After Slavery

In popular memory, the Confederate surrender brought an end to military hostilities and decided the fate of four million former slaves. In reality, the end of formal hostilities left major questions about the status of the former slaves unresolved, and between 1865 and the end of Reconstruction in 1877 paramilitary violence plagued the former slave states, occasionally erupting into large-scale, lethal confrontations. Some of this was rooted in the bitterness left by the results of the War, no doubt, but it was the contest between ex-slaves and their former masters that drove paramilitary violence.

Although important demographic, political and economic differences shaped in profound ways the postwar convulsions experienced in North and South Carolina, in both states white paramilitaries built a substantial and effective presence. Ultimately, organized violence on the part of white conservatives played a crucial role in imposing limits on black freedom and, eventually, overthrowing the Republican governments in which freedpeople invested so much of their hope.

Neither black nor white Republicans were passive in the face of paramilitary violence. While they remained stationed in the South in sufficient strength, black troops played an especially important role on galvanizing besieged communities against the paramilitary threat. On a local level, effective defense against the Klan and others depended heavily on the skills and experienced leadership of Union army veterans, teachers and ministers, and Republican Party activists. Freedmen’s Bureau officials could also play key roles, and although some individual agents risked their lives defending freedpeople, others seemed unmoved by the violence to which ex-slaves were subjected.

State and federal government officials were sometimes sympathetic, but on the whole proved unwilling to commit the resources or adopt the measures necessary to eradicate the threat from well-organized and determined opponents of black freedom. After the Klan’s suppression in the early 1870s, conservatives turned to a more open form of military organization directly linked to the Democratic Party, and combining spectacle and public intimidation with the more familiar targeting of individual activists. By late 1876 Reconstruction had been effectively overthrown in both states.

Americans are inclined to think that the United States is immune from the kind of sustained domestic turmoil that ensured during period of Reconstruction. The experience of the Carolinas and the rest of the South in the years following emancipation suggests that, on the contrary, paramilitary violence played an extremely important role at a critical juncture in our history.

Sources:
Document 1. Ex-Confederate Soldiers Terrorizing Union Men and Freedpeople in North Carolina
Document 2. Early Outrages against Freedpeople in South Carolina
Document 3. Hostility to Freedpeople and Federal Authorities in the South Carolina Upcountry
Document 4. Former Freedmen’s Bureau Official Rufus B. Saxton on Freedpeople’s Desire to Acquire Arms
Document 5: North Carolina Freedmen Seek Protection from Governor Holden
Document 6. Governor Scott is Warned of Impending Clashes in the South Carolina Upcountry
Document 7. A. M. E. Pastor S. B. Williams Reports Atrocities to Governor Holden
Document 8. Albion W. Tourgée Reports on KKK Violence in North Carolina
Document 9. Freedpeople’s Testimony on the Effects of Klan Violence
Document 10. A Spartanburg Republican Offers President Grant Advice on How to Suppress Paramilitary Violence
Document 11. Martin W. Gary’s Plan for the Conservative Campaign of 1876