The 1868 St. Bernard Parish Massacre: Blood in the Cane Fields

Author and historian Chris Dier reveals the horrifying true story behind the St. Bernard Parish Massacre. As African American men gained the right to vote, white Democrats of St. Bernard Parish feared losing their majority. Armed groups mobilized to suppress these recently emancipated voters in the hopes of regaining a way of life turned upside down by the Civil War and Reconstruction. Days before the tumultuous presidential election of 1868, the parish descended into chaos. Freedpeople were dra