke County, Alabama in the early 1890s.[1]

The conflict was between rural farmers in remote section of Clarke County named Mitcham Beat and merchants class in Coffeeville and other towns near the Mitcham Beat.[1] Some accounts characterize the conflict as resulting from the 1892 elections that left rural whites disenfranchised and angry and resulting in racial violence.[2]

Around 1890, a group of rural young men formed a secret society called "Hell-at-the-Breech" that believed their local economy was being controlled by a small group. On December 25, 1892, the gang entered Coffeeville and murdered a prominent businessman.[1]

Soon a vigilante mob of 500 formed to seek the Hell-at-the-Breech murderers, and eventually killed 5 men.[1]

Different sources have the violence continuing until fall of 1893 after the Hell-at-the-breech disbanded[1] or when the mob of Clarke County men publicly shot a prominent member of the Hell-at-the-Breech gang.[2]

Additional reading

  • Brown, Jerry Elijah. Alabama's Mitcham Wars: Essaying Mortal Wounds., Atlanta: Looking Glass Books, 2011.
  • Jackson, Hardy, Joyce White Burrage, and James A. Cox. The Mitcham War of Clarke County, Alabama. Grove Hill, Alabama: Clarke County Democrat, 1988.
  • Jackson, Hardy. "The Middle-Class Democracy Victorious: The Mitcham War of Clarke County, Alabama, 1893." Journal of Southern History 57 (August 1991): 453-78.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Mitcham War". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Start of Mitcham War". History Engine: Tools for Collaborative Education and Research. University of Richmond. Retrieved 6 August 2012.