[adrotate banner=”14″]
The North Augusta City Council voted unanimously on Jan. 4 to designate the Carrsville neighborhood as an African-American Heritage District.
The area centered around the iconic First Providence Baptist Church, which was founded as a congregation in 1860, and is the last remaining vestige of what was once the town of Hamburg.
“This unanimous vote is a benefit to all of us as we recognize the history and impact African Americans have had in North Augusta,” says Mayor Bob Pettit.
Pettit has been one of the leading advocates for giving the Carrsville heritage designation. Mayor Pettit, along with all other North Augusta city leaders, agree that Carrsville and its association with the one-time town of Hamburg is history that should not be forgotten.
The historic designation comes on heels of a controversy surrounding the Meriwether monument located in Calhoun Park in the heart of downtown North Augusta. The prominent obelisk honors Tom Meriwether, the lone white man killed in what has been known as the “Hamburg Massacre.”
A dark part of North Augusta history happened in the enclave of Hamburg, which was home to newly freed slaves after the Civil War. In the hotly contested election of 1876, a 100-man strong mob of white men, members of the vigilante “Red Shirts” group, confronted 30 black National Guard servicemen at their post in Hamburg. The violence that ensued near the banks of the Savannah River was a devastating harbinger of things to come in terms of race relations leading up to the present time.
A battle ensued in Hamburg as the white supremacists fought to suppress black residents from exercising their right to vote. When the smoke cleared, six black servicemen were dead along with the rioter Meriwether. Many other National Guardsmen were injured.
The Hamburg Massacre occurred at what became the dawn of the Jim Crow Era during which voting rights for black Americans were oppressed and racial segregation became the law in the South.
Tom Meriwether, the white supremacist killed, was given a hero’s monument, but it would not be until 2011 that a historical marker was placed in the Carrsville neighborhood memorializing the real victims of the massacre.
Several floods in 1929 destroyed most of the town of Hamburg, and the residents fled to higher ground to what became the neighborhood of Carrsville.
“This is really the first step,” says North Augusta City Councilman David McGhee of the historic designation. “We are recognizing the role African Americans have played in our city’s history. We want to tell all the stories, the good and the bad.”
The heritage designation may, in the future, allow for funding from the state and federal levels to make improvements to the area and restore some of the historic buildings there. Eventually McGhee says he would like a proper memorial to be placed in Carrsville in honor of the real heroes of 1876, the National Guardsmen who lost their lives.
[adrotate banner=”13″]
However, McGhee is adamant that he does not believe the Meriwether monument should be removed.
“We should be about building things up, not tearing things down,” he says. “We need to tell the whole story, embrace our history and march into the future as one community, the community that is North Augusta..”
Scott Hudson is the Managing Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
[adrotate banner=”25″]
