Colfax Massacre: Blacks Slaughtered by White Supremacists

During the violent aftermath of the Civil War known as Reconstruction, a horrible massacre occurred on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, when white supremacists in Colfax, Louisiana, killed anywhere from 100 to 200 freedmen and black state militiamen who had barricaded themselves in the local courthouse. The exact number of fatalities will never be known, as many bodies were secretly buried or dumped into the Red River. This ugly incident was a microcosm of the political battles raging throughout the South.

Republicans were trying to ensure black suffrage and incorporating blacks into the political system, while Democrats and white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan were doing all they could to intimidate blacks from voting and restore whites to the level of power they held before the war.

Louisiana’s election for governor on Nov. 4, 1872, ended in dispute as both the Democrat’s candidate (ex-Confederate commander John McEnery) and the Republican’s candidate (U.S. Senator William Pitt Kellogg) claimed victory. Although Kellogg was later certified as the winner, white supremacists would not relent and tensions rose. There were several outbreaks of violence the first week of April in Grant Parish, where Colfax is located, leading up to the events of April 13, 1873.

The danger and tension prevalent at that time is reflected in this letter talking about events that happened around April 2, published by the anti-Republican newspaper Daily Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana) on April 13, 1873—ironically, the day the massacre occurred:

The Grant Parish Troubles.

Statement of a Sufferer.

Letter from the Agent of the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine Company.

We are indebted to Messrs. Peck Bros., No. 149 Canal street, agents for the Wheeler & Wilson sewing machine, for the following extracts of a letter, dated Alexandria, 8th inst., and written by their agent, L. Z. Bass:

Messrs. Peck Bros. (who pay license and taxes here) had sold to Ward, the colored Representative in the Kellogg Legislature from Grant parish, a sewing machine; and Mr. Bass visited Colfax to deliver a machine sold by the agent in Alexandria (who pays his license there) and to give instructions to Ward’s wife, and says that “when about four miles from there, I was stopped by a mob of armed negroes, who demanded my business in Colfax. When I told them that I was going to one of their own color, they let me go. I reached Peter Borland’s house about 8 o’clock that night, and left my team with him, and crossed over to Natchitoches parish and staid that night, as it was not safe in Grant parish. I went back next day, April 2, and gave instructions to Mrs. Calhoun on the machine sold to Borland. I also went to Ward’s, where I found a mob of negroes “protecting” him. After dinner I hitched up, and was about to cross over the river for safety, when one Charles Snowden, terming himself a deputy tax collector, demanded of me one hundred dollars for license, which I refused to pay.

At that time (5 o’clock P.M.) there were about 350 armed negroes in the place, in bands of about 40. Snowden took me to the office of one G. D. Brantley, who styles himself the Tax Collector of Grant parish. He told me that if I did not pay over to him one hundred dollars he would take the machine. I told him I did not think he had a right to do so, and if he did he would have to stand the consequences. After this he walked out of the office and took the machine out of the wagon, and while he was doing so the negroes walked about, threatening to drink our blood (Mr. Aaron and myself) and to knock our brains out if we had anything to say, saying that they were there to protect the court house and the appointees of Wm. Pitt Kellogg.

We crossed the river to Natchitoches parish and put up the horse. When we went down to the ferry landing they fired two volleys, of about forty guns, at us, but fortunately they did not touch us.

On Thursday I made a written demand for that machine, and received answer from Brantley that I could not have it until I paid one hundred dollars. When I went to hitch up Thursday, I found my horse sick from fatigue, the negroes having ridden him all night Thursday [Wednesday?—ed.], so I had him attended to, and on Friday I started for Alexandria.

There were no white men in Colfax except the leaders of those negroes, G. D. Brantley, register; Charles Snowden, Thomas Raily and Shaw, they having driven all the other white men out of the place, and destroyed all their property. They even took Judge Rutland’s child out of the vault and threw it out in the field.

At noon on April 13, 1873, more than 300 white men, armed and on horseback, descended on the Colfax courthouse where several hundred blacks were making their stand. Shooting broke out, and after several hours the courthouse was set on fire. The defenders showed a white flag of truce, but then a shot struck one of the white defenders, James Hadnot (which side fired that shot is disputed), and the battle resumed with increased ferocity. The defenders were gunned down as they tried to flee the burning building, and a group of about 50 who were captured were later butchered.

Although 97 men were indicted for the Colfax massacre, only 9 were brought to trial. One was acquitted, with the other eight cases ending in a mistrial. Later, three of those were found guilty, but in an appeal process that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court they ended up going free.

This notice of the Colfax massacre was published by the Cincinnati Commercial (Cincinnati, Ohio) on April 16, 1873:

There is a terrible telegram from New Orleans this morning. Colfax, Grant Parish, has been the scene of a horrible massacre. The result of a disturbance has been the killing of about one hundred negroes, and so far as appears but one white man was wounded. The affair is called a speck of war, but its real character is evidently that of a massacre.

A fuller description of the massacre appears in this article. However, the reporter gets a key fact wrong, stating that the courthouse was set on fire only after the shooting of Hadnot, and asserts it was done “as the only means of dislodging the negroes.” This article was published by the Boston Daily Advertiser (Boston, Massachusetts) on the front page of its April 16, 1873, issue:

Another Massacre.

A Hundred Negroes Butchered in Colfax, Louisiana.

Their Stronghold Fired and the Men Shot Down as They Ran from It—Result of the Political Riots in Grant Parish—‘Not a Negro to Be Found for Miles Around.’

New Orleans, April 15.—Steamboat Southwestern arrived this afternoon, bringing stirring news from Grant Parish. The whites have retaken Colfax, and there is not a negro to be found for miles around. Passengers say the negroes had strongly entrenched themselves in the courthouse, and built breastworks three or four feet high. There were, it is said, about 400 men, armed and equipped thoroughly. On Sunday about 12 o’clock, about 150 men gathered from the surrounding parishes and made an attack on the breastworks, and a brisk fight was kept up until somewhere near 3 o’clock. The breastworks were then stormed and captured, the negroes taking refuge in the courthouse, the doors of which were barricaded. After some further fighting the negroes flung out a flag of truce, and several detachments of men advanced on it, when they were fired upon by the besieged party, wounding several, one of whom was Captain Hadnot, who was shot in the bowels and it is feared fatally wounded. They retreated outside of the breastworks, and, as the only means of dislodging the negroes, the courthouse was set on fire, and they were shot as they came from the burning building. It is reported that 80 or 100 negroes were killed, and none afterwards were to be found for miles around.

The captain of the Southwestern makes the following statement: “We arrived at Colfax on Sunday evening about 8 o’clock, and found the white people with the Sheriff at their head. I suppose they had captured the town, after having had a conflict with the negroes. It was reported to me that about 100 negroes had been killed and many wounded. We saw from our boat about fifteen or twenty lying around on the banks dead. One white man was reported killed, whose name I did not learn, and two very seriously wounded—Messrs. Hadnot and Harris. Mr. Hadnot was shot through the bowels and is supposed mortally wounded. We brought Harris and Hadnot down from Colfax to Alexandria. Three or four other white men were slightly wounded. About one hundred negroes escaped, but it was reported that the whites were still pursuing them. All the leaders of the riot escaped. The negroes ambuscaded themselves in the courthouse, and the whites, finding there was no other mode of attack left, then set fire to the building. The whites numbered in the neighborhood of 150 men. The fight lasted from twelve o’clock until nearly five. The whites are now in possession of Colfax, and when I left, late last Sunday night, everything was very quiet.”

For more information, visit the Colfax Massacre website provided by PBS.

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