HAMBURG AND ELLENTON RIOTS.
Several riots and some of as foul murders as ever disgraced the lives
of men attended the uprisings around Aiken.
Among the most important of these were the Hamburg, the Ellenton and
Ned Tennant riots, all occurring within a few miles of Miss Schofield’s
school.
The Hamburg riot occurred in July, 1876, and proved to be one of the
most tragic events, as it was one of the most disastrous occurrences
for the Negro race and the Republican Party of the South that occurred
during the entire period of Reconstruction. Seven Negroes and one white
man were killed out-right, while one white man and two Negroes were
seriously wounded.
This sounded the alarm of danger in the South for the experiment being
made with the Negro for self-government and urged immediate action
by Congress for the protection of its policy there, if not its newly
made citizens who at the first challenge had shown conclusively the
incapacity to protect themselves.
The riot was precipitated by two young white men, Henry Getzen and
Thomas Butler, who were driving through Hamburg on the return from
Georgia to their homes in South Carolina, just across the State line in
the vicinity of Augusta. At the time a company of one hundred Negro men
in command of Captain Dock Adams was drilling on the principal street
of the town of Hamburg, and a large proportion of the Negro population,
as usual, was out admiring the spectacular performance. It is claimed
by the white men that the company was drilling “company front” and so
filled the street from side-walk to side-walk, which permitted them no
room to pass; and that Captain Adams instead of ordering his troops
to fall into “Column fours” or “column platoons,” he ordered them
to “charge,” at which command, Butler, a son of Mr. Robert Butler,
shouted from his seat in the buggy, with revolver drawn, that he
would shoot to death the first man that stuck a bayonet in the horse.
With a hundred bayonets gleaming in the sun and several hundred of the
colored race looking on, the Negroes knew the butchery of the whites
was an easy matter, but being desirous of avoiding a conflict which
they knew only too well was instigated at that time for the purpose of
arousing the already over enraged whites to an action that would later
on mean either the annihilation of themselves or their old masters and
mistresses, whom some of them still loved and admired with the same
affection and admiration that caused most of them throughout the battle
for their freedom to remain at the fire-side and defend the homes of
those out in a war fought to continue them in a state of bondage, the
Captain ordered a halt and opened the ranks so that the buggy could
pass. Completing the exercises, the soldiers were marched to their
armory and dismissed. Adams then went, as was his right to do, to a
Justice of the Peace, “General” Prince Rivers, a Negro, an ex-Union
Soldier, commander of the Negro militia, the State Senator from Aiken
County in the General Assembly and also the Trial Justice for his
district, and swore out warrants for Getzen and Butler, charging them
with interfering with his company at drill.
Hearing of this, Butler hurried home and informed his father of what
had happened, who went in haste to the same Trial Justice and secured
a warrant for Adams for obstructing the highway. News of the “cowing”
of the Negro militia and the subsequent issuance of warrants for the
captain of the company and the white men and the setting of the trials
of each for a hearing was spread all over the surrounding country in a
very short time, and excitement was intense on both sides as to what
the outcome would be.
Without quoting the exact words of one of the members of the rioters
who was the leader in the three great riots, the settled purpose of
the whites was the seizure of the first opportunity that might be
made by the Negroes to provoke a riot and demonstrate to the latter
through blood-shed the utter hopelessness of the attempt of the Negro
to rule and so rid South Carolina of the domination of Negro and
carpet-bag government. For the approaching trial elaborate preparations
had been made by the whites, including the employment of General M.
C. Butler for the defense of Thomas Butler and Henry Getzen and the
prosecution of Adams, and the calling together of all members of the
Sweet Water Sabre Club, an organization of the leading white men of
Edgefield and Aiken Counties for the destruction of the Negro regime
locally and for use in overthrowing the State government and for the
purpose of trampling under foot the laws passed by Congress, intended
to give the Negro equal power with the white in the government of the
State. Members of this club were not only instructed to attend the
trial for the protection of the two young white men, but were ordered
to be present to see to it that if no opportunity offered itself to
provoke a riot, then they were to create one, anyhow. They were to go
un-uniformed and armed with pistols only, but were to have their rifles
near at hand and be ready at a moment’s notice to engage the blacks in
deadly combat under their own vine and fig tree.
Emboldened by the apparent cowardliness of the Negroes to attack
Getzen and Butler a few days before, members of the club expressed
much fear that the Negroes would be bold enough to show resentment to
any indignity which they might offer, and so would bring to naught
the various plans and schemes previously formulated to engage them
in battle. News of their presence in Hamburg and of their object had
preceded their arrival, and the justice ordered the hearing postponed
to a later day, when the orderly trial of the case could be assured
by the protection of additional militia-men. The whites were quick to
see the advantage which the Negroes would obtain by delay and promptly
decided to begin the attack at once.
At about five o’clock in the afternoon, just as Adams and his company
had assembled in their armory, General M. C. Butler sent the captain
word that his militia with guns had shown that they were a menace to
the peace and good order of the community and demanded of him the
surrender of his guns, informing him at the same time that the whites
were resolved to put an end to the political rule of the Negro and the
carpet-bagger or die in the attempt that very day. With his prompt and
peremptory refusal to surrender, Adams also sent defiance to the white
men. This boldness somewhat dismayed the latter as they had with them
five rifles only. The remainder of their armament consisted of pistols
and shot-guns, making the effectiveness of the attacking party very
inferior in the matter of weapons as in numbers. But this inefficiency
was more than offset by the difference in training of the opposing
parties, by the inheritance of many of the whites of thousands and
thousands of years of skill in the use of the weapons of war, while the
only training ever given the Negro had been one of fear. This had been
his by inheritance just as the white race had inherited its contempt of
fear. It is as natural for some of the Negroes to show cowardliness as
it is for some of the whites to show bravery, and this difference in
the qualities of the two races must remain relative in proportion to
the intellectual and moral development of each race.
Besides, think who they were fighting--why, their old masters and their
sons, whom some of the Negro soldiers no doubt, had risked their lives
in previous emergencies to protect and defend from danger.
Could it be expected, under the circumstances, that their aim would
prove unerring? Wasn’t it rather to be expected at the beginning that
the shots which the poor, illiterate Negroes fired would fall wide of
the mark, just as they did?
All admit now, even the intelligent Negro and the radical abolitionist,
that the arming of the Negroes before first teaching them the use of
weapons was a mistake, but this would apply with equal force to the
ignorant, illiterate white race. ’Tis the condition of the mind that
makes the body fit or unfit. The adder is not better than the eel,
because of his painted skin, nor the blue-jay any better than the wren
because of his fine plumage, as the Bard of Avon well expressed it when
addressing good Kate and reminding her that she was none the worse
because of her poor furniture and mean array, provided her mind and
heart were perfect.
The Negro has arms and hands as strong as iron bands and with these he
can punish into insensibility the men of almost any race; there are
white men endowed with equally great physical powers who can, like the
Negro, subdue others not so powerful in animal strength. Each of these
types of men labor in the fields of arduous toil, neither having the
time and, in most cases, lacking the intelligence to bathe and live a
sanitary life, much less educate their poor brains. For this reason
neither are the equal, either in war or in the every day intellectual
occupations of life, of the men trained and dexterously skilled in the
use of their muscles and brains. The psychological influence of the men
of education over the ignorant and illiterate must not be overlooked
neither in any attempt to account for the tremendous supremacy which
the few exercise over the many.
At any rate, the superiority of the seventy members of the Sweet Water
Sabre Club over the one hundred members of the Negro militia was
amply demonstrated at Hamburg on July 8, 1876. It is possible that
the Negroes, who could have destroyed the entire mob in a few minutes
with their superior equipment, were aware of the reinforcements lying
in wait at the beck and call of General Butler, and so retained their
position in the armory as a means of protection against an attack by an
overwhelmingly superior force. Certain it is, that from a vantage point
of view the inside of the armory was no suitable place from which to
shoot. The soldiers were compelled to shoot from below the windowsills,
which elevated their guns, and so their bullets, except the one which
killed Makie Meriwether, were spent in vain. At the sound of the first
firing reinforcements for the whites began to pour into Hamburg by the
hundreds, and no time was lost in obtaining a piece of artillery in
Augusta and bringing it into action. Two shots from this destructive
machine silenced the guns of the militia and the members of the company
began to retire as secretly as possible, it being well understood by
all that the whites would give nor ask any quarter in the orderly rules
of warfare, as in the matter of capitulation and terms of surrender.
The knowledge by every Negro at the beginning of this historic event
that the battle meant death to everyone captured possibly unnerved
every soldier and precipitated the demoralization following the advent
of the solitary field piece of artillery. Out of the forty Negroes
captured only a few belonged to the militia, the members of which the
mob was determined to destroy that night, but as most of these had
escaped, then it was decided to kill anybody in reparation for the
death of young Meriwether. So a search of the homes of all Negroes
and some of the whites was made, including that of a Jew named Louis
Schiller, who was friendly with the Negroes and had through their
votes, under the new order of things, obtained and held the office of
County Auditor of Edgefield County before the creation of Aiken County.
It was decreed that Schiller should be put to death, but he escaped
with his life only by climbing through a trap door leading out on the
roof and hiding himself behind a parapet on top of the house. All the
while he was in hearing distance of the curses and execrations heaped
upon his name and the avowed intention of the mob to hang him sooner or
later.
Two, among the forty prisoners held under guard while the searching
party worked, who knew that their capture meant their death, attempted
to escape by jumping over a fence with their guards looking on and
running as fast as their legs could carry them in hope of reaching a
place of safety; but white men seemed to be everywhere, and although
one of them, Jim Cook, the town marshall, did escape his guards he was
shot to death by bullets from a shot-gun which tore in his head as
he dashed through the crowds. The other had been killed by the guards
having him in charge.
Cook was supremely hated by the entire white population of the County,
more so, than other individuals of his race on account of his activity
in the office of marshal, which the whites charged he used without
provocation to humiliate and degrade them. Over his death there was the
greatest rejoicing throughout the county among the whites.
Being unable to locate any more Negroes, General Butler and Colonel
A. P. Butler concluded that all work was practically finished and
quietly departed for their homes. They did not leave any orders and
the members of the mob began to disperse in perceptibly large numbers.
But the thirst for blood born of that insatiable desire to torture, to
torment as in the fiery pit, and to murder implanted in the heart of
individuals, half-animal and the sport of impulse, whim and conceit,
until relieved by the tameness and intelligence which time and
education alone can give, had not yet been satisfied, although for one
life taken by the militia they had taken two.
These deluded children of the white men suffering with the same malady,
ignorance, with which the children of the blacks were more seriously
suffering, but recognizing the advantage which their superiority of
numbers now gave them, reasoned that it was a dear piece of work to
exchange one of their number for only two Negroes. It was argued that
a story like that would not appease the popular clamor that now would
rise like a heavy mist from the sea and gain the momentum of a cyclone.
So it was solemnly agreed that, while the annihilation of the entire
Negro population of the town of Hamburg would not atone for the death
of Meriwether, the members of the mob would content themselves for that
night, at least, with the assassination of only the meanest characters
among the remaining number of prisoners held. The duty of designating
these “meanest” characters, and those most deserving of death, fell
to the lot of Henry Getzen, one of the young men who was the original
cause of the riot and whose residence in the vicinity of Hamburg
brought him into the closest contact with the Negro population and so
prepared him fully for the duty of passing judgment upon the destiny of
the prisoners.
His hands, red with the blood from the wounds that had killed Makie
Meriwether and his heart beating in unison with his rankling mind at
thought of the imaginary injustices already done, or to be done, by the
Negro, the state of his feelings made him anything else but fit to pass
upon the lives of the men now at stake, even had he been an honest man
and inspired by high and lofty ideals as it must be conceded many of
the whites in the Hamburg riot were.
The purpose by the whites was to use this riot to strike terror in the
heart of the Negroes and intimidate them, then and there and for all
time, in their aspirations for political as well as social advancement.
At that time, as at this time, in the case of a large element of the
white population, it is undeniable that it is against their express
desire that encouragement for improvement of the Negro be given him.
Witness, the laws passed by the several Legislatures as late as 1916 in
discrimination of him, one of which forbids the employment of truckmen
in the cotton mills along with other employees whose skin is white.
Several bills have been introduced for passage in the General Assembly
of South Carolina to make the instruction of Negroes by whites a
violation of the law, but up to this date, 1916, all measures for the
purpose have failed of enactment.
When such laws finally become effective it may be proposed by the
Negroes to restrict the practice of medicine by blacks and whites to
the respective races to which each belongs. Likewise measures may be
devised and enacted into law, which will make it unlawful for white
salespeople to wait upon Negroes in the stores, or for Negroes to wait
upon whites as sales clerks.
The constitutionality of the proposed law relating to the restriction
of Negro teachers only in Negro schools is thought by some lawyers to
be as applicable to physicians and clerks as to teachers.
The same racial prejudice which showed its specter-head in demoniac
form in the case of the burning at the stake of two Negroes near the
town of Statesboro, Georgia, in the year 1905, and the previous death
by fire at the stake near Newman, Georgia, in 1895 of another was the
moving spirit that actuated the mob and guided the hearts and hands of
Henry Getzen and his band at Hamburg, twenty and thirty years before.
As fast as Getzen could select from among the prisoners those he
considered most worthy of death, they were taken out in the streets,
before the eyes of their wives and children and shot to death, in
the light of a brilliant moon reflecting the love of heaven, but no
wavering image of that love was anywhere to be found in Hamburg that
night. God and the angels had deserted it without any apparent concern
for the safety of the helpless blacks.
When the firing ceased the mob’s victims, numbering seven with the two
who previously had been killed, were piled side by side in the most
conspicuous part of the town, and presented a grewsome sight, lying
stark, stiff and cold, when the Negroes who had fled from the town
returned to their homes on Sunday morning following.
Those of the prisoners who were spared, about twenty-eight in all,
were given permission to leave and told to go with all speed at their
command which they were none too slow about doing. Volley after volley
was fired after them, over their heads with no intention to hit or
injure them.
Had it been known before they were allowed to go that one of the
supposed dead was only assuming death the number freed would have
been reduced to twenty-seven instead of twenty-eight, for it was the
decision of the mob that nothing less than eight lives should be taken
in retaliation for the life of young Meriwether. Pompey Curry, who
was selected among those to be shot fell dead at the first report of
the guns and remained motionless and apparently breathless throughout
the examination of the bodies and their disposal by the mob until
the whites had all gone home, when he crawled through the high weeds
which were near by and made his escape in the woods with only a slight
wound in his leg. Among all the witnesses for the government in the
prosecution of members of the mob which followed the conflict, none
was of the importance of “Pompey Curry” as he knew by name a large
number of the men and could point them out on sight. He discharged his
duty as a witness in the celebrated trial, but a short time afterward
he suddenly disappeared and no one knows or appears to know whatever
became of him.
The success of the mob in thus attacking and annihilating a company of
the government’s own soldiers and ruthlessly putting to death peaceable
citizens in defiance of the law, without judge or jury, gave the
greatest encouragement to the hopes of the whites. It was really of
more far-reaching consequences in influencing their lives and fortunes
than any incident ever occurring before or since in the history of
South Carolina.
The direct opposite effect which it had upon the Negro and upon the
people of the North, where it occasioned the bitterest comment,
resulted in Congress appointing an investigation committee and the
substitution of white Union soldiers to fill the places made vacant
by the resignation of the Negroes from the ranks. Their resignation
resulted from the fear they had of the whites and sincere desire to
work in the interest of peace. They were also encouraged to resign by
such men as Chamberlain, whose record as Governor, although placed in
power by the votes of Negroes, is one of the most honorable of any
Governor who ever filled the office of Chief Executive.
This tragic episode took from the Negro his last hope of being able to
control the elections which followed in the fall. It gave to the whites
all the freedom they desired to follow the doctrine of General Mart
Gary to vote early and often. By doing so, they changed a Republican
majority in Edgefield County of 2,300 to a Democratic majority of
almost 4,000!
As an example of the perfect contempt with which Gary and his mobs
treated the authority of not only the officials of the County but of
the State may be cited his refusal to obey General Ruger’s orders to
have the court house at Edgefield vacated by the whites. At this time
he openly defied the military power of both the State and National
government when he with his Red Shirt regiment, which he organized,
captured the Chamberlain meeting on August 12, 1876. In a fiery speech
to the Negroes at that time he announced in no unmistakable terms that
no power above or below earth was sufficient to prevent the success of
the Democratic Party at the polls that year nor in any succeeding year.
He told the white men that an ounce of “Fearnot” was worth a ton of
“Persuasion” and exhorted them to put the ballots in the boxes and he
would see that every one was counted.
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