{"id":1658,"date":"2019-08-01T08:35:17","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T08:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/?page_id=1658"},"modified":"2020-07-30T20:55:48","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T20:55:48","slug":"dispatch-from-a-mississippi-colored-farmers-alliance-1889","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/16-capital-and-labor\/dispatch-from-a-mississippi-colored-farmers-alliance-1889\/","title":{"rendered":"Dispatch from a Mississippi Colored Farmers\u2019 Alliance (1889)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Colored Farmers\u2019 Alliance, an African American alternative to the whites-only Southern Farmers\u2019 Alliance, organized as many as a million Black southerners against the injustices of the predominately cotton-based, southern agricultural economy. Black Populists, however, were always more vulnerable to the violence of white southern conservatives than their white counterparts. Here, the publication <\/em>The Forum publishes an account of violence against Black Populists in Mississippi.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\nKnights of Labor in Louisiana ventured to ask their employers for a larger\nshare of the plantation crops; they were called rioters, and shot down in cold\nblood. Such occurrences have taken place in various sections. Take, for instance,\nthe case of the suppression of the Farmers\u2019 Alliances at Minter City,\nMississippi. Minter City is in the rich, cotton-growing region of Tallahatchie\nCounty. White lecturers of the Farmers\u2019 Alliances went there and organized\nAlliance stores. Colored people joined the organizations. The Alliance at\nDurant, on the Illinois Central Railroad, advanced supplies. The farmers began\nto patronize these stores, instead of the local traders, who had charged them\nenormous profits, swallowing up their little earnings. These local traders\ndetermined that the Alliances should be broken up. The annexed extracts from\nthe St. Louis \u201cGlobe-Democrat,\u201d in a dispatch dated December 2, 1889, tell how\nit was done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf all\nthe\u2019 Nigger killings\u2019 charged up to Mississippi, the recent campaign in the\nTallahatchie country was the worst. The smallest estimate of the number shot is\n20. The largest return of casualties is 200 dead. Probably 40 Negroes were\nmurdered before the work ceased. The sole offense which called for such a\nterrible lesson was the organization of a Colored Farmers\u2019 Alliance, and the\nattempt to put in practice the plan of patronizing an Alliance store. Against\nthe right of the Negro to enjoy the benefits of the Farmers\u2019 Alliance\norganization, the white store-keepers and planters of the Tallahatchie country\nbanded themselves together. They began by exiling Cromwell, the agent of the\ncommercial company. The usual reports now went out that the Negroes were\norganizing and arming for a race conflict. Then the killing began. \u2026 There was\nno battle. There was no resistance by the Negroes. The white store-keepers and\nplanters, armed with Winchesters, rode through the country picking out their\nvictims. \u2026 The condemned man was made to stand facing a tree, and a volley was\nfired at his back. Then the white store-keepers and planters rode on to the\nnext place. It is known that at least 20 Negroes were killed in this way. \u2026 The\noutline of facts comes from white men and Democrats. \u2026 When the white\nstore-keepers and planters had concluded their work they met and adopted the\nfollowing resolutions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhereas,\nit is the sense of this meeting that the organization known here as the Colored\nFarmers\u2019 Alliance is being diverted from its original or supposed purpose,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cResolved,\nthat we, the planters and citizens of Tallahatchie River, hereby request the\nDurant Commercial Company to desist from selling goods or loaning money to said\norganization \u2026 and we hereby serve notice that goods or other things shipped to\nthe secretaries or managers of said Alliance shall not be delivered. \u2026We do not\nintend to, and we will not submit to, a combination subversive of our fortunes,\nour lives, and our property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cResolved,\nthat the secretary of this meeting be required to notify the editor of the\nColored Farmers\u2019 \u2018Alliance Advocate,\u2019 published at Valden, Miss., that the\nissuance of copies of his paper to subscribers at the Shell Mound, McNutt,\nSunnyside, Minter City, Graball, and Sharkey post offices shall be stopped, and\nto notify him further that a disregard of this notice will be treated as it\nshould deserve by a united and outraged community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cResolved,\nthat the members of this meeting pledge themselves individually and\ncollectively to carry out these resolutions in letter and spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cResolved,\nthat the Secretary forward a copy of the proceedings of this meeting to said\nDurant Commercial Company and the editor of the Colored Farmers\u2019 \u2018Alliance\nAdvocate,\u2019 by mail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nlocal Tallahatchie county paper says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese\nresolutions look harsh and arbitrary, but when the fearful ignorance and\nprejudice of the Negroes are taken into account, it is indisputable that a\ncombination of any kind among them is dangerous and needs more or less\nsurveillance. They frequently prostitute their churches and benevolent orders to\nwrongful purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In view\nof the incidents and purposes of the foregoing brutal and bloody Minter City\ntragedy, well does the \u201cGlobe-Democrat\u201d ask: \u201cWhat will the National Farmers\u2019\nAlliance do about this?\u201d On the other hand, what, may we ask, will not the\nsouthern Democrats do when the southern Farmers\u2019 Alliances not only organize\nco-operative stores, but also undertake to elect members of the Farmers\u2019\nAlliances as State officers and congressmen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We give\nthe answer: they will not be allowed a free canvass or an honest count. They\nwill be trampled under foot by reckless southern Democrats. Free politics does\nnot exist at the South. Freedom is there a mockery to the black man; suffrage\nis a sham to all Republicans. All that a national law can accomplish toward\nfair elections at the South, both for the Republican and Farmers\u2019 Alliance\ncandidates, should be done. But more than that is needed. When southern\nDemocrats like Senator Pugh openly proclaim that national laws,\nconstitutionally enacted, are to be resisted at the South unto bloodshed, there\nshould be aroused everywhere at the North a sentiment of indignation; and this,\ngrowing stronger each day, should at last resemble that northern uprising of\nformer days, which, overcoming commercial cowardice and dough-faced\nsubserviency, first thrust slavery back to its gloomy lair, and next, on due\nprovocation, invaded its precincts and destroyed the monster forever.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source:\nThe Forum<\/em>, vol. 9 (New York: Forum\nPublishing Company, 1889), 716-717. Available online via Google Books (https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=S3cXAQAAIAAJ<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Colored Farmers\u2019 Alliance, an African American alternative to the whites-only Southern Farmers\u2019 Alliance, organized as many as a million Black southerners against the injustices of the predominately cotton-based, southern agricultural economy. Black Populists, however, were always more vulnerable to the violence of white southern conservatives than their white counterparts. Here, the publication The Forum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":366,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1658","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1658"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1900,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1658\/revisions\/1900"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}