Green Corn Rebellion
Encyclopedia
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
on August 2 and 3, 1917. The uprising was a reaction by radicalized European-American, tenant farmers, Seminole
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...
s, Muscogee Creeks and African-Americans to an attempt to enforce the Selective Draft Act of 1917
Selective Service Act of 1917
The Selective Service Act or Selective Draft Act was passed by the Congress of the United States on May 18, 1917. It was envisioned in December 1916 and brought to President Woodrow Wilson's attention shortly after the break in relations with Germany in February 1917...
and was so-called due to the purported plans of the rebels to march across the country, eating "green corn" on the way for sustenance. Betrayed by an informer in their midst, the country rebels met with a well-armed posse
Posse
Posse may refer to:* Posse comitatus , a group of men assembled to assist in law enforcement* Posse , starring Kirk Douglas* Posse , starring Mario van Peebles...
of townsmen, with whom shots were exchanged and three people killed. In the aftermath of the incident, scores of arrests were made and the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
, formerly strong in the region was decimated in the public eye for allegedly having attempted to foment revolution. The incident was also used as a pretext for national reprisals against the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
.
Background
On April 6, 1917, President Woodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, recently sworn in to a second term of office for which he had run behind the slogan "He Kept Us Out of War," appeared between a joint session of Congress to ask for a declaration of war
Declaration of war
A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a performative speech act by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more states.The legality of who is competent to declare war varies...
against Imperial Germany. Congress readily obliged the President's request, voting to declare war on Germany by a margin of 373-50 in the House and 82-6 in the Senate.
This decision of the United States government to enter World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
was backed up with additional legislation imposing military conscription in America to staff the nation's wartime Army and Navy. On May 18, 1917, a draft bill became law. The bill called for all eligible young men nationwide to register for the draft on a single day — June 5, 1917. While isolated hotspots of anti-conscription activity sprung up in some urban centers, the registration process was generally an orderly affair, with the vast majority of young American men accepting their fate with what has been characterized as "a calm resignation."
On July 20, 1917, a blindfolded Newton D. Baker
Newton D. Baker
Newton Diehl Baker, Jr. was an American politician who belonged to the Democratic Party. He served as the 37th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio from 1912 to 1915 and as U.S. Secretary of War from 1916 to 1921.-Early years:...
, the Wilson administration's Secretary of War, drew numbers choosing certain registered young men for mandatory military service. Opponents of American participation in the war continued their efforts to change the country's course, holding meetings and distributing pamphlets. Among the leading organized forces in opposition to conscription and the war was the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
, which at its April 1917 National Convention had declared its "unalterable opposition" to the war and urged the workers of the world to "refuse support to the governments in their wars."
The situation in Oklahoma
Although it was a young state, admitted into the union only in November 1907, there was already a strong radical tradition in Oklahoma, in which the impoverished tenant farmersTenant farmer
A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management; while tenant farmers contribute their labor along with at times varying...
of the southeastern part of the state seized upon the millenarian fervor of the early Socialist Party in an attempt to improve their lives. In the 1916 election, despite Woodrow Wilson's siphoning off a portion of the anti-war vote for the Democratic ticket, the Socialist Party garnered more than a quarter of the votes cast in the 1916 election in Seminole County
Seminole County, Oklahoma
Seminole County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 24,894 at the 2000 census. Its county seat is Wewoka. Before Oklahoma's admission as a state, the county was the entire small portion of Indian Territory allocated to the Seminoles. Seminole County has been an...
and 22% in neighboring Pontotoc County
Pontotoc County, Oklahoma
Pontotoc County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of 2000, the population was 35,143. Its county seat is Ada.-Geography:According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,879 km²...
.
Nor was the Socialist Party the only active organizers in the area — in 1916 a radical tenant farmers' organization called the Working Class Union (WCU) claimed a membership of as much as 20,000 in Eastern Oklahoma alone. The group's ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
blended what one historian has called "a muddled industrial unionism
Industrial unionism
Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations...
with traditional southern forms of countervigilantism, self-defense, and opposition to conscription" and arose as a complement to the radical syndicalism
Syndicalism
Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...
of the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
— an organization which did not seek to organize tenant farmers.
Tenant farmers were predominantly young — the age group most impacted by conscription. Some 76% of Oklahoma farmers under age 24 rented their land, while 45% of those between the ages of 25 and 33 found themselves tenants. Most tenant farmers were white and African-American. Many of these young "dirt farmers" found their economic prospects hopeless, squeezed between a usurious credit system practiced by stores and substantial crop liens inflicted by landlords. The poor quality of Oklahoma's land forced the input of twice as much labor as the share-croppers of Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
and Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
to generate comparable yields. Disaffection was rife and proposals for radical solutions found ready ears.
Despite the WCU's highly questionable membership claims, ballooning to 35,000 for the whole state of Oklahoma, the group had by 1917 clearly established a solid foothold among the tenant farmers of Oklahoma. The organization was not a tame one, taking the form of secret society
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...
, with activities which included night riding and the use of physical violence against its opponents.
Hostilities between the radical rural supporters of the WCU and the conservative forces of the towns of the region ran high, with dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
used against cattle dipping-vats late in 1915 in protest of a mandatory use of costly insecticide
Insecticide
An insecticide is a pesticide used against insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against the eggs and larvae of insects respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and the household. The use of insecticides is believed to be one of the major factors behind...
that some felt was as lethal to dipped cattle as to the ticks
Tick
Ticks are small arachnids in the order Ixodida, along with mites, constitute the subclass Acarina. Ticks are ectoparasites , living by hematophagy on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians...
and other parasites they carried. The controversy was punctuated by a shotgun blast fired through the window of the Pontotoc County Attorney early in 1916. Conservative voices declared the action to be an act of political terrorism, while radicals charged the shot to be a provocation, "part of a concocted plan on the part of the officials and two or three newspapers to wreck the Socialist Party by pulling off a fake attempted assassination."
Town dwellers, who had been subject to perennial attacks as "robbers, thieves, and grafters" by radical public speakers, were thoroughly convinced that the Socialists and the secret WCU were part of a single radical conspiracy to launch a long-desired revolution in their own locale.
The Muscogee Creek Nation at time of the rebellion was controlled by only 61 mixed blood Creek and intermarried white individuals. August 3rd marked the end of the Muscogee Creek Green Corn Ceremony
Green Corn Ceremony
The Green Corn Ceremony is an English term that refers to a general religious and social theme celebrated by a number of American Indian peoples of the Eastern Woodlands and the Southeastern tribes...
.
In early August 1917, preceding the rebellion, large numbers of African-American, European-American, and Native American men gathered at the farm of John Spears in Sasakwa
Sasakwa, Oklahoma
Sasakwa is a town in Seminole County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was documented as 150 in the 2000 census.-Geography:Sasakwa is located at...
to plan a march upon Washington, DC to end the war.
The rebellion
Little River (Oklahoma)
The Little River is a tributary of the Canadian River, long, in central Oklahoma in the United States. Via the Canadian and Arkansas rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River....
, a tributary of the Canadian river. Raiding parties followed this action, cutting telephone lines and burning railroad bridges.
On Friday, August 3, exactly two weeks after the draft lottery in Washington, D.C., an armed gathering assembled near the adjoining borders of Pontotoc, Seminole, and Hughes counties in Southeastern Oklahoma. The uprising seems to have been spurred by the agitation of the Working Class Union, which was reported in one newspaper as having called its supporters to arms with a manifesto which declared:
"Now is the time to rebel against this war with Germany, boys. Boys, get together and don't go. Rich man's war. Poor man's fight. The war is over with Germany if you don't go and J.P. Morgan & Co.J.P. Morgan & Co.J.P. Morgan & Co. was a commercial and investment banking institution based in the United States founded by J. Pierpont Morgan and commonly known as the House of Morgan or simply Morgan. Today, J.P...
is lost. Their great speculation is the only cause of the war."
Unfortunately, no documents written by WCU members have survived and the mentality of those taking up arms must be considered speculative. Still, historians do speculate. Historian Garin Burbank argues that the coming of conscription threatened to decimate family economies by removing able-bodied young men needed to harvest cotton. Moreover, Burbank argues, Socialist ideas had found its mark in Oklahoma, with many poor farmers earnestly believing from their experiences in daily life in the reality of "exploitation" and accepting the notion that the European war was little more than capitalist business enterprise writ large.
The country folk, in short, saw military conscription as an invasion of their rights, and they rebelled in an attempt to keep the government from taking away their sons.
Arming themselves, an estimated 800 to 1000 rebels, "the vast majority of old American stock," met on the banks of the South Canadian River and made plans to head East, living off the land as they marched. They would eat roasted "green corn" and barbecued beef on the way, so it was later said, eventually joining up with countless thousands of likeminded comrades who would together march on Washington, DC where they would overthrow "Big Slick" Woodrow Wilson, repeal the draft act, and end the war.
These plans, if such a whimsical scheme may be called such, were instantly betrayed to local authorities by an informer. A posse
Posse
Posse may refer to:* Posse comitatus , a group of men assembled to assist in law enforcement* Posse , starring Kirk Douglas* Posse , starring Mario van Peebles...
of townsmen was formed and headed to the river banks to meet the ostensible revolutionaries. The so-called rebellion proved anti-climactic, as historian Garin Burbank notes:
"Catching sight of the advancing townsmen, the country people fired a few desultory shots and fled in disorder. This was the pathetic end of their overt resistance to the incursions of outside political authority."
The incident was over within a few hours and mass arrests of participants were begun.
Aftermath and legacy
one of whom was Clifford Clark, an African American tenant farmer. Nearly 450 people were detained in connection with the incident, of whom 266 were released without charges being filed. Charges were levied against 184 participants, of whom about 150 were convicted or pled guilty, receiving jail and prison terms ranging from 60 days to ten years. Those identified as leaders of the uprising received the heaviest sentences.
While most were paroled or pardoned after a short period, five men remained in the Federal prison
United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
The United States Penitentiary , Leavenworth was the largest maximum security federal prison in the United States from 1903 until 2005. It became a medium security prison in 2005.It is located in Leavenworth, Kansas...
in Leavenworth, Kansas
Leavenworth, Kansas
Leavenworth is the largest city and county seat of Leavenworth County, in the U.S. state of Kansas and within the Kansas City, Missouri Metropolitan Area. Located in the northeast portion of the state, it is on the west bank of the Missouri River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
, in February 1922.
The so-called "rebellion" was used as a cudgel against the Socialist Party of Oklahoma, with the party being blamed for the incident despite its largely spontaneous and external origins. This was one in a series of events that undermined the American socialist movement and fueled the Red Scare
First Red Scare
In American history, the First Red Scare of 1919–1920 was marked by a widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism. Concerns over the effects of radical political agitation in American society and alleged spread in the American labor movement fueled the paranoia that defined the period.The First Red...
.
The Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
shared the brunt of popular indignation, despite the fact that the organization took no part in the Green Corn Rebellion and was related to the WCU only by virtue of the latter group having formed in response to the IWW's refusal to organize tenant farmers. The IWW was still blamed for every action of the WCU, however, and the bogey Green Corn Rebellion was ultimately used as a justification for further measures against the IWW nationally.
An elderly Seminole-Muscogee Creek woman relayed to Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is an American academic, educator, feminist activist, and writer.Born in San Antonio, Texas, Dunbar-Ortiz is of partial American Indian background. She spent most of her youth growing up in the rural community of Piedmont, Oklahoma...
that her uncle had been imprisoned after the rebellion. She is quoted, "The full moon of late July, early August it was, the Moon of the Green Corn. It was not easy to persuade our poor white and black brothers and sisters to rise up. We told them that rising up, standing up, whatever the consequences, would inspire future generations. Our courage, our bravery would be remembered and copied. That has been the Indian way for centuries, since the invasions. Fight and tell the story so that those who come after or their descendants will rise up once again. It may take a thousand years, but that is how we continue and eventually prevail."
A fictionalized account of the abortive revolt can be found in William Cunningham’s novel, The Green Corn Rebellion, published by Vanguard Press
Vanguard Press
The Vanguard Press was a United States publishing house established with a $100,000 grant from the left wing American Fund for Public Service, better known as the Garland Fund. Throughout the 1920s, Vanguard Press issued an array of books on radical topics, including studies of the Soviet Union,...
in 1935.
Sam Marcy
Sam Marcy
Sam Marcy was an American Marxist of the post-World War II era. In 1959, a group he led founded the Workers World Party, which continues to the present day....
, founder of Workers World Party
Workers World Party
Workers World Party is a far-left political party in the United States, founded in 1959 by a group led by Sam Marcy. Marcy and his followers split from the Socialist Workers Party in 1958 over a series of long-standing differences, among them Marcy's group's support for Henry A...
upheld the Green Corn Rebellion as the ideal working class, anti-war struggle in his book "The Bolsheviks and War" published in 1985.
Further reading
- Charles Bush, "The Green Corn Rebellion." M.A. thesis, University of Oklahoma, 1932.
- James R. Green, "Socialism and the Southwestern Class Struggle." Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1972.
- Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994.
- Sellars, Nigel Anthony. “'With Folded Arms? Or With Squirrel Guns?' The Green Corn Rebellion,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, no. 77 (Summer 1999).
- Sherry H. Warrick, "Antiwar Reaction in the Southwest During World War I." M.A. thesis, University of Oklahoma, 1973.
External links
- Green Corn Rebellion, article by the Oklahoma Historical Society