While it is easy to romanticize the raftsmen and river pigs, one should never forget that their antics were permanent and forever affected their contemporaries.
Take for instance, a little note in the 1869 when 125 raftsmen boarded the Dubuque steamer in Davenport. Simply: The raftsmen, riding the deck, tried to enter the area "roped" off for the cabin passengers. A "negro" guard blocked their entry, which caused the raftsmen to attack the guard and then the crew. All told, the raftsmen stabbed five African-Americans. The raftsmen commandeered the boat and headed north. The ship captain notified the sheriff of Rock Island about the vigilantes, and the sheriff formed a large "army" to save the ship. Actually on the shores of Clinton, the sheriff and his army took control of the ship, and 42 raftsmen were jailed. The other 80 or so, on their best behavior, supposedly spent the night in the town.
The rest of the story:
On July 31, 1869, an article appeared in the Clinton Herald announcing "A darkey gives the following reason why the colored race is superior to the white race, "That all mean are made of clay and like the meerschaum pipe, they are most valuable when highly colored."
A week later on August 7, 1869, the headline declared "Terrible Tragedy Bloody Affray on a Steamboat. Five Negroes Merciless Killed. Fearful Scene of Riot of Carnage."
The article described how on July 29, 1869, a "quarrel" broke out on the steam boat, Dubuque. Different numbers are given but the Clinton Herald describes 250 raftsmen boarding the steamboat. The steamboat wanted to keep the raftsmen from the cabin and the subsequent booze from one account. African-American porters were placed to make sure the raftsmen didn't take advantage of what the steamboat had to offer.
While class issues provoked the quarrel, the quarrel was fueled by the "mortal hatred of the colored race." The quarrel started when the eerily named "pock-marked Lynch" didn't take kindly to the African-American guard, Moses Davison, blocking his entrance to the cabin area. Moses in the papers was described as a "burly negro." Lynch "was a strapping fellow of villainous mien." A brief fight ensued, the Herald described it as Moses laying Lynch on the floor as Lynch tried to force his way to the cabin.
With "the representative of the superior race" knocked to the ground, like so many of these stories go, an impasse was reached that masqueraded as a resolution. The impasse dissolved around the raftsmen as the "honor of white men had been outraged." "As the dignity of the rafting profession was imposed upon," a ring surrounded Davison and the raftsmen wanted Davison and Lynch to "fight it out." Charles Jordan, a Fulton farmer, claimed he witness the ring form.
Lynch, probably drunk off the calls of the crowd, went after Davison with coal, the color of Moses's skin. According to testimony, Lynch and others yelled "they were going to kill every n***** board and run the boat themselves." The initial riot lasted perhaps one hour to 1.5 hours. The pilot eventually docked in Heasy's Landing near Hampton. Here according the testimony, African-Americans workers jumped in the water to escape.
Due to the ship being docked, the raftsmen were able to collect coal. What commenced was best described by The Herald as "woe to the reckless negro who fell into their reckless clutches." The raftsmen supposedly even swam on shore to collect more coal to hit the swimming workers.
In the midst of a stoning freenzy, Lynch and his lynch mob hunted the African-American employees. Wm. Olmstead and Clayton Jones, two African-Americans from New Orleans, took a death plunge to escape the beatings and stabbings of the lynch mob. Two other African-Americans were killed before they hit the water. More might have been injured, as the African-Americans escaping the death boat were shot at by the mob.
This entire time Davison was in hiding on the boat. The mob found him, and while Davison put up a fight, in fact killing one of the mob, he too tried to escape in the river. Most likely succumbing to his injuries, Davison drowned in the river before his rescue boat could reach him.
Many of the employees were saved by the white cabin occupants. The motive of the raftsmen attack is clearly race on the surface. Even though whites were attacked, the attack ended when no African-Americans were left on board. I can infer that the last attack was outside Camanche, when an African-American porter, thinking the frenzy was over stepped out of hiding. Sadly for the porter, the raftsmen had just taken control of the ship and were fleeing Hampton, where they knew the ship captain had telegraphed for help.
The end for the raftsmen came outside of Clinton. Still talking about killing every last damned n*****. Lynch and another ringleader Butler escaped into Camanche. Faced with a posse of vigilantes formed of citizens from Rock Island up to Clinton, the raftsmen lost their verve and quickly turned themselves over to the authorities. They were shipped back to Rock Island where the African-American employees singled out the ring leaders.
Amazingly a 1869 article bemoans that this sort of behavior by the raftsmen was a constant "source of annoyance." The raftsmen would board these boats and drink at the free bars until quarrelsome. A simple note in the article mentions they regularly fought the deckhands, who were apparently often African-Americans.
A group of lynchmen were sentenced to prison, chief among them Lynch. Lynch, who escaped the arresting officers by getting out at Camanche, was captured after the Northern Line Packet Company put a $500 bounty on his head. After his arrest, Lynch was sent to Joilet "where he found some seven of his chums, who on the 28th of July 69, assisted him in murdering four inoffensive men, just because they were “n******."
The story stayed in the news for months due to the escaped raftsmen and the subsequent trial. In the testimony there is much confusion on which African-American sparked Lynch to violence. It might not even have been Lynch that instigated it. A full examination of existing court records would be the best recourse here. The final declaration on the habits of the rivermen was that "For years it has been the custom of these returning raftsmen to disregard all rules on boats, insult the officers, and insist on a perfect reign of terror."
The timeline probably is not perfect due to the contradictions in the various news articles. The details on the actual riot also contradict each other. Regardless at least five African-American steamboat workers lost their lives and seemingly all were driven into hiding or off the boat by raftsmen who were challenged "Are you men of sense or dogs? I'm nothing but a poor raftsmen. If you are men, you will surely do something for this. Let's kill the damn sons of bitches."
http://www.iowaoldpress.com/USA/1869.html
http://iagenweb.org/history/rivers/Dubuque/riot.htm
Clinton Herald Articles
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