Note 200 — Chapter XIII

Footnote 200: (return) Fleming, in his latest and most mature account of reconstruction, The Sequel of Appomattox, has not one word to say about the matter. Dunning, in Reconstruction Political and Economic (306), speaks as follows: "July 6, 1876, an armed collision between whites and blacks at Hamburg, Aiken County, resulted in the usual slaughter of the blacks. Whether the original cause of the trouble was the insolence and threats of a Negro militia company, or the aggressiveness and violence of some young white men, was much discussed throughout the state, and, indeed, the country at large. Chamberlain took frankly and strongly the ground that the whites were at fault." Such a statement we believe simply does not do justice to the facts. The account given herewith is based upon the report of the matter in a letter published in a Washington paper and submitted in connection with the debate in the United States House of Representatives, July 15th and 18th, 1876, on the Massacre of Six Colored Citizens at Hamburg, S.C., July 4, 1876; and on "An Address to the People of the United States, adopted at a Conference of Colored Citizens, held at Columbia, S.C., July 20th and 21st, 1876" (Republican Printing Co., Columbia, S.C., 1876). The Address, a document most important for the Negro's side of the story, was signed by no less than sixty representative men, among them R.B. Elliott, R.H. Gleaves, F.L. Cardozo, D.A. Straker, T. McC. Stewart, and H.N. Bouey.