Trouble in Hocking County

The Civil War brought existing fears to the surface. Ward and Green townships in Hocking County had a Black population larger than much of the area (nearly fifteen percent of Ward’s population was Black in 1860), many of whom had been born free. Those residents owned land and worked locally in farms, mines, and the canal. Many male laborers had wives and children who also worked. By all measures, they had roots firmly planted and contributed to their communities.[1] When the war began, however, anxieties about Black rebellions and the safety of white jobs along the canal made white Hocking County residents anxious.

In 1861, Mr. Spears, a Black preacher, spoke to an audience of Black and white listeners. In his speech, Spears instructed his Black audience to arm themselves for protection. This led to outrage among the white community. After a community meeting, Spears was told he would be “dealt with” if he preached in the area again.[2]

Confronting Spears was only the beginning. Three Black community members were tarred and feathered following this incident. Joshua Lett, who lived with a white woman, was targeted first. Soon after, Thomas Mabray and Abraham Gross were tarred and feathered for using language the attackers did not approve of. During this time, the mob made threats to several Black families that they were to leave the community within six months. The perpetrators were not punished, and the community’s media did not condemn

"The Modern Samson." Harper's Weekly, 1868. Princeton University Library.

the use of violence. The Hocking County Sentinel said, “We deprecate every appearance of mob law, and hope that order and quiet may be restored, but one thing the Negroes in the North may as well understand at first as at last, that is to confine themselves to their proper sphere during these exciting times, or their lives will not be worth a copper.”[3] The newspaper’s message was clear: if their Black neighbors did not behave the way the white mob thought they should behave, there would be life-threatening consequences.

In Ward Township, actions against the Black residents continued as local white residents met to discuss prices at which they would buy property from Black landowners. This was not a negotiation the landowners agreed to, but one the white community intended to enforce. “The white people are determined that the darkies shall emigrate, peaceably if they will, forcibly if they must.”[4] This was a continuation of an early effort to control the Black population in Ohio communities. The Black Laws passed in 1804 placed limitations on Black migration and forced Black citizens to prove their free status, and Cincinnati used legal precedents to drive out Black residents they deemed undesirable as early as the 1830s.[5]

Black Hocking County residents continued to be targets of white hostility. In January 1862, when clothes were missing from clothes lines, the Sentinel assumed the thieves were “the lowest brand of plantation negro” and advised citizens to take violent action if they caught the thief. The newspaper encouraged retaliation in the form of “a different suit than that which they have been appropriating from clothes-lines – a suit of tar and feathers, and a ride on a rail, outside of the corporation limits of Logan.”[6] The tone of the newspaper speaks to the assumptions and social climate of the time. The newspaper was eager to associate crimes with Blackness whenever it could. Less than a year had passed since long-time neighbors had been tarred and feathered, and the Sentinel announced to Hocking County that similar acts of violence were commendable acts of justice against the Black threat.

This call to action was not unheard. The thefts continued into February, and law enforcement arrested a biracial man, Milton Stevens, and Isaac N. Meeks, believed to be an accomplice. The thefts continued after the arrests, but nevertheless a mob formed at Meeks’ house, “unroofed” the house, and took items they believed were stolen.[7] Meeks’ guilt was assumed and his house was invaded without due process. Once again, Hocking County turned against its Black community.

That summer, Hocking County was stirred to mob activity yet again. Charley was a fifteen-year-old who worked as a farm laborer for a white man, L.H. Culver. Culver’s youngest child, an eight-month-old, died after a brief period of sickness. Charley was arrested after a confession that he had struck the child on the head. While the jailed Charley awaited an investigation and trial, “much excitement prevails among our citizens, and various threats are made against the whole negro race!”[8] When Charley was brought to trial, the Sentinel no longer reported on the case for “obvious” reasons.[9] It is unclear what became of Charley after this report. While Charley was young, he represented an entire race to those who heard the charges against him. The anger was not a response to Charley’s crime; it was a response to what Hocking County believed all Black Americans were like.

Hocking County Sentinel, July 17, 1862.

The Civil War gave free Black workers new opportunities, since many white men in Athens County had enlisted in the war and Black soldiers were not yet able to join the army. Almyra Brown, an Albany resident, also complained about these new laborers who came to work in Albany while her sons were fighting for the Union.[10] Almyra, like many Ohioans, did not believe that a Black worker was entitled to take the jobs that were reserved for local white workers. Emma Hudgell, the girlfriend of Almyra’s son Edwin, wrote a letter during the Civil War disapproving of the Union’s shift to emancipation. “they [sic] Almighty Nigger is what Abe is trying elevate and is trying to grind the white man into the earth […] And wouldn’t you be glad to have the old Union as it once was with the nigger in the south minding their own business an and we minding ours[?]”[11] Like the Hocking County residents, Emma wished to return to a status quo where Black exclusion was expected. Any local Black laborers were objects of scorn, viewed as a negative consequence of the war rather than as neighbors who, like the white workers, worked hard for a stable life. This belief was pervasive across the United States in the Reconstruction Era.

Notes

1. Bob Vore and Bill Lawson, 200 years in Nelsonville, Ohio, and Vicinity, 1774-1974, 166. Ohioana Collection, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, Ohio University.

2. “Terrible Time in Ward Township! – Exodus of Negroes!” Hocking County Sentinel, May 16, 1861.

3. Hocking County Sentinel, May 16, 1861.

4. Hocking County Sentinel, May 16, 1881.

5. Stephen Middleton, The Black Laws, 48-49, 78.

6. “Thieves About,” Hocking County Sentinel, January 16, 1862.

7. “More Thieving!” Hocking County Sentinel, February 23, 1862.

8. “Child Murder!” Hocking County Sentinel, July 17, 1862.

9. Hocking County Sentinel, July 24, 1862.

10. Almyra Brown, Letter to Edwin Brown, 1863? Brown Family Letters, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, Ohio University.

11. Emma Hudgell, Letter to Edwin Brown, December 26, 1863, Brown Family Letters, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, Ohio University.

Image 1: Thomas Nast, “The Modern Samson,” New York: Harper’s Weekly, October 3, 1868. Princeton University. Library. Graphic Arts Collection. GA 2008.01294. http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/sx61dm43z

Image 2: Hocking County Sentinel, July 17, 1862. Microfilm scan. Ohio University Library.