Freedmen massacres

The Freedmen massacres were a series of attacks on African-Americans which occurred in the states of the former Confederacy during Reconstruction, in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Many of these incidents were the result of a struggle over political power, especially after the voting rights of freedmen were protected through the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Robert Smalls estimated that overall 53,000 African-American were killed in post-war racial terrorism, an estimate increasingly considered plausible by historians.

With reference to emancipation, we are at the beginning of the war.

— David L. Swain, former governor of North Carolina, 1865. as quoted in Eric Foner's Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877

Anti-black violence during Reconstruction
Incident Year Month State County
or parish
Notes
Memphis massacre 1866 05 Tennessee Shelby
New Orleans massacre 1866 07 Louisiana Orleans
Camilla massacre 1868 09 Georgia Mitchell
Opelousas massacre 1868 09 Louisiana Opelousas
1868 St. Bernard Parish Massacre 1868 10 Louisiana St. Bernard
Millican massacre 1868 07 Texas Brazos
Jackson County War 1869 n/a Florida Jackson Ongoing for almost two years
Eutaw massacre 1870 Alabama
Meridian race riot of 1871 1871 03 Mississippi Lauderdale
Colfax massacre 1873 04 Louisiana Grant
Election Massacre of 1874 1874 11 Alabama Barbour
Coushatta massacre 1874 08 Louisiana Red River
Vicksburg massacre 1874 12 Mississippi Warren Ongoing for almost one month
Battle of Liberty Place 1874 09 Louisiana New Orleans
Clinton Riot 1875 09 Mississippi Hinds
Hamburg massacre 1876 07 South Carolina Aiken
Ellenton riot 1876 09 South Carolina Aiken