A photo of sugar cane cutters in Louisiana, taken by the photographer William Jackson Henry for Detroit Publishing Co. between 1880 and 1897. Credit: Library of Congress

Black sugar cane cutters were free in the 1880s but continued to endure “slavery-like” conditions in Louisiana for years.

“With no land to own or rent, workers and their families lived in old slave cabins,” a 2017 Smithsonian Magazine article states. “They toiled in gangs, just like their ancestors had for nearly a century. Growers gave workers meals but paid famine wages … Instead of cash, workers got scrip that bought basics at high prices at plantation stores.”

After the cutters went on strike in 1887, the state militia and white vigilantes retaliated by killing about 60 suspected strikers on Nov. 23, 1887 in Thibodaux. 

Today known as the Thibodaux massacre, the event is considered to be “one of the bloodiest days in U.S. labor history,” as the Smithsonian Magazine states.

About 10,000 sugar cane cutters went on strike with help from the Knights of Labor, an integrated labor union. According to Black Past, the Knights tried three times – in 1874, 1880 and 1883 – to organize sugar cane cutters. The difference in 1887 was that the union waited until the start of the rolling season to strike.

“During the rolling season,” Black Past states, “there was a narrow window of time to harvest the cane and unlike with cotton growers, the planters were unable to attract enough strikebreakers from out of the area because of the low pay they offered.”  

The strike lasted three weeks before white plantation owners sought help from the governor, who sent the militia with a hand-cranked machine gun. It was stationed in front of the courthouse in Thibodaux, and the militia  went door-to-door killing strikers. 

“The union died with the strikers, and the assassins went unpunished,” Smithsonian Magazine states. “Bodies were dumped in unmarked graves while the white press cheered a victory against a fledgling Black union.”   

For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.

Most Read Stories

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Creative Commons License

Tammy C. Barney is an award-winning columnist who spent most of her career at two major newspapers, The Times-Picayune and The Orlando Sentinel. She served as a bureau chief, assistant city editor, TV...