Great Map Hunt

GREAT MAP HUNT: THE DANVILLE RIOT
Preliminary Assignment #1
History 615

The Danville Riot

Historical Background

Political tensions were ripe in Virginia in the fall of 1883. During the previous two years, a new party, called the Readjusters, wrested control of the state legislature, governorship, and courts from the previously dominant Democrats. They promoted a platform of reducing the state debt, building infrastructure, lowering taxes, and promoting education; and were elected through the support of a biracial coalition of upper-class whites, blacks, and lower-class whites.

As the Readjusters were fulfilling all of their promises and leading the state more effectively than ever before, the Democrats undertook a new strategy to regain power: they declared their party to be that of the whites and the Readjusters to be that of the blacks. This was a powerful tactic, as racial relations in the South in the post-Reconstruction era were extremely tense. Moreover, the Readjuster Party had identified itself with the national Republican Party, the sponsors of Reconstruction and the promoters of African-American rights. With these factors in mind, the Democrats hoped to bring the poor whites back into their fold and end the Readjuster threat for good.

This fall election in Virginia also had the potential to affect national politics. The Compromise of 1877, which put the Republican Hayes into the White House and ended Reconstruction, allowed the South to influence national politics for the first time since before the Civil War and the section was largely Democratic. The Readjusters from Virginia helped keep the Republicans in control of the Senate in the last Congress, and Republicans feared that loss of the state to the Democrats would end their control.

The national and state political tensions reached their focal point in the small town of Danville, Virginia. Three days before the election, on November 3, 1883, a small party of whites fired into a large crowd of blacks and chased them out of town. The Democrats blew this seemingly small event out of proportion, claiming that it was evidence of the "negro rule" that was to overtake the entire state, and swayed the majority of citizens to vote the Democrats back into power. The long term consequences of the Democratic victory were substantial: over the next two decades the Democrats would solidify political control over the state, disenfranchise blacks, and institute segregation.

The Problem

There are many controversies surrounding the Danville Riot, but the greatest was whether or not it was premediated to swing the voters of Virginia against the Readjusters. In a Senate investigation of the event, the Republican majority of the committee concluded that the event was premediated, while the Democratic minority reached the opposite conclusion.

Besides interpreting the evidence differently, and deciding which witnesses to believe or disbelieve, the two sides also disagreed on the layout of the town. Only the Republican side published a map in the report; but the Democrats claimed that it was inaccurate.

The Usefulness of a Map

The true nature of the Danville Riot, and whether or not it was premediated, is nearly impossible to determine from the witnesses alone as many testimonies contradict, often along racial lines. In order to come to a conclusion, the historian is almost forced to choose which witnesses (or party!) are reliable and which are not.

A map can help to avoid this lack of objectivity and may provide new clues into the Danville Riot. By first establishing the true layout of the town, and then testing the validity of witnesses' testimonies against it, some progress may be made to determine the true nature of the Riot.

The Maps

The Setting

Danville is located in the south-central part of Pittsylvania County, Virginia. It was the last capital of the Confederacy, and was where Robert E. Lee had hoped to link up with Jospeh E. Johnston's forces following the former's retreat from Richmond in April 1865. Danville was a center of tobacco trading in the area, attracting customers from Virginia as well as nearby North Carolina.

In 1880, Danville had a population of 7,526, with 3,129 whites and 4,397 blacks. The ratio in taxes was quite different, however, as whites paid $40,000 and blacks paid only $1,206. Blacks had also slowly gained control of the town government by 1883.

Senate Republican Map

The starting place for this hunt is the map provided by the United States Senate. It appears in Committee Reports of the Senate of the United States Senate, First Session of the Forty-Eighth Congress, Volume 6, No. 579.

As seen here, it is a hand drawn map with a slightly confusing key. The numbers show both building positions, human positions, and human movements. The labelling progresses in a somewhat logical format, but does jump around at some points. No source for the map is given, except that it "was put in evidence by the [Republican] chairman of the committee" (XLVII).

The Democrats called it a "bungling fraud" and said that it was used in place of the official city map. They claimed "that it does not give the location of the scene of trouble at all" and not only left out several key buildings, but also shows the same building in two different locations.

Revised Senate Map

Below is an updated version of the Senate Map made in Adobe Illustrator.

This map more clearly displays the information from the original Senate map by placing building names on the map, using color coding, and simplifying the key. Buildings and locations are now graphically separated from people; individuals positions, including where people were shot or wounded, are separated from crowd movements; and the first detectable flaw in the map (it has people coming out of two different opera house) is highlighted as the unique graphic representing whites leaving the opera appears in two different areas.




Please go to the "3-D MAP ASSIGNMENT" page to continue.