page_title: Massacre of Italians at Aigues-Mortes
section_title: Description of the events
hierarchical_section_title: Massacre of Italians at Aigues-Mortes / Description of the events
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Aigues-Mortes massacre des italiens 1893 par G. SternItaliano: Gli eccidii di Aigues-Mortes, la prima aggressione alle saline della 'Fangouse' nell'agosto 1893. Disegno di Gino Starace da schizzi dal vero di Ed. Ximenes
context_page_description: The Massacre of the Italians at Aigues-Mortes was a series of events on 16 and 17 August 1893, in Aigues-Mortes, France, which resulted in the deaths of immigrant Italian workers of the Compagnie des Salins du Midi, at the hands of French villagers and labourers. Estimates range from the official number of eight deaths up to 150, according to the Italian press of the time. Those killed were victims of lynchings, beatings with clubs, drowning and rifle shots, as well as many casualties.
  The massacre was not the first attack by French workers on poor Italian immigrant labourers that were prepared to work at cut-rate wages. When the news reached Italy anti-French riots erupted in the country. The case was also one of the greatest legal scandals of the time, since no convictions were ever made.
context_section_description: In the summer of 1893, the Compagnie des Salins du Midi began to recruit workers to harvest seasalt from its evaporation ponds (salines). With unemployment increasing because of an economic crisis in Europe, the prospect of finding seasonal employment attracted more applicants than usual. They were divided into three categories: Ardéchois (peasants, not necessarily from Ardèche, who left their land seasonally); Piémontais (Italians originating from across northern Italy and recruited on the spot by team leaders); and trimards (composed partly of vagrants).
  Because of the recruitment policies of the Compagnie des Salins du Midi, the team leaders were constrained to form teams comprising French and Italians. On the morning of 16 August, a brawl between the two communities rapidly escalated into a battle of honour.
  Despite the intervention of a justice of the peace and gendarmes, the situation rapidly deteriorated. Some trimards reached Aigues-Mortes and said that the Italians had killed some local Aiguemortais, causing their ranks to grow from the local population and workers who had been unable to secure employment. A group of Italians was then attacked and had to take refuge in a bakery that the rioters wanted to set fire to. The prefect called in troops at around 4 o'clock in the morning; they did not arrive on the scene until 6 pm, after the drama.
  In the morning, the situation festered. The rioters went into the Peccais salines (43.539714°N 4.218535°E) where there was the largest number of Italians. Gendarme captain Cabley was trying to protect them, while promising the rioters he would drive out the Italians once they had been accompanied back to the railway station in Aigues-Mortes. It was during the journey that the Italians were attacked by the rioters and massacred by a crowd that the gendarmes were unable to contain.
  According to the French authorities, there were officially eight deaths. The identities of seven of them are known: Carlo Tasso from Alessandria, Vittorio Caffaro from Pinerolo, Bartolomeo Calori from Turin, Giuseppe Merlo from Centallo, Lorenzo Rolando from Altare, Paolo Zanetti from Nese and Giovanni Bonetto. The body of a ninth Italian, Secondo Torchio, was never recovered. Following the events, 17 Italians were too seriously injured to be evacuated by train - one of them died of tetanus a month later.
caption: Attack on Italian workers by the salt workers of Aigues-Mortes (G. Stern, 1893)
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