Black Uprising Scare of 1883

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Clark Atlanta University

The Texas "Black Uprising" Scare of 1883Author(s): Alwyn BarrReviewed work(s):Source: Phylon (1960-), Vol. 41, No. 2 (2nd Qtr., 1980), pp. 179-186Published by: Clark Atlanta UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/274970 .

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By ALWYN BARR

The Texas "Black Uprising" Scare of 1.883IN RECENT YEARS historians have explored with increasing sophistica-tion whether the frequently reported plots by blacks to revolt againstdomination by whites in the United States reflected a well-developedstrain of revolutionary violence or hysterical overreactions by whites toimagined or minor incidents. Students of racial violence accept thereality of several slave revolts during the antebellum period, as well asarmed resistance by black soldiers to harrassment by whites in the latenineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But they emphasize the stronginfluence of racial fears -that "a successful insurrection loomed astotal destruction" of white society -to explain panics in a number ofinstances for which there is little if any evidence of plots by blacks.1While the newer studies have focused primarily upon the slave revoltscares which swept the South before the Civil War, they also includethe Christmas Day insurrection panic in 1865 and some earlytwentieth century race riots. Yet fears among whites of uprisings couldbe stirred by local events as well as by national or regional crises suchas antebellum sectionalism, emancipation, or the recession and RedScare of 1919.2 Just as suspicious happenings in South Carolina culmi-nated in the panic over the Vesey revolt of 1822, so events in otherstates brought forth fearful reactions among whites in the post-Recon-struction South. Outspoken political activity by blacks in ChoctawCounty, a part of the Alabama Black Belt, aroused fears of insurrectionamong whites, which spread to other parts of the state and resulted inthe lynching of one black leader in 1882.3 In Texas efforts by blacks toorganize militia companies and perhaps labor unions caused a similarpanic in 1883.Despite opposition of white Southerners to armed Negroes after theCivil War, some black militia were allowed to survive the end of Re-construction, although in reduced numbers and under the strict controlof new Democratic state governments. In Texas a dynamic young Afro-American minister and teacher, A. M. Gregory, led an expansion of theblack militia from three companies to a regiment which held a stateencampment in 1881. Gregory's continued recruiting activities became'Winthrop D. Jordan, White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro 1550-1812(Chapel Hill, 1968), p. 115; Herbert Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts (New York,1943); Robert V. Haynes, A Night of Violence: The Houston Riot of 1917 (Baton Rouge,1976).sCharles B. Dew, "Black Ironworkers and the Slave Insurrection Panic of 1856," Journal ofSouthern History, 41 (August 1975): 321-38; Steven A. Channing, Crisis of Fear: Secession inSouth Carolina (New York, 1970), pp. 17-57; Dan T. Carter, "The Anatomy of Fear: TheChristmas Day Insurrection Scare of 1865," Journal of Southern History, 42 (August 1976):345-64; Arthur I. Waskow, From Race Riot to Sit-in, 1919 and the 1960's: A Study in the

Connections Between Conflict and Violence (Garden City, 1966), pp. 121-74.8Richard C. Wade, "The Vesey Plot: A Reconsideration," Journal of Southern History, 30(May 1965): 143-61; William Warren Rogers and Robert David Ward, August Reckoning:Jack Turner and Racism in Post-Civil War Alabama (Baton Rouge, 1973).179

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PHYLONa source of concern, however, to the state adjutant general, formerConfederate General W. H. King.4A crisis began to develop when Gregory found his Waco company ina state of disorganization in July, 1883, and asked that its weapons betransferred to "a splendid company at Marshall Texas well uniformedand ready for arms." He bolstered his request by reporting that "it isthe only company named after our Hon. Gov. Ireland" and "is composedof Good Democratic colored Gentlemen who stand high with their whitefriends." King replied that no new units would be commissioned untilafter a complete reorganization of the militia system. Yet his reason forrejecting the new Marshall company rested primarily on a protest fromwhite Democratic officials of Harrison County. In their view "these bravecolored troops never thought of such an organization until the whitepeople of Marion County hung the two negroes that Ravished and mur-dered Mrs. Rogers of that county."5The opposition voiced by leaders in Harrison County reflected not onlytraditional white racial concepts, which included fear of armed blacks,but also local conditions. Harrison and neighboring Marion countiescontained black majorities which had provided the basis for Republicancounty governments even after the end of statewide Reconstruction.Harrison County Democrats had seized control of their county govern-ment by force in 1878with the indulgence of state Democratic officials.Black and white Republican leaders had been killed or intimidatedand ballot boxes stuffed in succeeding years to complete the overthrowof majority rule. Marion County would follow a similar course duringthe 1890s.The two lynchings in Marion County in 1883 reflected effortsby white Democrats of both counties to maintain social and economicas well as political domination of local blacks and helped rank the areaamong the highest in the state in total lynchings.6Articles in the Marshall Herald continued to voice suspicion and con-cern over "Secret Negro Meetings . . . of a military character . . . atLiberty Church two nights in every week," and described the aspiringblack militia captain, Lias Tillman, as "noted for bad reputation andtroublesome character." Before the end of August, local whites againexhibited their frayed nerves by driving out of town a Missouri bookagent, I. E. Wilson, on charges of making himself "noxious to the peopleof this community by organizing secret unions among colored cooks andwasherwomen, and induced strikes for higher wages."7'Report of the Adjutant-General of the State of Texas, February 28, 1882 (Galveston, 1882),pp. 12, 15, 21; W. H. King to J. N. Henderson, June 28, 1882, Letters Sent, 1882-1883, TexasAdjutant General Records (Archives, Texas State Library, Austin); Marshall Tri-WeeklyHerald, September 13, 1883; U.S. Tenth Census, 1880, Population, Robertson County, Texas

(microfilm. Southwest Collection, Texas Tech University, Lubbock), 26.GA. M. Gregory to W. H. King, July 24, 1883, S. T. Scott and others to W. H. King, July 12,1883, Correspondence, King to Gregory, July 26, 1883, Letters Sent, 1882-1883, Texas AdjutantGeneral Records.eAlwyn Barr, Reconstruction to Reform: Texas Politics, 1876-1906 (Austin, 1971), pp. 194-96,200: Lawrence D. Rice, The Negro in Texas, 1874-1900 (Baton Rouge, 1971), DP. 114-18; DavidL. Chapman, "Lynching in Texas" (M.A. thesis, Texas Tech University, 1973), p. 32.? Marshall Tri-Weekly Herald, August 18, 28, 1883.

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"BLACK UPRISING" SCAREAt the request of potential black militia leaders, Colonel Gregorycame into this tense situation to explain what he believed to be thetemporary delay in recognition of the Ireland Guards. When a sprainedback prolonged his stay at the home of Henry Jones, a railroad porter,other blacks arrived on Saturday, September 1, to ask about formingadditional companies. He explained the difficulties of recognition andconvinced them to join the existing unit. From each member he col-lected $1.00 to cover rent for an armory.8That gathering of about a hundred Negroes created panic amongwhites in Marshall. State Senator W. H. Pope (also a leading advocateof railroad segregation), the chief of police, and twenty-five armedwhites rushed to Jones' house, where they seized the company muster

roll and forced the colonel to return the funds he had raised. The whitesthen disbanded the militia unit and ordered Gregory and Tillman outof town. When a patrol returned to Jones' house that night, black guardsshouted "halt" and fired on the whites, who continued to advance. Inthe exchange of shots, two black children in a nearby house wereslightly wounded, as were probably one or two persons engaged oneach side. Three hundred whites quickly gathered at the courthouseand swept through the town temporarily arresting any Negroes who wereawake, including members of a local fraternal group. White searchersfound the Jones house deserted and an uneasy quiet settled over Mar-shall.9On Sunday, September 2, white Democrats telegraphed their accountof events to the governor and the Adjutant General, a former residentof neighboring Marion County. Their statement asserted that one mem-ber of the black company had described its purpose as the arrest andpunishment of whites guilty of injuring blacks, such as a Marshallpoliceman who recently had killed a Negro. They pronounced the chargefalse and urged King to stop the organization of any black militia unitsin the area.10The Marshall Herald published a similar account entitled "The NegroRiot" in which it ignored past actions by whites to proclaim: "This isthe first time that any trouble or conflict has come up between thenegroes and white citizens in this city or county." The editor blamed "afew hot headed, bad negroes, who want to bring themselves in notice"and "political emissaries in the interest of the Republican party." Re-flecting fears of local whites of "a war of races," he asserted that "thewhite people do not want such affairs; . . . but if it becomes necessaryto protect their wives and children and property, they are always ready,

8A. M. Gregory to W. H. King, September 10, 1883, Correspondence, Texas Adjutant GeneralRecords.9Ibid.; W. P. Lane and others to Governor Ireland and Adjutant General King, September2, 1883, Correspondence, Texas Adjutant General Records; Marshall Tri-Weekly Herald,September 1, 4, 1883.0W. P. Lane and others to Governor Ireland and Adjutant General King, September 2, 1883,Correspondence, Texas Adjutant General Records.

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PHYLONand will do it at all hazards." He also offered several "lessons" whichblacks should learn from the confrontation. As a clearly implied warninghe hoped "the negroes will see that the white citizens always go for theleaders . . . in such organizations." Furthermore, "the anglo saxon racewill control it over every other race . . . and whatever the white peopledo for the good of society to protect their families and property, is alsofor the good of the colored people." Finally, he assumed "there are alarge number . . . of the younger negroes . . . who think they are toowell educated to work like their 'daddies'do" and thus join such organiza-tions. To keep them in line the paper published the twenty-two nameson the company muster roll."1Fifteen of the twenty-two men on the muster roll appear in the 1880United States Census of Harrison County, which indicates that at leasttwo-thirds had lived there for three years or more and could be con-sidered permanent residents.12The fifteen ranged in age from nineteento fifty-one, and averaged twenty-nine years of age in 1883.Five identi-fied themselves as farmers with their own families, two as laborerswith their own families, and seven as farm laborers still living withtheir parents. Two others whose names did not appear on the musterroll, Lias Tillman, the company captain, and Henry Jones, whose homehad been used as a meeting place, were both forty-eight. Tillman wasa farmer with a wife, while Jones, a railroad porter, had a family. Theages of many of the would-be militiamen and the apparently stablefamily and farming situations of most of them thus render implausiblethe editorial criticism of "badnegroes" and "younger negroes who thinkthey are too well educated to work like their 'daddies' do."Adjutant General King arrived on September 5 and met with theDemocratic leaders to assure them that he would allow no blackmilitia there and that Gregory, whose report of the events he had notyet seen, would lose his commission for attempting to form such anorganization. King and the white leaders then met local black spokes-men, who had promised to help restrain the resentment and hostilityamong younger Negroes. The Adjutant General told them no companiescould be created "to take the law in their own hands." Instead, if they"had any grievances against the white people" they "must apply to theofficers of the law. . . and to the courts, and . .. should have full justiceunder the law." A local judge indicated the quality of that justice thesame day when he fined a black man $30.00for carrying a pistol, whiledozens of armed whites roamed the countryside seeking the blacks whohad defended themselves on Saturday night.13When Gregory left Marshall he did not realize initially the threat tohis militia career posed by events there. He planned to continue his11 Marshall Tri-Weekly Herald, September 4, 6, 1883.12U.S. Tenth Census, 1880, Population, Harrison County, Texas (microfilm, Southwest Col-lection, Texas Tech University, Lubbock).13Marshall Tri-Weekty Herald, September 4, 6, 8, 1883.

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"BLACKUPRISING"SCAREannual inspections of black militia companies and ordered the BrenhamRifles to be prepared for an official visit in late September. When helearned of King's decision to revoke his commission, however, he pro-tested at length, describing his actions in Marshall and stating "ourcolored companies have never caused any trouble in any city or townwhen they are organized." Gregory's problems became even more criti-cal after a report appeared in the Galveston News charging him withembezzlement and seduction when he lived in Gonzales. "I can prove be-fore any council or any court in the country a clear record of character,"he responded. Furthermore, he assured King of his support for the Demo-cratic party rather than for the Republican party as charged by theMarshall Herald. His efforts failed, however, for King refused to reviewthe decision even after he learned in late September that Gregory facedonly a minor embezzlement complaint in a justice of the peace court,upon which the Gonzales grand jury had not yet acted. Although hisactivities aroused a strong reaction among the whites, Gregory's failureas a militia leader appears to have been due to his excessive promo-tional zeal and ambition combined with events and attitudes unknownto him, rather than upon criminal intent on his part - a situation similarin many ways to the fall of Marcus Garvey in the 1920s.Gregory wouldshow his resilience and continued leadership ability, however, by achiev-ing local and state offices in the black Masons of Texas during the 1880sand 1890s. Those accomplishments also suggest his innocence of theearlier criminal charges, since conviction would have barred him frommembership in the Masons.14Following the confrontation at Marshall a wave of fear, similar topanics caused by antebellum slave revolts and earlier post-Civil Warfears of insurrection by blacks, swept through the white population ofNortheast Texas. Rumors of secret meetings and drills by blacks sur-faced at Longview in Gregg County during September. Hearsay relatedother gatherings near Daingerfield in Morris County and Gilmer inUpshur County. The suspicious book agent was reported to be activeagain in Marion and Camp counties. Near Hawkins in Wood County awhite posse broke up a meeting of blacks and reported that the leader"raninto the swamp and was 'lost."' Another rumor prepared Longviewwhites for a raid by blacks from Gladewater which never materialized.A white man, who announced himself as a Pinkerton detective, claimedto have found a notebook on the railroad platform at Marshall whichdescribed elaborate organizational efforts by black Henry Coleman withthe aid of several whites and blacks scattered from Terrell in KaufmanCounty and Mineola in Wood County to Marshall and Shreveport,143. G. Sloan to W. H. King, September 4, 1883, A. M. Gregory to King, September 10, 1883,B. R. Abernathy to King., September 26, 1883, Correspondence, King to Sam Smith,September 15, 1883, Letters Sent, 1882-1883, Texas Adjutant General Records: MarshallTr- Weekly Herald, September 11, 13, 1883; Galveston Daily News, September 8, 1883; PrinceHall Masons, Grand Lodge of Texas, Proceedings, 1889, pp. 6, 27, 1892, p. 71.

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PHYLONLouisiana. Although the notes did not indicate violent goals for thegroup, and some of those mentioned exonerated themselves, Colemanwas assassinated shortly thereafter. Seeking a scapegoat, local Demo-cratic and Republican leaders blamed each other as manufacturers ofthe story for political purposes. Some native whites blamed Northernwhite instructors at Bishop College for arousing assertiveness in blacksby teaching "social equality" of the races. A white vigilante group,which claimed to be from the Sheriff at Longview, although probablylocal in origin, took from his home and murdered Silas Johnson, a blackminister at Marshall who had been accused of holding secret meetingsand selling guns to Negroes. The Shreveport Standard reported blacksorganizing at night near Fairfield, though the Shreveport Times raiseddoubts about such activities by publishing denials by blacks and whitesof anything other than religious and social meetings.15Fears soon spread beyond the immediate vicinity of Marshall to otherparts of East Texas. A white in Smith County claimed to have foundalong a road a letter "purporting to be from a negro at Marshall" to ablack man in Tyler. It outlined plans for a general revolt in whichwhites would be killed, property burned, and courthouses captured byirregular black companies from Marshall, Tyler, and Palestine in Ander-son County that were a part of the organization described in the Colemannotebook. In discussions of the letter, a newspaperman found that "theopinion as to its genuineness is somewhat divided" in Tyler. AdjutantGeneral King received a copy of the letter; but he evidently believed itto be a forgery, for he did not rush additional arms or men into the area.When no uprising or raids followed, his judgment appeared to be con-firmed. The authenticity of the documents revealing a conspiracy prob-ably raised doubts, for two reasons. First, if such a plot had evolved itseems unlikely that the leaders would have committed their plans topaper, which could later be used to incriminate them. Moreover, writtenplans for a conspiracy by blacks would appear implausible at a timewhen illiteracy among Negroes in Texas still stood at 75 percent andcommunication remained primarily verbal in the black community.'6Some repercussions of events in East Texas surfaced outside thatregion. For example, a white militia officer in Houston arranged toinspect the black militia there "to find out exactly how they stand,"since the company was armed.17 The scare nevertheless finally beganto subside in November when the white press admitted that the drillingof black school children in Milam County and false rumors of NegroesIs Marshall Tri-Weekly Herald, September 15, 18, 22, 1883; Houston Post, September 25, 1883;

Galveston Daily News, September 24, 25, 27, 1883; Report of the Adjutant-General of theState of Texas, December, 1883 (Austin, 1883), pp. 5-7; Shreveport Times, September 30,1883.6John H. Castle to W. H. King, October 3, 1883, Correspondence, Texas Adjutant GeneralRecords; Galveston Daily News, October 4, 1883.17Frank S. Burke to W. H. King, October 30, 1883, Correspondence, Texas Adjutant GeneralRecords.

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"BLACKUPRISING" SCAREpurchasing ammunition at Maysfield had stirred unnecessary fears of anuprising. Even in September during the midst of the panic, a Longviewreporter had explained: "Our more calm and cautious citizens greatlyregret the unjustifiable proportions to which the scare about a 'negrorising' has grown, indeed, out of all reason." And from outside theoverwrought region the Dallas Herald editorialized: "No blood so farhas been shed and no collisions have occurred,"which "is pretty goodevidence of the fact that the extent of the trouble has about been thescare."18The concerns of blacks appeared in the Galveston Spectator, a Negronewspaper, which feared that all black militia units might be dis-banded as a result of the agitation. A mass meeting of blacks in RuSkduring October probably reflected the views of most Negroes When itdenounced all blacks involved in any uprising and all whites who spreadrumors about such events. Major G. W. Wilson spoke for the existingblack militia units when he wrote the adjutant general in October: "Wewould like to get our regiment straight if possible" by electing a newcolonel. Despite the furor around Gregory and his dismissal, the Demo-cratic state government allowed a few black companies to continue aspart of the Texas militia, but reduced the organization from a regimentto a battalion with Wilson in command.19The scare in Texas in 1883 of an uprising by blacks reflected manyattitudes held by whites which were common to other such panics-fear of armed blacks, belief in outside agitators, and invidious compari-sons of an older generation of ex-slaves with a younger, more aggressivegeneration seen as "bad negroes." As in earlier scares, some whitesapparently seized the opportunity to forge incriminating documents,which then provided the basis for disarming blacks and eliminatingtheir leaders-in Texas at least three who came under suspicionwere killed. The absence of any revolt and the lack of reliable evidencefor even a plot suggest that this scare, like many of those before andimmediately after the Civil War, probably arose, not because of anyplanned violence by blacks, but rather from exaggerated fears amongwhites of any challenge to their domination.Blacks in Texas and the South had not completely accepted subordina-tion after Reconstruction. They sought to organize militia units and toresist violence against them by whites, which indicated a desire forself-protection and self-respect. There also may have been some un-successful efforts at labor organization in the region. Yet such actionscould be understood by some whites only as the pretense for a bloodyuprising.s1Houston Post, November 3, 1883; Dallas Weekly Herald, September 20, 27, 1883.19 Galveston Spectator, September 15, 1883. as quoted in New York Times, September 23. 1883;Houston Post, October 18, 1883; G. W. Wilson to Adjutant General, October 27, 1883, Corre-spondence, Texas Adiutant General Records; Report of the Adjutant-General of the State ofTexas, December, 1886 (Austin, 1886), pp. 28, 31.

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186 PHYLONReactions of whites reached their greatest intensity in rural EastTexas counties where blacks were a majority or a large minority of thepopulation- a pattern common also to Southern lynchings. By contrast,black militia units and labor unions existed peacefully before and after1883 in the larger Texas towns where blacks generally formed smallerminorities. Such variations in response to activities of blacks suggestwhat C. Vann Woodward recently described as the paternalistic vs. thecompetitive models of race relations.20In the larger towns where whitesclearly controlled political, economic, and social life, they could accept ina paternal spirit a variety of organizational activities by blacks. But insmaller towns and rural counties where black majorities seemed aconstant threat to domination by whites, a harsher competitive response

seemed necessary to any challenge, whether it be real insurrection orvivid imagination.20C. Vann Woodward. American Counterpoint: Slavery and Racism in the North-South Dia-logue (Boston. 1971), pp. 243-44.

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