The laws allegedly gave Lynch the authority to punish suspected wrongdoers without having to bother with a formal, legal trial. Charles Lynch first referenced the term "Lynch Law" in a private letter in , making him the most likely origin of the word. William Lynch, on the other hand, also headed a tribunal dealing with British loyalists in the aftermath of the American Revolution. William Lynch reportedly punished the loyalists with the help of his neighbors, but his link to the infamous term didn't surface until the s.
While Charles and William Lynch both appear to have taken the law into their own hands to punish people who had wronged them, there is little evidence that they ever killed anyone. Thus, the term "Lynching" appears to have taken on a more sinister meaning in the following century.
The word started to commonly appear in newspapers from the s onward, but the action of lynching someone as a form of punishment only really became popular after the American Civil War in the s. Lynching is predominately associated with the Jim Crow Deep South and the hanging of black men by white mobs. The word has strong ties to racism and the civil rights movement the Tuskegee Institute estimates that 3, black people were lynched between and When or how Lynching became a tool for white supremacists is unclear, but one thing is perfectly clear - however unpleasant the term became, it can almost certainly trace its origins back to an Irish American settler in 18th Century America.
Related: Galway City , Irish Clans. Toggle navigation. Irish soldiers who died in World War I listed in new online database. International Stout Day: It's official, Guinness is good for you! Sections History Genealogy The Kennedys. Before the torch was applied to the pyre, the Negro was deprived of his ears, fingers, and other portions of his body Before the body was cool, it was cut to pieces, the bones were crushed into small bits, and even the tree upon which the wretch met his fate were torn up and disposed of as souvenirs.
The Negro's heart was cut in small pieces, as was also his liver. Those unable to obtain the ghastly relics directly, paid more fortunate possessors extravagant sums for them. Small pieces of bone went for 25 cents and a bit of liver, crisply cooked, for 10 cents. From to , more than 2, African Americans were hanged or burned at the stake.
Many lynching victims were accused of little more than making "boastful remarks," "insulting a white man" or seeking employment "out of place. Lee Hall was shot, then hanged, and his ears were cut off. Bennie Simmon was hanged, then burned alive and shot to pieces. Laura Nelson was raped than hanged from a bridge. They were hanged from trees, bridges, and telephone poles. Victims were often tortured and mutilated before death: burned alive, castrated, and dismembered.
Their teeth, fingers, ashes, clothes, and sexual organs were sold as keepsakes. Lynching continues to be used as a stinging metaphor for injustice. At his confirmation hearings for the U. Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas silenced Senate critics when he accused them of leading a "high-tech lynching. Lynchings were frequently publicized well in advance and people dressed up and traveled long distances for the occasion.
Few of the people who committed lynchings were ever punished. What makes the lynchings all the more chilling is the carnival atmosphere and aura of self-righteousness that surrounded the grizzly events.
Railroads sometimes ran special excursion trains to allow spectators to watch lynchings. Lynch mobs could swell to 15, people. Tickets were sold to lynchings. The mood of the white mobs was exuberant--men cheering, women preening, children frolicking around the corpse. Photographers recorded the scenes and sold photographic postcards of lynchings, until the Postmaster General prohibited such mail in People sent the cards with inscriptions like: "You missed a good time" or "This is the barbeque we had last night.
Before the s, most lynchings took place in the West. But during that decade the South's share of lynchings rose from 20 percent to nearly 90 percent.
Some blacks were lynched during the s. The last officially recorded lynching in the United States occurred in , though many consider the death of James Byrd in Jasper Texas, at the hands of three whites who hauled him behind their pick-up truck with a chain, a later instance. It seems likely that the soaring number of lynchings was related to the collapse of the South's cotton economy.
Lynchings were most common in regions with highly transient populations, scattered farms, few towns, and weak law enforcement - settings that fueled insecurity and suspicion. Forgot password? Don't have an account? Sign in via your Institution. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Sign in with your library card Please enter your library card number. Search within work. Wells-Barnett, Ida b. Publishing Information Introduction Directory of Contributors. All rights reserved.
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