The 1868 St. Bernard Parish Massacre

by C. Dier

  Even though the election was over and the federal troops occupied the parish, armed men still patrolled the roads at night. It was unsafe for any known white Republican or person of color to travel. On November 15, John Lewis Spalding, the commanding officer of the federal troops in St. Bernard Parish, was traveling alone in lower St. Bernard Parish. He stopped at Thomas Ong’s plantation to change his tired horse for a mule. He described the night as “exceedingly dark.” When Spalding was on the “most lonesome part of the road,” he heard someone cry “halt” to his mule. The mule stopped in its tracks. Spalding demanded to know the cause of halt and drew his pistol from inside the carriage to prepare for a duel. An armed man on horseback put his lantern close to the carriage to see who was inside. Spalding could see silhouettes of more armed mounted men approaching his carriage. Spalding announced he was the commanding officer of federal troops and heard a voice translate his announcement in Spanish. The person who translated rode up to the carriage and claimed he was attempting to frighten a friend. They retreated back into the darkness. Spalding believed they may have thought he was Ong or General A.L. Lee since he had borrowed their mule and carriage, respectively. The men most likely did not attack Spalding in fear of the inevitable retaliation from U.S. troops. Had it been a different Republican, or a freedperson, the outcome would unequivocally have been much more grim.170

  WHITE DEMOCRATS WERE infuriated knowing the killers of Pablo Feliu had not been forced to answer for their actions. Judge Thornton, the elected judge of the parish, was powerless to act; his authority was no longer respected due to his political leanings. He claimed in his testimony, “I will here state that it is impossible for me to act as parish judge for this parish, either in civil or in criminal cases. Neither parish officers or witnesses pay any attention to my official orders. Furthermore, I will say that I am the only officer in the parish of Saint Bernard who has taken the oath of eligibility.”171

  He noted that the parish had “no police-jury,” even though Governor Warmoth himself had appointed one with “six magistrates” and “six constables and an assessor” six weeks prior to the election. A police jury is a legislative and executive governing body typical of older Louisiana parishes that is essential to maintaining order. When asked, Thornton claimed that “most of the police-jury have been murdered, and every one of the rest of the appointees have been frightened away by being charged in some way or other in producing the riots.”172

  Due to the ineptness of Judge Thornton, a local autocrat took measures into his own hands. Philippe Toca, known for his harshness, styled himself as the judge of the parish despite not having been elected and having no legitimate claim to the title. He once challenged Judge Gilbert Leonard of neighboring Plaquemines Parish to a duel where the two exchanged blows with double-barreled fowling pieces fifty yards apart. Judge Leonard did not survive. After the duel, few questioned Toca’s legal validity. Freedpeople felt his wrath after the massacre.

  Toca gathered a posse and visited plantations throughout the parish and arrested indiscriminately. Within a matter of days, he had arrested an estimated sixty-four freedpeople and charged them with the killing of Feliu. Toca only released individuals who could buy their freedom. He charged some of the arrested upward of nine dollars, almost a month’s salary. Officer Zuinglius McKay was tasked to investigate the arrests and subsequent extreme interrogations unlawfully carried out by Toca. He remarked:

  He [Toca] proceeded to issue warrants, and by some parties unauthorized to make arrests, and carried before this would-be justice of the peace. They were all put in jail. No distinction was made between them, whether they were witnesses or not; they were all placed in jail, charged with the murder of Pablo Feilio [sic]. Then commenced a system of examination and interrogation unknown before to any other government with a free constitution, and only equaled by the terrors of the Spanish inquisition, a few centuries back, or the later cruelties practiced by King Bomba, of Naples, previous to his overthrow by the Italian government. The parties were forced to make voluntary confessions, and strong endeavors were made to compel the parties giving testimony to implicate innocent parties. Witnesses dare not state facts, as they were surrounded by armed cut-throats and murderers.173

  After the interrogations, the self-styled Judge Toca unilaterality declared all the suspects guilty and transported them to the parish prison in New Orleans on November 11. According to J.M. Lee’s investigation, the freedpeople received “barbarous” treatment while detained. A prisoner named Sam Bucks and his associates immediately made their supremacy known to the newcomers and relentlessly attacked the freedpeople from St. Bernard Parish.174

  On November 20, a writ of habeas corpus was sued on behalf of the freedpeople by Republican sympathizers. The accused were presented to Judge Edmund Abell to have their case heard. Judge Abell was a Union supporter but was also known for his proslavery perspective. He once remarked, “I say that of all systems of labor, slavery is the most perfect, humane, and satisfactory that has ever been devised; and a slave under a good master is the most happy being in the world.” Despite his views regarding slavery, Judge Abell immediately dismissed the authority of Philippe Toca, and all the detainees were considered innocent of their suspected crimes. Most of the freedpeople were released and immediately returned to St. Bernard Parish to work on the plantations. However, the judge held those whom he believed were directly involved for six to seven months without trial before he released them.175

  Toca was appalled by the decision of Judge Abell and immediately rearrested the freedpeople. J.M. Lee wrote a letter to Judge Thornton to give orders to stop the illegal arrests:

  I am informed that steps are being taken by the so-called civil authorities of this parish to arrest the second time a certain freedmen recently released upon a hearing before proper civil authority in the city of New Orleans, viz: Sixty-four (64) freed people, more or less, who were arraigned before on Judge Toca, charged with participating in the troubles which occurred in this parish on or about the 25th day of October, 1868, and who were sent to the city to be confined, at the instance or by the pretended authority of the said Judge Toca, and which freed people were released by competent civil authority in the said city of New Orleans.

  Now as you have taken measures for the re-arrest of these parties or some of them, without knowing the full facts attending their release, and as it is well known that civil authority is disorganized and inoperative in this parish, and that the re-arrest and trial of these freedmen in the manner indicated will be neither just nor impartial, you are hereby informed, by direction of Brevet Major-General Hatch, assistant commissioner, that no such arrests will be allowed upon these freedmen, who have gone peaceably to work on the plantations where they were employed, and any steps taken by you in that direction will be stopped.

  You are also notified that if necessary to prevent such premature proceedings, the freedmen referred to will be at once taken under charge of and the Bureau of R., F. and A. Lands of this State, and will be held for trial and produced when required before any civil court having proper jurisdiction, which can proceed in their cases without intimidation.176

  Toca abandoned his charade as a legitimate judge to avoid the perceived infiltration of more federal troops. Instead, he threatened and intimidated Judge Thornton himself to issue warrants for the arrests of the freedpeople. Under duress, Thornton acquiesced and issued warrants to arrest certain freedpeople. Once the warrants were issued, Toca and his de facto police force took it upon themselves to adhere to the orders, a vastly different response to Thornton than the previous months. Nothing seemed to come from these arrests, as Thornton noted the arrests were a farce and released most of those detained. Over sixty freedpeople were arrested and held for months for the murder of one white person. By contrast, in the murders and attempted murders of multiple freedpeople, cases in which many of the survivors could identify their attackers, not a single white assailant was once questioned or detained. When J.M. Lee was
conducting his investigation, he “requested a number of whites to give…information,” but “they pretended to know but little about it.”177

  THE OVERALL DEATH toll of the tragedy is impossible to accurately determine. Lieutenant J.M. Lee noted in the conclusion of his report that nine freedpersons were killed and seventeen were wounded, while two whites were killed and one wounded. However, Lee mentions more than nine freedpeople killed throughout his investigation. Lee states in the beginning of his report, “The principal casualties have been given, but there are many of a minor character that have not been reported.” It’s important to note that he only gathered testimonies of eleven freedpeople out of over two thousand living in the parish. He also did not stay in the parish long enough to conduct a full investigation, probably due to fear, as the perpetrators were not fond of any inquiries into the violent affair. Furthermore, he added a note at the bottom of his report: “The above embraces all casualties as far as ascertained, but I am of the opinion that there are others not yet made known.”178

  Judge Thornton provided a more gruesome figure in his testimony. He claimed, “I do not mean to say that there were only (35) thirty-five negroes who were murdered during the riots. I have no doubt there were many more, but these were all that were officially reported to me.” Thornton discussed other murders not mentioned by Lee, most notably the fact that some of the police jury members were murdered.179

  Others in addition to Thornton contributed to the growing number of lives of freedpeople lost in the massacre. Philip Taylor, a Metropolitan policeman, claimed “there were from thirty-five to fifty colored people killed” during the mayhem. Taylor also revealed different murders not previously discussed. Major Bates claimed that there were two white men who were killed, Michael Curtis and Pablo Feliu; in regard to freedpeople, however, he asserted it was “impossible to find out the exact number of killed, as many of the freedmen were hid in the cane.” Bates claimed the majority of freedmen would not converse with him because they “were evidently under the impression that they would be marked and suffer bodily harm.”180

  The aforementioned 1869 report by the Louisiana General Assembly put the fatalities at an even higher estimate: “The total number of killed during this massacre which were counted was thirty-eight (38). The number killed, of whom reliable information was received was sixty-eight (68). It is probable that many men were killed in the swamps and other secret places, whose number is known only to the murderers and to God.”181

  A United States Congress Joint Select Committee tasked with investigating “insurrectionary states” referenced the 68 figure in its report. An 1875 investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives claimed that the “atrocities committed in Saint Bernard Parish” resulted in the “slaughter of 135 colored” persons. While this estimate is not explicitly corroborated by other accounts, the report does detail some deaths not mentioned in other findings: “Colored women had their breasts cut off, and when in a condition of pregnancy were literally ripped open.” The report also reveals how a massacre in rural southeast Louisiana was so severe that it provoked a response from then president Andrew Johnson. President Johnson was forced to release certain U.S. Army officers from duty due to their failures to stop the mayhem in St. Bernard Parish. Overall, the evidence at the time collectively suggests at least 35 victims. Unfortunately, the exact death toll will never be adequately determined, given the chaos generated by the violence.182

  Chapter 7

  DECONSTRUCTION

  What remains certain is that Reconstruction failed, and that for blacks its failure was a disaster whose magnitude cannot be obscured by the genuine accomplishments that did endure.

  —historian Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution

  The population of St. Bernard Parish decreased drastically in the 1860s and experienced its first significant decline since its establishment. In 1860, the population was at 4,076. By 1870, it had dwindled to 3,553. The white population declined approximately 7 percent, while the black population declined approximately 17 percent. The overall 12.8 percent decrease was the largest in St. Bernard Parish history until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Freedpeople looked for emerging opportunities elsewhere, most notably in New Orleans, which saw its black population double during the same decade.183

  The political, economic and social ramifications of the Civil War; the start of Reconstruction; and the violence in 1868 were profound on the character of St. Bernard Parish. Impoverished ethnic groups who had lived in relative peace for almost a century turned violent. Neighbors attacked neighbors; friends attacked friends. Many of the surviving victims knew the aggressors personally. The identity of the region shifted, and its aftermath was felt during the continuation of Reconstruction and the subsequent Bourbon Era.

  Reconstruction in Louisiana was a tumultuous era. The violence the freedpeople experienced in St. Bernard Parish in 1868 was felt in other regions in Louisiana, perhaps at more alarming rates. In St. Landry Parish, the Seymour Knights and the Knights of the White Camellia, white supremacist organizations, pursued “their victims through the swamps and forests” and killed freedpeople indiscriminately for three gruesome days before the 1868 presidential election. At least 150 were murdered. Around Shreveport, in Bossier and Caddo Parishes, armed mobs committed similar crimes. Witnesses testified of seeing dozens of bodies floating down the Red River. Fatalities are estimated around 200. The Republican registered vote in Caddo Parish was 2,894; Ulysses S. Grant received 1 vote. The Republican registered vote in neighboring Bossier Parish was 1,938; Grant also received 1 vote.184

  The carnage was statewide. State officials attempting to ascertain the fatalities in 1868 reported 784 freedpeople murdered and 450 wounded. A subsequent federal report estimated the number killed at over 1,000. The terror succeeded in its goal of voter suppression. In July, Republican Warmoth received 65,000 votes in seeking his governorship. In November, Republican Grant received a mere 33,225 votes across the state, slightly more than half of Warmoth. Grant did not receive a solitary vote in seven parishes.185

  Although Reconstruction was a challenging time for African Americans, many had more clout than the days of slavery during the antebellum era. Many exercised their newly acquired rights to demand higher wages and better treatment when their labor was most desired. Many planters outsourced their work to immigrants in order to combat such unrest and undermine the growing leverage of black laborers. In 1864, the federal government legalized the padrone system, which allowed the aggressive and oftentimes dishonest recruitment of immigrants under misleading contracts. Incoming Italians, chiefly Sicilians, signed these contracts in hopes of employment and better economic opportunities. Planters exploited these incoming Italians who were contractually obligated to work long hours for miniscule pay.186

  Europeans were not the only ones lured by the promise of economic opportunities. Starting in 1867, Chinese laborers were also recruited to work the plantations in southeast Louisiana. By 1870, over 1,600 Chinese workers had been recruited from areas ranging from California to mainland China. This newfound competition between laborers stunted the negotiating power of black laborers.187

  At the Millaudon Plantation, 140 Chinese laborers were recruited in 1870 to work a three-year contract. They were to be paid “fourteen dollars in gold per month” along with “daily rations of fresh meat, rice, and tea.” Upon arrival, the Chinese laborers noticed their black counterparts leaving around noon on Saturdays to enjoy their long afternoon while they continued to toil the crops. The Chinese laborers demanded the same, but the planter would not acquiesce. They demanded the planter pay for their vegetables. The planter paid but told them “to expect no more.” They then requested ten acres of land to grow and sell their own vegetables, but the request was denied. Cum Wing, a San Francisco contractor who negotiated their contracts, was kidnapped by the laborers during one of his routine visits to the worksite. The Metropolitan Police were called to rescue Wing and arrested 14 ringlead
ers. Shortly after, the Chinese laborers attacked the overseer, who returned fire. The entire workforce bombarded the overseer, causing him to run. He never returned back to work. Out of the 140 Chinese laborers recruited to work for three years, 115 abandoned their positions within fourteen months.188

  That same year, a journalist from the New Orleans Republic visited the Millaudon Plantation to analyze the relations between the “colored” laborers and their “new competition.” There seemed to be no rivalry between them. One woman of color, “old auntie,” said the new workers were friendly and “don’t do nuffin to nobody; mind der own bisness.” Others reiterated similar sentiments. The article concluded that there was no “feeling of jealousy among the colored folks in the neighborhood of the Chinese” and there was “good feeling between them.”189

  THE 1870S WAS another violent decade for freedpeople in Louisiana. In 1872, Republican William Pitt Kellogg won the governorship despite Democrats winning large gains at other levels of government. The election was heavily disputed, and both Kellogg and John McEnery, the Democratic candidate, held inauguration parties to celebrate their victory. The federal government backed Kellogg; the backlash to a Republican governor was severe.

  In 1873, racial tensions escalated in Colfax, Grant Parish. In 1869, Colfax was named after vice presidential candidate Schuyler M. Colfax, and Grant Parish was named after Ulysses S. Grant. Many freedpeople in the area gathered in Colfax for protection as violence erupted. On April 5, 1873, an unarmed black farmer was shot through the head by a white man, which launched the region into chaos that resembled St. Bernard Parish in 1868.190 The majority of freedpeople surrendered after dozens were murdered by the marauding groups. At least 48 freedpeople were killed after being held in custody for the afternoon. The total fatality count is disputed because many victims were tossed into the river. Conservative estimates put the death toll around 60, while other estimates reach upward of 150. In a similar fashion to the massacre in St. Bernard Parish, the events were dubbed the “Colfax Riot” by Democrat-leaning newspapers, and “massacre” was applied by black-owned newspapers or newspapers with Republican leanings or sympathies. The perpetrators of the Colfax Massacre and their sympathizers organized the White League, a paramilitary group committed to violence to end Reconstruction. Paramilitary groups took note of these successes and joined the White League or organized similar groups throughout Louisiana. The White League recruited statewide and morphed into a quasi-army.191