Thibodaux massacre facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Thibodaux massacre
Part of the nadir of American race relations
Louisiana sugar cane laborers c. 1880
Location	Thibodaux, Louisiana
Date	November 22–25, 1887
Target	Black people
Deaths	35–50
Non-fatal injuries	unknown (possibly hundreds)
Perpetrators	White paramilitaries

The Thibodaux massacre was a terrible event of racial violence that happened in Thibodaux, Louisiana on November 23, 1887. It took place after a three-week strike by about 10,000 workers. These workers were protesting the difficult living and working conditions on sugar cane farms in four areas: Lafourche, Terrebonne, St. Mary, and Assumption parishes. This strike happened during the important harvest season.

This strike was the biggest in the history of the sugar industry at that time. It was also the first strike led by a formal worker group called the Knights of Labor. When the farm owners asked for help, the state sent the militia (a type of military force) to protect workers who didn't strike. Work started again on some farms. Black workers and their families were forced to leave their homes on farms in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes. They moved to Thibodaux.

On November 23, 1887, tensions exploded into violence. Local white groups, acting like a private army, attacked black workers and their families after some town guards were ambushed. We don't know the exact number of people hurt or killed. However, most people agree that at least 35 black people were killed over the next three days. Some historians think as many as 50 black people died. Rumors said hundreds were killed, hurt, or went missing. This makes it one of the most violent worker disputes in U.S. history. Sadly, old people, women, and children were among the victims. All the people who died were African American.

This massacre, along with new unfair state laws made by white politicians, stopped sugar workers from organizing for many decades. These laws included taking away the right to vote from most black people. Historian John C. Rodrigue said that "The defeated sugar workers returned to the plantations on their employers' terms."

The Thibodaux Massacre: A Fight for Fair Pay

Why Workers Went on Strike

Hard Work and Low Pay

Harvesting and processing sugar cane was very hard work. It needed many workers to do many steps together, and they were pushed to work until they were completely exhausted. Sugar farms were sometimes called "factories in the field." Workers often died at a high rate during the time of slavery. Conditions didn't get much better after the Civil War.

A big problem started in the early 1880s. Farm owners began to cut wages (the money workers earned). They also forced sugar workers to accept "scrip" instead of real money. Scrip was like fake money, only good at the company's own stores. This happened because the international sugar market was getting weaker.

The Problem with "Scrip" Money

These "pasteboard tickets" (scrip) could only be used at stores owned by the plantation. These stores often charged very high prices. The plantation owners kept all the records. Many workers couldn't read or write, so they got deeper and deeper into debt. Because of the law, they had to pay off their debts. This meant workers were basically stuck on the farm, almost like a new form of slavery. Most of the sugar cane workers were black, but some were white too. The Knights of Labor used this problem with scrip to get workers to join their group. Thousands of workers joined.

Planters Team Up

In October 1877, a rich farm owner named Duncan F. Kenner started the Louisiana Sugar Producers Association (LSPA). This group included 200 of the biggest farm owners in the state, and Kenner was its president. The powerful LSPA tried to get the government to help them. They wanted taxes on imported sugar, money to build levees (walls to protect their land from floods), and research to grow more crops. For the next ten years, these members also worked to control their workers. They decided on the same pay for everyone and held back 80 percent of wages until the end of the harvest. This was to make sure workers stayed on the farms until all the sugar cane was processed. They also ended the "job" system, which gave workers more freedom. The biggest farm owners, who had stores, made workers accept scrip as payment.

Workers Organize for Change

The Knights of Labor Step In

Workers tried to fight back, taking action each year against parts of the LSPA's plans. The state government supported the powerful farm owners. They sent in the state militia when owners used convict lease labor (using prisoners for work) to harvest and process the sugar cane.

In 1887, the Knights of Labor organized a big three-week sugar strike. It was against sugar cane farms in Lafourche, Terrebonne, St. Mary, and Assumption parishes. Most farms stopped working. The national Knights of Labor group organized this strike. They had started a local group, Assembly 8404, in Schriever the year before.

In October, worker representatives told the LSPA what they wanted. They asked for wages to go up to $1.25 a day. They also wanted to be paid every two weeks and to be paid in real money, not the "pasteboard tickets" or scrip.

The Strike Begins

The LSPA ignored these demands. So, the Knights of Labor called for a strike to start on November 1. This was planned for the "rolling period," a very important time when the crop had to be harvested and processed. Stopping work at this time threatened the entire sugar cane harvest for the year. The 1887 strike was the biggest worker action in the industry. About 10,000 workers were involved, and one-tenth of them were white. It was the first time a formal worker organization had led a strike in this area.

The Government Steps In

Militia Arrives

The farm owners asked Louisiana Governor Samuel Douglas McEnery for help. McEnery was also a farm owner. He said, "God Almighty has himself drawn the color line," meaning he believed in racial separation. He called out ten groups of infantry (soldiers) and one group of artillery (soldiers with big guns) from the state militia. He sent the artillery group to Thibodaux, which was the main town and "heart of the strike." Their job was to protect workers who didn't strike and to stop the strikers. They forced workers to leave their homes on the farms.

Workers Forced Out

The militia stopped strikers in St. Mary Parish. This led to "as many as twenty people" being killed or hurt on November 5 in the black village of Pattersonville. The militia protected about 800 contract workers brought into Terrebone Parish. They also helped catch and arrest 50 strikers, mostly for their union activities. The strike ended there, and workers went back to the farms.

Many black workers in Lafourche Parish were forced to leave their homes. They went to the crowded black neighborhood in Thibodaux. The state militia then left, letting local officials handle things from there.

Tensions Rise in Thibodaux

Newspapers reported that on November 1, the same day the strike began, strikers hiding in a cane field shot at white replacement workers. This happened at the Lacassagne farm in Tigerville (now Gibson) in Terrebonne Parish, hurting four workers. For the next three weeks, leading up to the massacre, strikers supposedly used threats and gunshots to scare replacement workers. Several were hurt, one lost an eye, and one man reportedly died from his injuries.

Warnings and Threats

Newspaper stories said that around November 13, Theodule Baille, a sugar boiler, was shot at near Thibodaux. Shots were also reportedly fired at white workers on two farms close to Thibodaux. A New Orleans newspaper reported that "for three weeks past the negro women of the town have been making threats to the effect that if the white men resorted to arms they would burn the town and [end] the lives of the white women and children with their cane knives."

Similarly, in the days before the main event in Thibodaux, it was reported that "[s]ome of the colored women made open threats against the people and the community, declaring that they would destroy any house in the town" and that "[n]ot a few of the negroes boasted that in case a fight was made they were fully prepared for it." One historian added that even on November 21, some black people still walked confidently on the sidewalks. Mary Pugh, a farm owner's widow, reported "meeting negro men singly or two or three together with guns on their shoulders going down town & negro women on each side telling them to 'fight - yes - fight we'll be there.'"

After the event, a Thibodaux newspaper repeated the claim that before November 23, "[t]he negroes were in motion [and] [t]heir women boasted that they were ready to fire the town." The white editor of the Lafourche Star newspaper, who was involved in the killings, tried to explain why the white group acted so harshly: "The loud-mouthed 'wenches' must bear in mind that though they have a tongue, they are not priviledged [sic] to make use of such threats as 'burning the town,' [']slaughtering the whites from the cradle to the grave,' etc."

The Violent Attacks Begin

Parish District Judge Taylor Beattie, who owned a farm and was part of the LSPA, announced he was forming a "Peace and Order Committee" in Thibodaux. He declared martial law, which meant military rule, and gathered 300 white men for his committee to act as a paramilitary group (a group acting like a military but not officially part of the government). He ordered black people within the city limits to show passes to enter or leave. Like many high-ranking white state officials, Beattie had fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War and used to own slaves. He was also a former member of the Knights of the White Camelia, a terrorist group that tried to stop black people from voting after the war.

On Monday, November 21, two black men were shot. A man named Watson died, and another man, Morris Page, was hurt. Judge Beattie ordered the paramilitary group to close the city entrances on the morning of November 22 and stand guard.

Guards Are Shot

Some strikers clearly didn't like being trapped. Early on November 23, they fired from a hidden spot at two of the guards, John G. Gorman and Henry Molaison, seriously wounding both. A witness, another guard, described the first attack on Gorman: "We were fired upon while seated at a camp fire except [for] Mr. Gorman[,] [who] was standing at [it]. This firing came from ambush in a corn field opposite. When the shot was fired Gorman threw up his right hand to his forehead, said [B]oys, I am severely wounded. I am bleeding from the eyes and mouth.['] I then helped Mr. Gorman to home [and] had been gone but a short distance when I heard the second shot fired which I think came from ambush. This was followed by 5 or 6 shots which sounded like shots from a rifle. The 1st shot fired which hit Mr. Gorman sounded as a shot from a shot gun."

Molaison was shot soon after Gorman. Another witness, a white resident, said: "[A]bout 5 o’clock I heard a shot fired. A moment after I heard two more fired one after the other. The moment I heard the two last shots I heard the guard cry out, that he was shot. I got out of my bed immediately[.] [T]hey ordered me out of my house to advance. I cried out [I am a friend advancing to assist.['] The guard Henry Molaison understood my voice, he said [P]rotect me if you can.['] I said [I will[.] [The guard said] [L]ook in the ditch[,] you will find my rifle close by me.['] I was handed a pistol and a rifle then at the same time. I reach to pick Mr. Molaison up[.] [H]e said [D]on’t pull me[;] you hurt my leg.['] . . . I then took Mr. Molaison on my back into my house which is forty feet from the railroad. The guard was stationed on the right hand side of my fence. The shot that struck the fence was a heavily loaded gun. [From] the sound of the gun the sound was that of a shot gun. I am a [sic] old hunter and consider myself an expert and can distinguish the sound of a gun. . . . In my portion of the town the negroes seemed bo[a]stful and threatening before the shooting of the guards."

The Massacre Unfolds

After the two white guards were shot and hurt, a local volunteer group, the Clay Knobloch Guards, went to the scene. They claimed they were also shot at from a hidden spot. They reportedly shot back and killed six black people and hurt four others. They also captured several loaded shotguns. This group and other white vigilantes (people who take the law into their own hands) immediately started to gather and kill black workers and their family members. They targeted people known or thought to be Knights of Labor organizers. The victims were killed in town and where they tried to hide in the nearby woods and swamps. Some bodies were reportedly left in shallow graves or the swamps. On November 26, 1887, the bodies of three black people were found in a thicket (a thick group of bushes or trees) on the Allen Rienzi farm. People believed they had been hurt on Wednesday and had hidden there, where they were later found dead.

A black newspaper in New Orleans, The Daily Pelican, described the scene: "'Six killed and five wounded' is what the daily papers here say, but from an eye witness to the whole transaction we learn that no less than thirty-five '...fully thirty negroes have sacrificed their lives in the riot on Wednesday...' Negroes were killed outright. Lame men and blind women shot; children and hoary-headed grandsires ruthlessly swept down! The Negroes offered no resistance; they could not, as the killing was unexpected. Those of them not killed took to the woods, a majority of them finding refuge in this city."

How Many Were Killed?

In the same newspaper story, The Daily Pelican claimed that the two guards were shot by other white guards. They said these were members of a state militia group from Shreveport, supposedly to create an excuse to start killing the black strikers. However, the Shreveport state militia group had apparently left Thibodaux two days earlier. Henry Franklin, who owned a nearby coffee house and bar where the two black men were shot on November 21, said on November 24 that the shooting of the two guards was done by "colored people who were out on the strike." Based on what he heard, he estimated that 25 people had died.

The Daily Pelican story mentioned above is one source for the number of 35 deaths. Historian Rebecca Jarvis Scott said, "No credible official count of the victims of the Thibodaux massacre was ever made; bodies continued to turn up in shallow graves outside of town for weeks to come." Eric Arnesen wrote that white people living in the area privately admitted that more than 50 workers were murdered in Thibodaux, but the total number was not certain. Along the Bayou Lafourche, black oral history (stories passed down by word of mouth) has told of hundreds of casualties, including those hurt and missing.

James Keith Hogue says 50 people died in the three-day attacks by the paramilitary group. He also noted that many Knights of Labor organizers disappeared over the next year. He compared these actions to the violence and threats used by the White League in Louisiana in the 1870s, when they killed black voters.

What Happened After the Massacre?

The known victims who died on November 23, 1887, were Willis Wilson, Felix Pierre, Andy Jones, Frank Patterson, Grant Conrad, Marcellin Walton, Riley Anderson, and Mahala Washington. John G. Gorman, the first guard shot by the strikers, lost an eye. The lead bullet hit him on the side of the head and came out his mouth, breaking bones along the way. The other guard, Henry Molaison, could not walk without help a month after he was hurt. Their severe injuries were because the lead bullets that hit them were roughly "chopped from a bar of lead," probably meant to cause huge damage.

Changes for Workers

After the massacre, workers stopped trying to organize in the sugar industry. Farm workers went back to work under the owners' rules. White politicians, who controlled the state government, soon passed laws to take away the right to vote from black people. They also passed laws for Jim Crow rules, which meant racial segregation (keeping races separate) and other unfair practices. There was no more effort to organize sugar workers until the 1940s. This new effort started during World War II, when people began fighting more for civil rights.

Moving Forward

In that same time, starting during the war, many black people from Louisiana joined the Great Migration. They moved to the North and West Coast to escape the ongoing violence and racial unfairness. It wasn't until the mid-1960s that the Civil Rights Movement succeeded in getting laws passed by Congress. These laws helped protect civil and voting rights for African Americans and other minority groups in the United States.

In May 2017, the families of the African American workers and Louisiana farm owners honored those who were killed. The Louisiana 1887 Memorial Committee, working with the University of Louisiana Lafayette Public Archeology Lab, is trying to find a mass grave site on private land. They plan to examine it and properly bury any victims found in churchyards that have offered space. In May 2017, the Thibodaux City Council officially said the violence was wrong and admitted that the event happened. The Lafourche Parish Council did the same in November 2017.

Remembering the Past

• The Thibodaux Massacre: Racial Violence and the 1887 Sugar Cane Labor Strike is a book released in 2016 by The History Press. It was written by John DeSantis and tells the story of the events. It includes eyewitness accounts from documents in the U.S. National Archives and names eight of the victims. It also shares a detailed history of a U.S. Civil War veteran who was hurt during the event. His records give new information and understanding. (The book did not include details about the initial attack on the guards Gorman and Molaison, though it briefly mentioned that public records of the coroner's investigation existed.)
• The film The Man Who Came Back (2008), directed by Glenn Pitre, is a very loose story based on the events. It adds a Western movie plot to the sugar strike and massacre. The film was not shown in movie theaters but played at the New Orleans Film Festival.
• The song "The Ballad of Jack Conrad" by John DeSantis, which you can find on YouTube, tells the story of the massacre. It's told from the point of view of the Union veteran who was hurt during the event and whose son was killed.