Riot in Detroit | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 17, 1863

Riot in Detroit.

The scenes of more than savage and demonic barbarity which occurred in the late riot in Detroit, comport well with the description given in the inspired record, of the character of men in the last days.

The riot originated in the fact that a man supposed to be a negro had committed an offense for which he was sentenced to the State prison for life. While on his way to the jail an attempt was made by a proslavery, democratic mob, to wrest him from the hands of the officers, and kill him on the spot. Being defeated in this, they turned their rage, without reason or provocation, against the colored inhabitants of the city, wreaking their vengeance upon them in all possible ways, burning their dwellings and destroying their property. Some thirty-two houses were destroyed by the mob, and between thirty and forty families, forming an aggregate of not far from two hundred destitute men, women, and children, thrown upon the charities of the community. Many lives were lost.

The following instances of horrible brutality are copied from the Detroit Tribune and Advertiser:

HORRIBLE BRUTALITY.

Some of the scenes during the attack upon the houses on Lafayette street were of a most harrowing and inhuman description. Our reporter stood near a house when it was attacked by the violent mob, with all description of missiles. The occupant of the house—a young colored woman with her children—believing that the mob possessed some manly feelings, seized an infant about three months old, and, with it in her arms, she went to the door, imploring them to save her rude domicile. Her presence seemed to make them still more savage, and with yells, screeches, and horrid oaths, they rushed upon her. The child was taken from her arms, thrown a distance of fifteen feet upon the ground, kicked and beaten, while the mother received similar treatment.

The acts of brutality of these rowdies are only equalled by the Sepoys of India. Well may respectable citizens blush, when boys, the sons of respectable men, are seen taking an active part in a riot so malignant in its nature.

A STRIKING OUTRAGE.

In several instances last evening, houses were fired with the inmates in them. One of the most heart-rending cases was the cooper-shop on Beaubien street, near Lafayette, where a number of colored persons, male and female, had taken refuge. The building was fired, and as the flame leaped over the side, the terrified inmates tried to escape, and were driven back time and again. At one time a mulatto woman with a child in her arms came to the door, when some hell-bound wretch drew back an immense club to strike her down, but his arm was caught and the murder averted, but not until she had been seriously pelted with missiles of one kind and another. Finally, as the flame closed around the desperate inmates, they burst forth and were knocked down, shot at and beaten by the crowd, until they managed to escape to places of refuge—pelted as they ran. An old, gray-headed man was struck with a stick of cord wood, his head laid open, and he knocked senseless. Such outrages would have disgraced the kingdom of Dahomey.