I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War against Reconstruction

by Kidada E. Williams

The election year of 1876 brought more calculated atrocities, and more conservative wins in overthrowing Reconstruction. One of the largest mass killing events of that season took place in South Carolina. Historically, South Carolina had one of the largest Black populations in the South. To regain control of the state ex-Confederates had to overcome a significant Black voting bloc that cast their ballots largely, but not exclusively, for Republicans. Democrats turned increasingly to election fraud and violence.35 In July, the Republican governor raised a state militia to corral disorder. The militia included an eighty-four-member all-Black regiment, which was stationed in Hamburg, a hamlet in Aiken County. When members of the Black regiment attempted to conduct military exercises on a local road, two white farmers insisted on driving their carriage through the mostly Black town. The Black militiamen objected to the interruption and what they might have perceived as whites harassing the Black community. After some back-and-forth, they let the white men pass through. Infuriated by the squad’s initial refusal to halt the exercise, the farmers sued. Their lawyer attempted to use the altercation to have the militia disbanded. The Black militiamen’s very presence in Aiken County (to curb white election violence) and their refusal to follow the farmers’ commands to halt their maneuvers maddened whites who were determined to regain political power. Four days after the clash on the...