Buildup
On 1 August 1841, the black leaders held ceremonies to commemorate the
Slavery Abolition Act 1833 that abolished slavery in the British colonies (except for India). Their celebration was viewed with hostility by many whites. That month the city experienced a drought and heat wave that caused the
Ohio River to drop to the lowest waterline yet recorded, putting many men out of work who were dependent on river traffic. Idled and hot, men grew testy and argumentative.
Tensions mounted, with several scuffles between whites and blacks in their crowded neighborhoods. On the evening of Tuesday, 31 August, a group of Irish men got into a fight with some blacks. On Wednesday, the fight resumed. A mob of white men armed with clubs attacked the occupants of a black
boarding house. The brawl spread to involve occupants of neighboring houses and lasted nearly an hour. Although several people were wounded on both sides, no one reported the incident to the police and no arrests were made. Another encounter took place on Thursday in which two white youths were badly injured, apparently with knives.
[4] That day, bands of angry whites were roaming the city. An eyewitness said blacks were "assaulted wherever found in the streets, and with such weapons and violence as to cause death."
3 September
On Friday, there were rumors that more serious disturbances were planned. The
Cincinnati Daily Gazette, which published a full report of the riots, did not hear of any special police precautions to prevent trouble.
According to John Mercer Langston, then a child of twelve and later an educator and distinguished politician, the black elders armed themselves with guns, planning their defense against attack and elected Major J. Wilkerson, a mulatto, as their leader. Wilkerson had been born a slave in Virginia in 1813 and had purchased his freedom, becoming an elder of the AME Church in Cincinnati, a denomination established in 1819 and the first independent black church in the United States.
Langston later described Wilkerson as a "champion of his people's cause" who would "maintain his own rights as well as those of the people he led." Wilkerson ensured that the women and children were moved to safe places. He then deployed the men in defensive positions on roofs, in alleys and behind buildings.
An armed mob organized by people from Kentucky assembled in Fifth Street Market, carrying clubs and stones. Marching toward Broadway and Sixth streets, they wrecked a black-owned confectionery house on Broadway. The crowd grew and ignored calls from local officials, including the mayor, to disperse. Advancing to attack the black neighborhood, the mob was met with gunfire and retreated.
In several additional attacks, people on both sides were wounded and some reported killed. In the middle of the night, a group of whites brought in a six-pounder cannon loaded with boiler punchings and pointed it down Sixth street from Broadway. By this time many of the blacks had fled but fighting continued, the cannon being fired several times.
About 2 a.m., militiamen arrived and managed to end the fighting. The soldiers established a cordon around several blocks of the black neighborhood, holding those within captive. The militia also rounded up other blacks in the city and marched them into the cordoned-off area where they were held captive until they paid bond.
