Red Shirt (Factory)
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The Red Shirts are a white militant political special interest group that started during the ninetieth century. They support white nationalism and are independent from the Klu Klux Klan, but just as secret. The members opposed corrupt Republican radicalism and supported Democratic leaders such as Wade Hampton III in South Carolina. It is said that red shirts helped bring Hampton to victory over Daniel Henry Chamberlain.
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[edit] Wade Hampton
Wade Hampton, a prominent person in the history of the red shirts, was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1818. He was both a brigadier general and a major general in the Confederate army as well as a member of the South Carolina legislature. Citizens who favored his leadership and political triumph during the reconstruction called him the “Savior of South Carolina”. Those that disagreed with his work did not see him in the same light. Since Wade Hampton was such a key player in the red shirt campaign, South Carolina has a lot of ties to the group [1].
[edit] History
During Hampton’s campaign the red shirt uniform was introduced, which was a cynical response to the Republican’s ‘reliance on the bloody shirt (of the Northern war veteran)’. E. Merton Coulter’s book The South During Reconstruction states the origins of the “southern brigadiers of the reconstruction period” is said to be in Mississippi during 1875 then emphasized in 1876 during Hampton’s election. “The first Red Shirt parade on horseback ever witnessed in Wilmington electrified the people today. It created enthusiasm among the whites and consternation among the Negroes. The whole town turned out to see it. It was an enthusiastic body of men. Otherwise it was quiet and orderly. (Raleigh News & Observer, November 4, 1898)[2]”
[edit] Red Shirt's Today
There legacy continues today in South Carolina as the group continues to march and fight for white supremacy. Their website (http://www.redshirt.org) urged members to march at the South Carolina state capital in 2006 protesting the NAACP and Martin Luther King’s holiday, as well as protesting against Bob Inglis. The website also includes a Statement of Purpose: We feel that our cause is just and holy; we protest solemnly in the face of mankind that we desire peace at any sacrifice save that of honor and independence; we ask no conquest, no aggrandizement, no concession of any kind from the States with which we were lately confederated; all we ask is to be let alone; that those who never held power over us shall not now attempt our subjugation by arms. ... 'President Jefferson Davis - 29 April 1861 [3]
[edit] References
- ^ Palmetto Studies, "Wade Hampton" <http://www.palmetto.org/gwh-1818.htm> [15 February 2007]
- ^ Red Shirts: A History, 1898 Wilmington Race Riot <http://www.1898wilmington.com/RedShirtsAHistory.shtml> [15 February 2007]
- ^ Red shirts <www.redshirt.com> [15 February 2007]
Alfred B. Williams, Hampton and His Red Shirts, (Charleston: Walker, Evans, & Cogswell Co.)
Francis Butler Simkins & Robert Hilliard Woody, South Carolina During Reconstruction, (Durham: The University of North Carolina Press, 1932)
William Arthur Sheppard, Some Reasons Why Red Shirts Remembered, (Greer: The Chas P. Smith Company, 1940)
William Arthur Sheppard, Red Shirts Remembered, (Atlanta: Ruralist Press, INC, 1940)
