(July 21, 1876)
On July 4, 1876, a seemingly minor breach of racial etiquette in the tiny village of Hamburg, South Carolina, sparked a race riot with national overtones. The melee resulted when an all-black militia company marching down the town’s main street refused to give way to two white men in a carriage. When the militia commander proved unwilling to apologize or appear in court, members of local white rifle clubs assembled, demanding that the black militiamen surrender their weapons. When they refused, fighting began, and about forty militiamen retreated to their armory. Soon hundreds of whites, including many from nearby Augusta, Georgia, armed with a cannon, laid siege to the building. Whites captured twenty-five militiamen, murdering five, and then ransacked black homes and shops in the town. Though federal troops restored order in Hamburg, the whites who murdered the blacks were acquitted and, as the New York Times reported, the “Hamburg Massacre” outraged blacks and suggested their inability to receive racial justice.
The colored indignation meeting at Market Hall last night attracted about one thousand colored men and about five hundred whites. The former crowded in the street in front of the hall, while the latter lined the sidewalk on the west side of Meeting street, and listened to the speeches, without taking any part in the meeting. The American flags, two kerosene reflectors and three candles afforded the illumination and decoration for the occasion. About 8:30 o’clock two drums and a fife, followed by about fifteen negro boys, marched up to the meeting, and in a few moments the proceedings were begun by a negro named J. L. Graves, who read the following list of officers, whose names are worth remembering:
President, W. H. Thompson; Vice Presidents, F. J. Pew, W. H. Pinckney, William Vanderhorst, Richard Nesbitt, W. J. Broddie, Thomas Aiken, B. H. Smalls, Aaron McCov, C. S. Miller, J. J. Grant, G. E. Johnson, Mathias Smith, A. Finlay, J. H. Hall, James Green, Isaac Sawyer, H. M . Pinckney, William Richardson, P. M. Gregorie, J. J. Young; Secretaries, J. L. Graves, A. T. Stevens, Christopher Smalls, E. G. Logan, J. B. Howard.
Thompson, the Chairman, having taken possession of the meeting, announced that the proceedings would be opened with prayer by Rev. Joseph E. Haynes. After the prayer, Thompson opened the meeting, saying that the colored troops had arrived at the time when “this thing must cease.” If the whites intended to continue it, they couldn’t do it without trouble. [Cheers.] He wanted the white people in South Carolina to know that the negroes protected their wives and children while they were fighting against the Union, and they must remember this. If this was the first act of the sort, they could stand still and await the action of the Governor. The Chairman then introduced Rev. R. H. Cain, better and more familiarly known as Daddy Cain. Considering the business in which Daddy Cain has been recently engaged, he made a very temperate speech. There was no reason, he said, why the colored people might not join peaceably together in the condemnation of so heinous a crime as the murder of the offensive citizens of Hamburg. [Cheers.] It is true that they blocked up the streets on the 4th of July; but did not the white soldiers break up the streets of Charleston on the 28th of June? For this offense the colored Militia had been ordered to give up their arms. He wondered if the noble Anglo-Saxon would submit to have their arms taken from them. No! they would not; they knew their rights, and the negroes were learning from them rapidly. [“Dat’s so.”] He desired to be understood as saying that this thing must stop. Every wrong done in this State injures its prosperity, injures its commerce, its agriculture, and its business, and drives away those people who could best help to build up the common prosperity. The colored people (he said) expected to be law-abiding citizens of the State, but they wanted every man who violated the laws of the State to be brought to justice and to punishment. This meeting had no political coloring. They met as citizens to express in a peaceable way their opinion of a great outrage. The colored men wanted peace; they wanted the right to go where they pleased and to do what they pleased, so long as they did no wrong. Suppose the colored men should organize bands in Charleston and Comoahee to kill the white men and burn up the houses, would there be peace? [“No, no,” from the crowd.] It remains, therefore, for us to unite in denouncing this outrage, and to demand that Gov. Chamberlain shall bring these men to justice and the perpetrators to punishment.
Rev. E. J. Adams, who was the next speaker, had no words to express his indignation in reference to the Hamburg outrage. He was not here for war. The colored men wanted peace and would have it if they had to fight for it. [Cheers.] They knew they were not equal to the task of waging war, but they were men enough to show pluck. They had been warned by the News and Courier not to attend this meeting because, perchance, the bread might be taken out of their mouths; but it should be remembered that somebody else’s mouth might be without bread. They should demand of Gov. Chamberlain that these men be brought to justice and be dealt with in the spirit of the law. . . .
In the meantime, the colored Secretary of the meeting had started to read an address and a series of resolutions, which were scarcely heard by the crowd, but which were vociferously applauded whenever the leaders on the steps would give the signal. The address and resolutions are exceedingly violent in tone, as will be seen by the subjoined extracts:
“Now, against these outrages we have here, and in the name of humanity, in the name of civilization, in the name of outraged law, in the name of good government, and the peace and welfare of this nation, we enter our unqualified condemnation of these crimes and outrages. We protest against these men, and their aiders and abettors, and, in the name of the majesty of law and order, we demand that Gov. Chamberlain shall at once invoke all the powers of this State to bring M. C. Butler and his clan to justice, and that no means or treasure be spared to punish these criminals. And we invoke the consideration of this whole nation, and the powers of the Federal Government, to see to it that the great principals of equal justice before the law, and equal protection under this Government, be maintained throughout this nation, so that safety to life and property, and the right to vote as conscience shall dictate to every citizen, shall be forever secured to all throughout this broad land.
“We tell you that it will not do to go too far in this thing. Remember there are 80,000 black men in this State who can bear Winchester rifles, and know how to use them, and that there are 200,000 women who can light a torch and use the knife, and that there are 100,000 boys and girls who have not known the lash of the white master; who have tasted freedom once and forever, and that there is a deep determination never, so help their God, to submit to be shot down by lawless regulators for no crimes committed against society and law. There is a point at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue; cowards driven to desperation often destroy those who corner them. The negro in this country will not always be docile, he will not always be restrained by this law-abiding character. The rising generation are as brave and daring as are white men. Already that spirit is taking deep root in the minds of thousands who have nothing to lose in the contest, and who would rejoice in an opportunity to sacrifice their lives for their liberty.
“Whereas, We have exercised becoming fortitude and patience in expectation of government intolerance by and legal redress through those whom our suffrages have placed in authority, and whose constitutional duties it is to see that the laws be executed in mercy, yet we have been so often grievously disappointed that our hopes are blasted, for, while colored men are for every crime (and many fancied ones) punished in the farthest extent of the law, the white, after the commission of the most brutish crimes against us which is known to the laws of the land, invariably escapes with impunity; and,
“Whereas, These crimes being unworthy of barbarous heathens, much less a people boasting of their advanced civilization, we are not only pained but stung to indignation, and in view of the brutal murder of a number of our people in the “Massacre of Hamburg, S. C.,” by the whites of South Carolina and Georgia, we are goaded to exasperation, for our wonted forbearance now ceases to be a virtue, and self-preservation demands that, while calling upon the proper authorities for redress of these grievances and a reform of existing abuses, a vigorous and impartial execution of the law, we must immediately take counsel for defense. Therefore, be it
“Resolved, That the massacre of colored citizens at Hamburg, S. C., is unworthy of any civilization community, and deserves the censure and condemnation of the civilized world, and that we entertain the deepest sympathy for the grief-stricken families of those victims, (of hate,) and will do all in our power for the relief of the widows and orphans, as well as for those who have been despoiled of their household goods.
“Resolved, That we call upon the Governor of South Carolina to see that the laws of the land be faithfully executed upon all perpetrators of the bloody deed at Hamburg; and be it further
“Resolved, That in case this one legal demand be not granted, and the protection of our lives, liberty, and property be not to our satisfaction guaranteed and secured in the future by the State Government, then self-preservation, predicated upon the barbarous attitude assumed and being maintained by the whites, warns the colored citizens to peaceably assemble and petition the national Government, through legal channels, ‘for redress of grievances.’ ”