Description
Book SynopsisLynching was a national crime. But it obsessed the South. W. Fitzhugh Brundage''s multidisciplinary approach to the complex nature of lynching delves into the such extrajudicial murders in two states: Virginia, the southern state with the fewest lynchings; and Georgia, where 460 lynchings made the state a measure of race relations in the Deep South. Brundage''s analysis addresses three central questions: How can we explain variations in lynching over regions and time periods? To what extent was lynching a social ritual that affirmed traditional white values and white supremacy? And, what were the causes of the decline of lynching at the end of the 1920s?
A groundbreaking study, Lynching in the New South is a classic portrait of the tradition of violence that poisoned American life.
Trade ReviewWinner of the Merle Curti Social History Award given by the Organization of American Historians, 1994.
"The research is formidable, the analysis sophisticated. Clearly, this is the best work ever written on lynching."--Numan V. Bartley, author of
The Rise of Massive Resistance: Race and Politics in the South during the 1950sTable of ContentsAcknowledgments / xi
Introduction / 1
1 Mobs and Ritual / 17
2 "To Draw the Line": Crimes and Victims / 49
3 "When White Men Merit Lynching" / 86
4 The Geography of Lynching in Georgia / 103
5 The Geography of Lynching in Virginia / 140
6 "We Live in an Age of Lawlessness": The Response to Lynching in Virginia / 161
7 The Struggle against Lynching in Georgia, 1880-1910 / 191
8 Turning the Tide: Opposition to Lynching in Georgia, 1910-30 / 208
Epilogue The Passing of a Tradition / 245
Appendixes / 261
Notes / 303
Index / 369
