On Wednesday, July 5, Robert J. Butler, father of Thomas Butler and father-in-law of Getzen, appeared before P.R. Rivers, colored trial justice, and made complaint that the militia company had on the previous day obstructed one of the public streets of Hamburg and prevented his son and son-in-law from passing through. Rivers accordingly issued a summons for the officers to appear the next day, July 6. When Adams and his two lieutenants appeared on Thursday, they found present Robert J. Butler and several other white men heavily armed with revolvers. On the calling of the case it was announced that the defendants were present and that Henry Sparnick, a member of the circuit bar of the county, had been retained to represent them. Butler angrily protested against such representation and demanded that the hearing be postponed until he could procure counsel from the city of Augusta; whereupon Adams and his lieutenants, after consultation with their attorney, who informed them that there were no legal grounds on which the case could be decided against them, waived their constitutional right to be represented by counsel and consented to go to trial. On this basis the case was opened and proceeded with for some time, when on account of some disturbance its progress was arrested, and it was adjourned for further hearing on the following Saturday, July 8, at four o'clock in the afternoon.
On Saturday, between two and three o'clock, General M.C. Butler, of Edgefield, formerly an officer in the Confederate army, arrived in Hamburg, and he was followed by mounted men in squads of ten or fifteen until the number was more than two hundred, the last to arrive being Colonel A.P. Butler at the head of threescore men. Immediately after his arrival General Butler sent for Attorney Sparnick, who was charged with the request to Rivers and the officers of the militia company to confer with him at once. There was more passing of messengers back and forth, and it was at length deemed best for the men to confer with Butler. To this two of the officers objected on the ground that the whole plan was nothing more than a plot for their assassination. They sent to ask if General Butler would meet them without the presence of his armed force. He replied Yes, but before arrangements could be made for the interview another messenger came to say that the hour for the trial had arrived, that General Butler was at the court, and that he requested the presence of the trial justice, Rivers. Rivers proceeded to court alone and found Butler there waiting for him. He was about to proceed with the case when Butler asked for more time, which request was granted. He went away and never returned to the court. Instead he went to the council chamber, being surrounded now by greater and greater numbers of armed men, and he sent a committee to the officers asking that they come to the council chamber to see him. The men again declined for the same reason as before. Butler now sent an ultimatum demanding that the officers apologize for what took place on July 4 and that they surrender to him their arms, threatening that if the surrender was not made at once he would take their guns and officers by force. Adams and his men now awoke to a full sense of their danger, and they asked Rivers, who was not only trial justice but also Major General of the division of the militia to which they belonged, if he demanded their arms of them. Rivers replied that he did not. Thereupon the officers refused the request of Butler on the ground that he had no legal right to demand their arms or to receive them if surrendered. At this point Butler let it be known that he demanded the surrender of the arms within half an hour and that if he did not receive them he would "lay the d—— town in ashes." Asked in an interview whether, if his terms were complied with, he would guarantee protection to the people of the town he answered that he did not know and that that would depend altogether upon how they behaved themselves.
Butler now went with a companion to Augusta, returning in about thirty minutes. A committee called upon him as soon as he got back. He had only to say that he demanded the arms immediately. Asked if he would accept the boxing up of the arms and the sending of them to the Governor, he said, "D—— the Governor. I am not here to consult him, but am here as Colonel Butler, and this won't stop until after November." Asked again if he would guarantee general protection if the arms were surrendered, he said, "I guarantee nothing."
All the while scores of mounted men were about the streets. Such members of the militia company as were in town and their friends to the number of thirty-eight repaired to their armory—a large brick building about two hundred yards from the river—and barricaded themselves for protection. Firing upon the armory was begun by the mounted men, and after half an hour there were occasional shots from within. After a while the men in the building heard an order to bring cannon from Augusta, and they began to leave the building from the rear, concealing themselves as well as they could in a cornfield. The cannon was brought and discharged three or four times, those firing it not knowing that the building had been evacuated. When they realized their mistake they made a general search through lots and yards for the members of the company and finally captured twenty-seven of them, after two had been killed. The men, none of whom now had arms, were marched to a place near the railroad station, where the sergeant of the company was ordered to call the roll. Allan T. Attaway, whose name was first, was called out and shot in cold blood. Twelve men fired upon him and he was killed instantly. The men whose names were second, third, and fourth on the list were called out and treated likewise. The fifth man made a dash for liberty and escaped with a slight wound in the leg. All the others were then required to hold up their right hands and swear that they would never bear arms against the white people or give in court any testimony whatsoever regarding the occurrence. They were then marched off two by two and dispersed, but stray shots were fired after them as they went away. In another portion of the town the chief of police, James Cook, was taken from his home and brutally murdered. A marshal of the town was shot through the body and mortally wounded. One of the men killed was found with his tongue cut out. The members of Butler's party finally entered the homes of most of the prominent Negroes in the town, smashed the furniture, tore books to pieces, and cut pictures from their frames, all amid the most heartrending distress on the part of the women and children. That night the town was desolate, for all who could do so fled to Aiken or Columbia.
Upon all of which our only comment is that while such a process might seem for a time to give the white man power, it makes no progress whatever toward the ultimate solution of the problem.
4. [Counter-Reaction: The Negro Exodus]
The Negro Exodus of 1879 was partially considered in connection with our study of Liberia; but a few facts are in place here.
After the withdrawal of Federal troops conditions in the South were changed so much that, especially in South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, the state of affairs was no longer tolerable. Between 1866 and 1879 more than three thousand Negroes were summarily killed.[201] The race began to feel that a new slavery in the horrible form of peonage was approaching, and that the disposition of the men in power was to reduce the laborer to the minimum of advantages as a free man and to none at all as a citizen. The fear, which soon developed into a panic, rose especially in consequence of the work of political mobs in 1874 and 1875, and it soon developed organization. About this the outstanding fact was that the political leaders of the last few years were regularly distrusted and ignored, the movement being secret in its origin and committed either to the plantation laborers themselves or their direct representatives. In North Carolina circulars about Nebraska were distributed. In Tennessee Benjamin ("Pap") Singleton began about 1869 to induce Negroes to go to Kansas, and he really founded two colonies with a total of 7432 Negroes from his state, paying of his own money over $600 for circulars. In Louisiana alone 70,000 names were taken of those who wished to better their condition by removal; and by 1878 98,000 persons in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas were ready to go elsewhere. A convention to consider the whole matter of migration was held in Nashville in 1879. At this the politician managed to put in an appearance and there was much wordy discussion. At the same time much of the difference of opinion was honest; the meeting was on the whole constructive; and it expressed itself as favorable to "reasonable migration." Already, however, thousands of Negroes were leaving their homes in the South and going in greatest numbers to Kansas, Missouri, and Indiana. Within twenty months Kansas alone received in this way an addition to her population of 40,000 persons. Many of these people arrived at their destination practically penniless and without prospect of immediate employment; but help was afforded by relief agencies in the North, and they themselves showed remarkable sturdiness in adapting themselves to the new conditions.
Many of the stories that the Negroes told were pathetic.[202] Sometimes boats would not take them on, and they suffered from long exposure on the river banks. Sometimes, while they were thus waiting, agents of their own people employed by the planters tried to induce them to remain. Frequently they were clubbed or whipped. Said one: "I saw nine put in one pile, that had been killed, and the colored people had to bury them; eight others were found killed in the woods.... It is done this way: they arrest them for breach of contract and carry them to jail. Their money is taken from them by the jailer and it is not returned when they are let go." Said another: "If a colored man stays away from the polls and does not vote, they spot him and make him vote. If he votes their way, they treat him no better in business. They hire the colored people to vote, and then take their pay away. I know a man to whom they gave a cow and a calf for voting their ticket. After election they came and told him that if he kept the cow he must pay for it; and they took the cow and calf away." Another: "One man shook his fist in my face and said, 'D—— you, sir, you are my property.' He said that I owed him. He could not show it and then said, 'You sha'n't go anyhow.' All we want is a living chance." Another: "There is a general talk among the whites and colored people that Jeff Davis will run for president of the Southern states, and the colored people are afraid they will be made slaves again. They are already trying to prevent them from going from one plantation to another without a pass." Another: "The deputy sheriff came and took away from me a pair of mules. He had a constable and twenty-five men with guns to back him." Another: "Last year, after settling with my landlord, my share was four bales of cotton. I shipped it to Richardson and May, 38 and 40 Perdido Street, New Orleans, through W.E. Ringo & Co., merchants, at Mound Landing, Miss. I lived four miles back of this landing. I received from Ringo a ticket showing that my cotton was sold at nine and three-eighths cents, but I could never get a settlement. He kept putting me off by saying that the bill of lading had not come. Those bales averaged over four hundred pounds. I did not owe him over twenty-five dollars. A man may work there from Monday morning to Saturday night, and be as economical as he pleases, and he will come out in debt. I am a close man, and I work hard. I want to be honest in getting through the world. I came away and left a crop of corn and cotton growing up. I left it because I did not want to work twelve months for nothing. I have been trying it for fifteen years, thinking every year that it would get better, and it gets worse." Said still another: "I learned about Kansas from the newspapers that I got hold of. They were Southern papers. I got a map, and found out where Kansas was; and I got a History of the United States, and read about it."
Query: Was it genuine statesmanship that permitted these people to feel that they must leave the South?