In Reconstruction era Mississippi, African American elected officials embraced public infrastructure including the building of public schools and hospitals funded by property taxes. White backlash resulted in the formation of Warren County Tax-Payers’ Leagues centered on Revolutionary War rhetoric of unfair taxation. This paramilitary group embraced extralegal violence to undermine social, economic, and political equality for Warren County’s newly freed African Americans.
During Vicksburg’s Reconstruction, White civic and political leaders reappropriated pre-Civil War rhetoric of “servile insurrection” to stoke White fear. The fear of “servile insurrection” pointed to the resistance of those enslaved to end their bondage by planning rebellions that included killing those who enslaved them. In 1831, Nat Turner organized one of the most feared U.S. slave rebellions. In response to past slave rebellions, White citizens enacted more restrictive slave codes.
During the Reconstruction era, Whites maneuvered to deny Black citizens basic civil rights, including the right to vote and bear arms. Oppressive White systemic policies that denied civil rights increased the chances of a Black militant uprising, so leaders attempted to deny African Americans their Second Amendment right to bear arms. The 1865 Mississippi Black Codes denied African American civilians the right to possess firearms, ammunition, or Bowie knives. If they were caught, the weapons would be confiscated. This law was quickly removed during the Reconstruction period.
During the Vicksburg Massacre though, White vigilantes went door to door searching Black homes for firearms, which they seized. The post-Civil War rise of Southern paramilitary organizations and White support for “Redeemers” resulted in violent seizing of political control and countless massacres across the South.
In 1874, the Vicksburg area Tax-Payers’ Leagues focused their vitriol on a United States Colored Troop (USCT) Civil War veteran Sheriff Peter Crosby, whose duties included collecting taxes. Sheriff Crosby represented all the elements White Leaguers despised: a successful Black civic and political, property owning, gun toting elected leader.
On December 2, 1874, the White men forced the elected African American local government officials to either resign or flee Vicksburg. Sheriff Crosby traveled to Jackson to enlist the help of Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames. In response, African Americans rallied around their leaders and marched to support Sheriff Crosby. The Black organized political resistance to the White Leaguers and fear of Black armed resistance played a major role in murdering, robbing, and sexually assaulting Black citizens that began on December 7 and continued into the following weeks.
