Joseph Crews (1823 – September 13, 1875) was an American state legislator and Reconstructionist militia leader from Laurens County, South Carolina, during the Reconstruction era. He was the state's highest-ranking military official in the 1870s, and was put in charge of the state militia whose main purpose was to protect African-American voters. African-Americans were 58.9% of the population of South Carolina in 1870. He was reportedly murdered by Democrats in the run-up to the 1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election.