Customer Reviews

An Absolute Massacre: The New Orleans Race Riot of July 30, 1866

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Covering a pivitol moment in American history, 'An Absolute Massacre' is the history of the tragic riot that overtook the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1866 in which a racist pro-confederate mob attacked loyal African Americans in New Orleans.

The event shocked and alarmed the northern public leading to Civil Rights bill of 1866, the sweeping Republican victories in the 1866 elections, Congressional reconstruction, and the 14th Amendment.

The riot began the chain of events that culminated in the constitutional crisis of the following year, the impeachment and trial of Andrew Johnson.

Well researched, well written and well worth reading.

The New Orleans race riot of 1866 would be just the first of several riots, including ones in 1868, 1874 and 1900 in which white, confederate control was reasserted in New Orleans. Hollandsworth has done a fine job of explaining the principals and the issues, highlighting the events with dramatic pauses. This is the kind of history one can't put down, even though we know the train wreck is about to happen. Manumission and universal male suffrage were two very different issues. Manumission had been forced on the defeated south; suffrage would not and could not be, for nearly 100 years from this riot. The author included a postscript chapter which shows the fates of the principal actors. I do wish that postscript had included even passing mention of the subsequent race riots and their contribution to the chain of events cementing Jim Crow, including Plessey v. Ferguson and the Robert Charles affair of 1900.

As usual, another slanted, antiSouth Review by Booklist. I bought this book shortly after publication since my husband's direct ancestor was the only New Orleans policeman to die in the line of duty in this "massacre". There is no "memorial" because the fight took place all over what is now the Central Business District of New Orleans. As usual, Booklist characterizes any attempt by Southerners to throw off their shackles and return to true constitutional government as some sort of racist vendetta against blacks. There was plenty of blame to go around in this incident, with much of it coming from Union agitators like Dostie who were constantly inciting the newly freed blacks and making promises they had no intention of keeping. They had been "speechifying" all day on July 29 and urging the freedmen to arm themselves. New Orleans, already under a very harsh Union occupation for several years, was ready to explode, and the Federals made sure the match was lit. The book itself has a lot of interesting details, but the author didn't dig very far - it seems he relied mostly on the old report to Congress after the fight, which is very slanted. While he mentions the death of my husband's ancestor, he misspelled the name and didn't look beyond the two line newspaper mention. I didn't find anything new here - certainly the author never considered the psychology of returning Confederate soldiers and a desperate native populace now under the legislative rule of illiterate men just out of the cotton fields.