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The Truth About Lynching and the Negro in the South / In Which the Author Pleads That the South Be Made Safe for the White Race cover

The Truth About Lynching and the Negro in the South / In Which the Author Pleads That the South Be Made Safe for the White Race

Chapter 2: PREFACE
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About This Book

The author traces the history of extrajudicial violence in the South from before the Civil War through Reconstruction and afterward, attributing changes in practice and frequency to factors such as abolitionist agitation and wartime disorder. Subsequent chapters examine purported patterns of criminality among Black residents, economic conditions, and arguments for segregation, concluding with reflections on prospective social arrangements and a forceful plea that southern society be secured for the white population. The work presents historical narrative, statistical and moral claims, and prescriptive recommendations about race relations and public order.

In the preparation of these pages an effort has been made to discover and present the truth in regard to the Negro in the South. The first three chapters need not be considered an attempt at justification of lynching nor an effort at palliation of the disorder, but rather as a setting forth of the facts, conditions, and extenuating circumstances in such connection. The purpose of the other four chapters is to throw light upon the mental, moral, and material condition of the Negro.

W. H. C.

Reids Grove, Md.,
January 30, 1918.