The 1866 Gallatin County Race Riot took place from August 3 past August 13 a year after the close of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

Gallatin County, Kentucky Gallatin County, is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. Its county seat is Warsaw. The county was founded in 1798 and named for Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury under President Thomas Jefferson. Ga ...

. It was part of waves of violence by whites against blacks in the state, and even in northern Kentucky, where the black population was relatively small. According to historians

Lowell H. Harrison Dr. Lowell Hayes Harrison (October 23, 1922 – October 12, 2011) was an American historian specializing in the U.S. state of Kentucky. Biography Harrison graduated from College High (Bowling Green, Kentucky). He was a veteran of World Wa ...

and

James C. Klotter James C. Klotter is an American historian who has served as the State Historian of Kentucky since 1980. Klotter is also a history professor at Georgetown College and one of the co-authors of Kentucky's staple history book, ''A New History of Kentuc ...

, "A band of five hundred whites in Gallatin County... forced hundreds of blacks to flee across the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

." Harrison, Lowell H., and

1997. ''A New History of Kentucky''. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, p. 237.

Background

This was part of white insurgent violence throughout the state against blacks. In the aftermath of war, most veterans had retained their arms. The

Freedmen's Bureau The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. It was established on March 3, 1865, and operated briefly as a ...

reported "hundreds of outrages" against blacks during this year. The

Civil Rights Act of 1866 The Civil Rights Act of 1866 (, enacted April 9, 1866, reenacted 1870) was the first United States federal law to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. It was mainly intended, in the wake of the Amer ...

had been passed by Congress, giving blacks the right to testify against whites in court, but Kentucky courts ignored the law, and white vigilantes went largely unpunished.Andrew Wolfson, "Thanksgiving 1866: Wounds of war unhealed in Ky"
''Courier Journal'' (Louisville, KY); 21 November 2016; accessed 24 March 2018 In areas with a relatively small black population, like Gallatin County, whites sometimes tried to drive all blacks away. During the 1866 race riot, for example, some 500 whites in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

were "whipping Blacks, stealing their property, and ordering them to leave the area," according to a letter by the local Freedman's Bureau office.Landrum to Freedman's Bureau office in Covington, August 3, 1866, Landrum to Ely, August 13, 1866, R.E. Johnston to Ely, August 31, 1867, all in Freedman's Bureau; Collines, ''Historical Sketches,'' I, 246p.

agent J.J. Landrum reported by letter dated August 3, 1866 to the area office in

Covington, Kentucky Covington is a list of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, Kenton County, Kentucky, United States, located at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Licking River (Kentucky), Licking Rivers. Cincinnati, Ohio, ...

, "Some 200 negroes I'm informed crossed the Ohio above this place today others are preparing to leave for fear of... other abuses." In a second letter describing the situation in

10 days later, J.J Landrum concluded that Union soldiers, or bluecoats", were needed in order to stop the violence. There is no documentation for when that spate of violence ended. Violence against blacks in northern Kentucky continued into the next year, when blacks were attacked and pushed out of Kenton, Boone and Grant counties in August 1867, seeking shelter in Covington.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallatin County race riot Lynching deaths in Kentucky Racially motivated violence against African Americans Gallatin County, Kentucky Gallatin 1866 riots

Background

See also

References