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What is the Thibodaux Massacre?

    Chances are, you’ve never heard of the Thibodaux Massacre if you live outside or even inside the state of Louisiana. I hadn’t heard of it personally until I began attending college, where I learned the horrific killings of black sugarcane workers back in November 1st,1887. No one is sure exactly how many died, as the white militia that killed them buried them all in one mass grave and didn’t care to count heads. We only learned about the event years later thanks to at least one mention by a widow from one of the deceased workers. It’s begun to spark interest among locals who want to seek justice for these slain men.

    But again, what exactly is the Thibodaux Massacre? 

    The Thibodaux Massacre began when the Knights of Labor, an organization dedicated to protecting workers’ rights, traveled down from the north and met some of the sugarcane workers in the south. At the time, these workers were getting paid in scrip, or currency that could only be redeemed within their own workplace. Many of these workers were black, and though they were considered free in the eyes of the law, the plantations used scrip to keep these men tied to the lands. They kept them broken, beaten down, and unable to get out of the debt they held to the plantations themselves. This issue, among many others, provided the Knights of Labor opportunities to convince the workers to stage a strike against their employers. It got so big that workers in large numbers (roughly 10,000) formed the enormous strike against their oppressive forces. They chose November 1st because it was the critical day to harvest the sugarcane and process it; if they didn’t, it would threaten the entire harvest. Checkmate… or so they thought.

    It was no surprise that the plantation owners staged their own counterattack. They entreated to state officials, who swiftly sent white militias to Lafourche Parish. These white men went straight to Thibodaux, the so-called heart of the whole strike. It was there that they opened fire on unarmed black workers, shooting without second thought. They didn’t care to reason; it was about power. Power that successfully shut down the strike and stifled labor efforts in the industry for many, many, many years afterwards. It was truly heartbreaking.

    The Thibodaux Massacre was almost entirely forgotten by history, but thanks to historians and researchers, the topic is coming back to light. Conservative estimates had placed the death toll at about 30-50 men dead, but witness accounts claimed much higher. Now that we are looking deeper into this nearly-forgotten history, we may learn more about what happened in this area. We are no longer turning our backs on the innocent blood that was spilled on Louisianan soil.

    (Source provided at projectgoinghome.tumblr.com/workscited)

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Project Going Home: The Thibodaux Massacre in 1887

1887.

The previous year, 1886, had been a busy one for organized labor. Organized labor and striking to force change go hand in hand. The Thibodaux Massacre was one of the outbursts of violence in the year of 1887. The prior year had the Haymarket Affair in Chicago in May. There was the Bay View Tragedy in Wisconsin that preceded it. These two protests focused on the right for an eight-hour workday. The Haymarket Affair was particularly brutal as several anarchists were involved but as Mayor Carter Harrison, mayor of Chicago, recalled that it had been peaceful. The Bay View Tragedy was exactly that. A tragedy, like Thibodaux in the matter that the powers that be did not want the strike. The governors, Rusk, of Wisconsin, and McEnery, of Louisiana of both encouraged local militias to be formed and shoot at peaceful, unarmed protesters (Thompson). The result is one that no one must ever forget.

Five days before the Thibodaux Massacre there was a strike in Pattersonville. The history of organized labor is widespread in the United States. They were concentrated in North and Midwest. You may ask why there was no attempt in the South? There was. In 1887, the Knights of Labor headed down to Louisiana around the time of the sugarcane harvest. They were taking up the cause of the African American sugar cane harvesters who were making pennies in comparison. Even in modern day the money they were making and with adjustment for inflation, the African American were making just around a dollar a day. According to Klelibert, the massacre came down to “race and classism” which is why the strike was so ill-timed (Kleibert). The strike occurred right at the time of the sugar cane harvest. The harvest is a time when all hands must be on deck, lest the sugar cane rot. Louisiana was the second in the nation behind Cuba when it came to sugar cane (Cooper, Fredrick et al.) The issue that came into play for the workers was race. This was only twenty years after the end of the Civil War. The sugar industry had been hardest hit by the war and suffered through several economic inflation as before leveling out in the mid-1870s. The Massacre occurred on November 20th, 1887. It had been preceded by riots in Pattersonville and St. Mary’s Parish near the sugar cane harvest. I cannot stress this enough but any delay in that harvest would lead to disaster for the state’s economy. The state’s economy was already in shambles during Reconstruction and fluctuated throughout the two decades after. Once the word got out a strike was planned, Gov. McEnery encouraged a militia to be formed and disband the strike. What followed as Kleibert describes from the first-hand accounts was, “an orgy of violence that lasted three days” (Kleibert). The militia tore through three parishes rooting out any African male who was of working age and killed them. As the dust settled, the powers that be swept the whole incident under the rug. The bodies of the dead were never given a proper burial.

Unlike the Bay View Massacre, there is no memorial for those who were killed in Thibodaux. Unlike the Haymarket Affair, no justice was ever made in the court system for this most affected. No one was ever held to account and it was left only told as an oral history. It was due to the tireless work of John DeSantis who brought this story back into the open. It was through his tireless dedication that they will go home and receive the burial they truly deserve. It is my hope that there will one day be a memorial in the heart of Thibodaux to memorialize the once forgotten dead.

Bibliography

1886: The Haymarket Martyrs and Mayday. 6 March 2006. Web. 24 April 2021. <https://web.archive.org/web/20060329211053/http://www.libcom.org/history/articles/mayday-haymarket-martyrs/>.

Cooper, Frederick, et al. Beyond Slavery: Explorations of Race, Labor, and Citizenship in Post emancipation Societies. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press. HeinOnline, https://heinonline-org.ezproxy.nicholls.edu/HOL/P?h=hein.slavery/uncaaak0001&i=2.

Kleibert, Stephen. "U.S.: Thibdoaux Masssacre 1887." 2021. Internet Archive. Web. 29 April 2021.

Thompson, William Fletcher. The History of Wisconsin. Vol. 3. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1973. Web. 22 April 2021.

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On November 23 2017 lafourche parish made a proclamation for the Thibodaux massacre.

"Lafourche Parish, like the city of Thibodaux before it, is taking a laudable action. By acknowledging the past, Lafourche Parish is paving a bright future. The Thibodaux Massacre is no longer hidden history, and I believe the spirits of victims and victimizers from this tragic incident that occurred 130 years ago are aided by this act of reconciliation.

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The Thibodaux massacre was a racial attack mounted by white paramilitary groups in Thibodaux, Louisiana in November 1887. It followed a three-week strike during the critical harvest season by an estimated 10,000 workers against sugar cane plantations. The strike was the largest in the industry and the first conducted by a formal labor organization, the Knights of Labor. The state sent in militia to protect strikebreakers, and work resumed on some plantations. Tensions broke out in violence on November 23, 1887, and the local white paramilitary forces attacked black workers and their families in Thibodaux. At least 35-50 black people were killed in the next three days and as many as 300 wounded or missing, making it one of the most violent labor disputes in U.S. history. Victims reportedly included elders, women and children. All those killed were African American.  The massacre, and passage by white Democrats of discriminatory state legislation, including disenfranchisement of most blacks, ended the organizing of sugar workers for decades, until the 1940s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thibodaux_massacre Illustrated by Or Yogev This piece is now part of our ongoing exhibition at Hansen House in Jerusalem. You are welcome to visit it. the show closes on July 30th 2019.

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The Thibodaux Massacre occurred on November 23, 1887, after black cane workers unionize for a living wage during the coming frost and a crucial harvest season.  Only a generation removed from the bonds of slavery, many black workers in Louisiana found themselves in similar straits, with poor working conditions, poorer food, and “paid as little as 42 cents a day with scrip which could only be used in plantation stores” (Washington).

The Knights of Labor tried to organize the workers in 1874, 1880, and in 1883 but were blocked all three times. Then, in 1887, the Knights urged workers to wait until the rolling season was close to propose a stand. This left a narrow window for growers to operate. Growers refused to negotiate and fired the union members on November 22: the strike was called. An estimated 10,000 workers went on strike, affecting four parishes, Lafourche, Terrebonne, St. Mary, and Assumption.

This is when, on November 23rd, white vigilantes locked down Thibodaux, going door to door to identify strikers and demanding passes from any blacks going in and out. As morning came, shots rang out, and two white guards were injured.

With encouragement from planters, Governor Samuel D. McEnery, a Democrat and also a former sugar planter, unleashed units of the all-white state militia. Commanded by ex-Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, the ,militia brought a .45 caliber Gatling gun with them as well.

The resulting massacre left approximately 30-60 people dead. The bodies of many of the strikers were dumped in unmarked graves, and remain missing to this day in 2019.

Now recognized as one of the deadliest episodes in United States labor history, the Southern white press at the time haralded the action of the militia. Sugar planter Andrew Price, who participated in the attacks, won a seat in Congress in 1888. Statues were erected and public areas named after many involved in the unlawful killings. Black farm workers wouldn’t attempt to unionize in earnest again until the 1930s.

Historian John DeSantis chronicled his uncovering of the historical tragedy in his book The Thibodaux Massacre: Racial Violence and The 1887 Sugar Cane Labor Strike, and also in his article, “Tracing an Atrocity: How an Obscure Affidavit in the National Archives Unraveled a Historical Mystery.” His research within Nicholls Archive and in the local community sparked national interest, and has since helped draw attention to the the Louisiana 1887 Memorial Committee, who strive to relocate the bodies of those lost in the massacre. His research has also helped local families find closure, and opened a voice in Lafourche Parish’s African American community, long silenced with this story, which had been passed down several generations. The massacre has helped the community grow from its long-standing relationship with the Civil War and Jim Crow-era horrors, as stated from Wiletta Ferdinand, a great-great granddaughter of Jack Conrad, who was injured in the massacre and watched his own son die. “We do not feel you are dredging up the past, but putting a shining light on our history that otherwise we would not have known.”

For more information about The Thibodaux Massacre:

​

The Thibodaux Massacre: Racial Violence and the 1887 Sugar Cane Labor Strike by John DeSantis (History Press, 2016).

“The Thibodaux massacre, 1887” a 2007 article on Libcom.org by Stephen Kliebert.

“The Thibodaux Massacre Left 60 African-Americans Dead and Spelled the End of Unionized Farm Labor in the South for Decades” a November 2017 Smithsonian Magazine article by Calvin Schermerhorn.

Louisiana 1887 Memorial Committee Works Cited: Washington, K. (2019, March 11) The Thibodaux Massacre (November 23, 1887). Retrieved from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/the-thibodaux-massacre-november-23-1887/ ​ Desantis, John. “Tracing An Atrocity: How an Obscure Affidavit in the National Archives Unraveled a Historical Mystery.” Prologue, vol. 49, no. 2, Summer 2017, pp. 42–52. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=vth&AN=123893538&site=eds-live

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On 23 Nov 1887, Black Louisiana sugarcane workers, in cooperation with the racially integrated Knights of Labor, had gone on strike at the beginning of November in 1887 over their meager pay issued in scrip, not cash. The scrip was redeemable only at the company store where excessive prices were charged. Years after the Thirteenth Amendment brought freedom, cane cutters’ working lives were already “barely distinguishable” from slavery, argues journalist and author John DeSantis. With no land to own or rent, workers and their families lived in old slave cabins. They toiled in gangs, just like their ancestors had for nearly a century. Growers gave workers meals but paid famine wages of as little as 42 cents a day (91 cents per hour in today’s money, for a 12-hour shift). On November 23, a brutal response to the strike was led by the Louisiana Militia, aided by bands of “prominent citizens.” They shot and killed 30 to 60 unarmed Black sugar workers and lynched two strike leaders in what became known as the Thibodaux Massacre

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On this day in 1887, an all-white Louisiana militia massacred 60 striking Black sugarcane workers and 2 strike leaders, destroying Black unionized farm labor in the American South for decades.

Years after US "officially ended" Black slavery with the 13th Amendment, Black sugarcane workers conditions were largely unchanged from slavery. They engaged in back-breaking labor for meager pay while living in old slave cabins.

To improve their situation, Black sugarcane workers reached out to Knights of Labor, who helped them strike for a living wage paid in cash every two weeks. But instead of bargaining, growers fired union members.

Louisiana’s governor called in all-white militias under the command of ex-Confederate General to break the strike. In Thibodaux, a judge authorized local white vigilantes to barricade the town, identifying strikers & demanding passes from any African-American coming or going.

A report of 2 white militia men being attacked sparked the massacre. White vigilantes rode through the neighborhood firing their weapons rounding up and killing striker’s family members. Killings continued on plantations, and bodies were dumped in a landfill.

The assassins went unpunished. There was no federal inquiry, and even the coroner’s inquest refused to point a finger at the perpetrators. Sugar planter Andrew Price was among the attackers that morning. He won a seat in Congress the next year.

Southern Black farm workers would not attempt to unionize again, until the 1930s when the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. But it too was met by a violent racist backlash. The struggle for southern unions continued into the Civil Rights era.

SOURCE: Friendly Neighborhood Comrade @SpiritofLenin

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The Knights of Labor tried to organize the workers in 1874, 1880, and in 1883 but were blocked all three times. Then, in 1887, the Knights urged workers to wait until the rolling season was close to propose a stand. This left a narrow window for growers to operate. Growers refused to negotiate and fired the union members on November 22: the strike was called. An estimated 10,000 workers went on strike, affecting four parishes, Lafourche, Terrebonne, St. Mary, and Assumption.

This is when, on November 23rd, white vigilantes locked down Thibodaux, going door to door to identify strikers and demanding passes from any blacks going in and out. As morning came, shots rang out, and two white guards were injured.

The resulting massacre left approximately 30-60 people dead. The bodies of many of the strikers were dumped in unmarked graves, and remain missing to this day.

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The Thibodaux Massacre

The Thibodaux Massacre was nothing less than an act of violent racism that ended the lives of up to 60 African Americans.

"On November 23, 1887, a mass shooting of African-American farm workers in Louisiana left some 60 dead. Bodies were dumped in unmarked graves while the white press cheered a victory against a fledgling black union."

This information taken from the Smithsonian Magazine highlights the extremity of the situation as a whole.

Picture taken from the Nicholls library database.

"Murder, foul murder has been committed, and the victims were inoffensive, law-abiding Negroes. Assassins more cruel, more desperate, more desperate than any who had hitherto practiced their nefarious business in Louisiana have been shooting down, like so many cattle, the negroes in and around Thibodaux, Lafourche parish, La."

Quote taken from African American Newspaper.

This was a tragic part of history, and it should be learned about, a way to bring awareness to the horrible situation that African Americans used to live in. The massacre was a result of a labor strike blown out of proportion by the white officials in charge. It should never be forgotten that innocent people were killed that day as a result of wanton racism and power hungry officials.