seven
o'clock in the afternoon
Perceiving that he could do no good , Miller hastened onward , sick at heart . Whenever he saw a party of white men approaching , -- these brave reformers never went singly , -- he sought concealment in the shadow of a tree or the shrubbery in some yard until they had passed . He had covered about two thirds of the distance homeward , when his eyes fell upon a group beneath a lamp-post , at sight of which he turned pale with horror , and rushed forward with a terrible cry . The proceedings of the day -- planned originally as a `` demonstration , '' dignified subsequently as a `` revolution , '' under any name the culmination of the conspiracy formed by Carteret and his colleagues -- had by seven o'clock in the afternoon developed into a murderous riot . Crowds of white men and half-grown boys , drunk with whiskey or with license , raged through the streets , beating , chasing , or killing any negro so unfortunate as to fall into their hands . Why any particular negro was assailed , no one stopped to inquire ; it was merely a white mob thirsting for black blood , with no more conscience or discrimination than would be exercised by a wolf in a sheepfold . It was race against race , the whites against the negroes ; and it was a one-sided affair , for until Josh Green got together his body of armed men , no effective resistance had been made by any colored person , and the individuals who had been killed had so far left no marks upon the enemy by which they might be remembered .