Federal and state authorities are investigating a wave of bigoted text messages sent anonymously that have spread alarm among Black Americans across the country this week, officials and recipients told Reuters.

The messages urged recipients in multiple states, including Alabama, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Georgia, to report to a plantation to pick cotton, an offensive reference to past enslavement of Black people in the United States.

Monet Miller, 29, an entertainment publicist in Atlanta, Georgia, said on Friday (November 8) that she read the offensive text message while "doomscrolling" a day after the presidential election.

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"These texts were the beginning of people who already lead, like lead in being nasty and mean," Miller said. "It was giving them the moment to be able to push the envelope of being nastier and even more sinister and mean to the community."

Richard Reynold, 37, from Smyrna, Georgia said he had to comfort his 13-year-old nephew after the middle schooler received a text message Wednesday night.

"We're not here for hate," Reynold said.

It is unclear who is behind the reported texts, how many people had received them, or how the recipients were targeted.

The run-up to Tuesday's election included the biggest rise in U.S. political violence since the 1970s, including some racist attacks on Harris supporters, according to cases identified by Reuters.

(Production: Alyssa Pointer)