October 24, 1872

The New York World referred to the Black Hawk War, a Reconstruction-era political and racial conflict, with the classic rhetoric of the times, as “a foray of infuriated blacks armed to the teeth, and led on by a scoundrel carpet-bagger upon a town, with avowed intent to slay the men and violate the women thereof.” Mississippi County was a hotbed of violent, racist activity at the time, and many African Americans wanted to protect their newfound freedoms. Charles B. Fitzpatrick’s flight after shooting Sheriff J. B. Murray in August 1872 (and subsequently arming himself with a guard of African Americans) and the unwillingness of the state government to intervene seem to have left local black citizens open to reprisals.