Eye for an Eye: The Role of Armed Resistance ... - Freedom Archives

this form of Black resistance "clubing." In two reported cases, Mississippi whites
accused of killing Blacks were forced to seek refuge after being pursued and
hunted by Black clubs .44
Through Black peasant land seizures, campaigns of Black militia forces
and retaliatory strikes of Black clubs, the Black armed resistance tradition contin-
ued . While armed Black resistance was consistent with survival of the Recon
struction governments in the South, the Federal government and state and local
white Republican officials were at best hesitant to reorganize the South based
upon Black military force . As in the case of Governor Ames in Mississippi, white
Republican leaders sought compromise with white Democrats rather than depend
on armed Blacks to complete a social and political revolution in the South. Com-
menting on the Federal and Reconstruction government's fear of armed Blacks,
W.E.B . DuBois stated :
. ..[RJeconstruction governors were afraid to use these (Black)
militia lest they start race war, and the effort to arm and equip them
efficiently was silently opposed . Usually it resulted that disarmed
and unsuspecting Black people were set upon by white forces
superior in numbers, armed and disciplined, and with little chance
of self-defense .''5
Without Black Federal troops or organized Black militia forces, with Federal and
state support, most Black communities were at the mercy of white militias and
vigilante forces. As in Alabama in 1866, once Black Federal troops or Black
militia forces were removed or disbanded, white militias went door to door
in Black communities for the purpose of disarming Black civilians . White