The negro: the southerner's problem

[39] An interesting paper on “Lynch Law,” by Albert Matthews, of Boston, was published in The Nation, December 4, 1902. Mr. Matthews, after giving the numerous alleged derivations of the term, and reciting a score or so of instances in which “Lynch Law” had been applied (his first reference being to Wirt’s Life of Patrick Henry, 1818, page 372), states his conclusions, as follows:

“From this evidence and from other material in my possession, it appears that the original term was “Lynch’s Law”; that this was soon shortened to “Lynch (or lynch) Law,” and then to “Lynch”; that originally lynch law was a whipping or other personal chastisement; that lynch law originally obtained only in the border settlements, where the administration of justice either was, or was supposed to be uncertain; that in the early days of lynch law, innocent persons were sometimes punished, and suits for damages were by no means unknown; that, about 1830, writers regarded the practice as on the wane and likely soon to disappear altogether; that before about 1835 the victims of lynch law were generally whites, occasionally Indians, but never Negroes; that soon after 1830 a revival of lynch law took place, due to the anti-slavery agitation, and the practice spread throughout the country; that between 1830 and 1840 the term “lynch” underwent a change in meaning and “to lynch” began to acquire the sense of to put to death; that during the same period Negroes were first lynched; that about 1835, we first hear of “Judge Lynch”; that in recent years, lynching has been confined largely, but by no means wholly, to Negroes in the South and West. It further appears that there is a direct historical connection between the killing of a Negro in a highly civilized community in 1902 and the whipping of a white man along the frontiers in 1817. Step by step, the illegal whippings of 1817 have led to the illegal burnings alive of 1902. In short, the more civilized the country has become, the more brutal has been the punishment meted out under lynch law.”

[40] In 1901 one Indian and one Chinaman were lynched.

[41] In 1902 one Indian was lynched.

[42] For an interesting study of the early history of lynching and its causes, see note, p. 86.

[43] For outrages in Arkansas, see “Brooks-Baxter War.”

[44] Mr. Matthews points out that though rape existed and was frequently legislated against during the Colonial period, he cannot find between 1676 and 1825 a single instance of the illegal punishment of the crime.

[45] It is significant that, on large plantations where the Negroes, though in large numbers, are still in the position of old plantation servants, the crime of assault is almost unknown.

[46] The following table is from the Chicago Tribune. The number of legal executions in 1900 was 118, as compared with 131 in 1899, 109 in 1898, 128 in 1897, 122 in 1896, 132 in 1895, 132 in 1894, 126 in 1893, and 107 in 1892. The executions in the several States and Territories were in 1900 as follows:

There were 80 hanged in the South and 39 in the North, of whom 60 were whites, 58 were blacks, and one a Chinaman. The crimes for which they were executed were: murder, 113; rape, 5; arson, 1. Thus, of the 119 hangings, about two-thirds (80) were in the South and one-third (39) in the North; about one-half (60) of the entire number were of whites, and one-half (58) were of blacks. So, the South appears to have done its part in the matter of punishing by law as well as by violence.

[47] See “The American Negro,” by William Hannibal Thomas, pp. 65, 177.