Hamburg, July Eighth, Eighteen Seventy-Six

The town of Hamburg, South Carolina no longer exists. It was absorbed by North Augusta long ago, a small Aiken County community on the west bank of the Savannah River. But on the night of July eighth, eighteen seventy-six, it was the site of an event that marked a turning point in the systematic destruction of Black political life in South Carolina.

Hamburg had an all-Black militia company, the Sweetwater Light Infantry, commanded by Captain Dock Adams. On July fourth, two white farmers from Edgefield County, Thomas Butler and Henry Getzen, attempted to drive a carriage through the street where the militia was drilling and demanded that Adams clear the way. Adams refused.

The farmers filed a complaint with the local court, and the case quickly drew the attention of the Red Shirts, the white paramilitary network that was then conducting a campaign of violence and intimidation across the state's Black majority counties. On July eighth, more than one hundred armed white men surrounded the militia's armory and demanded that Adams's men surrender their weapons. When Adams refused again, the shooting started.

One white attacker was killed. Six Black men were killed, at least four of them after they had been captured and were being held as prisoners. Among the documented dead were Allan Attaway, David Phillips, Albert Myniart, and Hampton Stephens, all shot at the armory.

President Ulysses Grant sent federal marshals and wrote to Congress that the Hamburg massacre was part of a band of murderers attempting to overthrow the legal government of South Carolina by terror. Congress did not act. The Red Shirts continued their campaign through the election of eighteen seventy-six.

When it was over, Reconstruction in South Carolina was finished.