The Thibodaux Massacre

Racial Violence and the 1887 Sugar Cane Labor StrikeBy John DeSantisNarrated by Carl Stewart

Length3h 16m

About this audiobook

Fear, rumor and white supremacist ideals clashed with an unprecedented labor action spawned an epic tragedy. On November 23, 1887, white vigilantes gunned down unarmed black laborers and their families due to strikes on Louisiana sugar cane plantations. A future member of the U.S. House of Representatives was among the leaders of a mob that routed black men from houses and forced them to a stretch of railroad track, ordering them to run for their lives before gunning them down. According to a witness, the guns firing in the black neighborhoods sounded like a battle. Author and award-winning reporter John DeSantis uses correspondence, interviews and federal records to detail this harrowing true story.

Audiobook details

GenreHistory, Psychology

Length3 hrs 16 mins

Narrated byCarl Stewart

FormatAudiobook

Publish dateOct 15, 2025

LanguageEnglish

1Foreword, Preface, Acknowledgements, and Prologue

76. Battle Lines

2Part 1: Sugar, Slaves and Civil War | 1. Bittersweet Beginning

8Part III: A Page Torn from History | 7. Violence and Threats

32. Civil War and Occupation

98. A Deadly Ball

43. Unreconstructed Rebels

109. Massacre

5Part II: Birth of a Movement | 4. 4. Trouble in Town and Fields

1110. Aftermath

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65. Seeds of Revolt

12Epilogue

About the author

John DeSantis

John DeSantis is the senior staff writer at the Times of Houma, Louisiana. A product of New York City, his work has previously appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post and other publications. A journalist whose criminal justice background was attained at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, he has covered social justice and race relations extensively in New York, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, North Carolina and California. He is also a former city editor at the Thibodaux Daily Comet. His other books include For the Color of His Skin: The Murder of Yusuf Hawkins and the Trial of Bensonhurst and the New Untouchables: How America Sanctions Police Violence. A recipient of numerous awards from the Louisiana Press Association, the Associated Press Managing Editors Association and other news media organizations, DeSantis resides in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana.View all by John DeSantis