In 1876, pro-Confederate Democrats in South Carolina are joining the paramilitary Red Shirts, determined to carry the upcoming election, “if they had to wade in blood up to their saddle girths.”

On September 15, near Ellenton, in the Sandhills, a white woman accuses two Black men of having attacked her. A posse of Red Shirts heads out and shoots a suspect. When the woman says they shot the wrong man, they head out again. This time, a group of armed Black men turns the posse away.

But on the 18th, 500 to 600 Red Shirts spread out through Aiken County, shooting Black people working in the fields or walking through town. As many as 100 Black people are killed. State representative Simon P. Coker is shot in the head while praying for mercy.

South Carolina elects a white supremacist governor.