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
BY
WINFIELD H. COLLINS, A.M., PH.D.
AUTHOR OF
_The Domestic Slave Trade of the Southern States_
[Illustration: Neale Publishing Company colophon]
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
440 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
MCMXVIII
Copyright, 1918, by
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
THE TRUTH ABOUT LYNCHING
AND
THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH
[Illustration: N]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface
CHAPTER
I The Lynching of Negroes in the South Previous
to the Civil War 9
II Lynching During the Civil War and the Carpet-Bag
Rule 29
III Lynching from the End of Carpet-Bag Rule to
the Present Time 48
IV The Criminality of the Negro 72
V Segregation of the Negro 101
VI Negro Wealth or Poverty,—Which? 123
VII The Future of the Negro 141
PREFACE
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.
The Truth About Lynching
and the Negro in the South
CHAPTER I
THE LYNCHING OF NEGROES IN THE SOUTH PREVIOUS TO THE CIVIL WAR
It is generally supposed that the custom or practice of lynching in
this country had its origin in the method of punishment used by a
Virginian farmer named Lynch, who during the Revolutionary War sought
in this way to maintain order in his community or section,—hence,
Lynch’s Law, and Lynch law, from which comes the word “lynching.”
In the beginning, however, the term seldom, if ever, conveyed the
meaning “to put to death”; nor does it appear that Negroes were lynched
even so often as whites. The methods of punishment in the majority of
cases consisted of riding the victim on a rail, beating or whipping
him, and often of giving him a coat of tar and feathers.
Moreover, it does not appear that lynching in any form was very common
in the early history of the country. Indeed, in 1839 a writer in the
_Southern Literary Messenger_[10:1] began a brief article on the
subject with the following:
“Forty years ago the practice of wreaking private vengeance or
of inflicting summary or illegal punishment for crime actual or
pretended which has been glossed over by the name Lynch law was
hardly known except in sparse, frontier settlements beyond the
reach of courts and legal proceedings.”
Newspapers, periodicals, and other literature of the time show,—as the
years pass,—an interesting change in the meaning of the term Lynch law.
As the practice of lynching increased, the methods of the executors
of this law became more severe, and it grew more often to mean “a
putting to death.” Possibly the change in meaning was partly due to
the fact that lynching came to be a favorite means of punishment for
abolitionists, their Negro dupes, and for both Negroes and whites who
might be found guilty of unusual or shocking crimes.
The change from the mild to the severer meaning of the term was
gradual. From 1830 to 1840 it seldom meant “to put to death”; from
1850 to 1860 it very often had that meaning, and by 1870, or 1875,—this
became the almost exclusive interpretation of “lynching,” even as at
present.
The “New English Dictionary” defines Lynch law as “the practice of
inflicting summary punishment upon an offender, by a self-constituted
court armed with no legal authority; it is now limited to the summary
execution of one charged with some flagrant offense.” So this is
about the sense (unless otherwise indicated) in which I shall use the
expression “Lynch law,” or “lynching,” in these pages.
In seeking a cause for the great increase of lynching, whether in its
milder or severer form, from about 1830, I think one need not hesitate
to give first place to the Anti-Slavery agitation; and the Southampton
Slave Insurrection is also to be considered as contributory.
When, about 1830, the Anti-Slavery agitation began to attract some
attention there were a number of anti-slavery societies in the South.
These, however, soon broke up as those formed in the North became
unreasonable. The net effect of the societies in the North was to
produce distrust and even hatred at the South. It could hardly have
been otherwise, for the Northern anti-slavery propagandists during the
whole period of such agitation seemed to have regard for neither law
nor common sense. Nothing better could have been expected from them,
however, as, for the most part, the abolitionists were poor, misguided
men and women. Instead of adopting persuasive methods and of showing a
fair and conciliatory spirit, they were dictatorial, inflammatory and
menacing. And by whatever of higher law or Divine inspiration they may
have claimed to be actuated, they failed to recognize the fact that
they had to deal with human beings and human institutions.
Again, on whatever lofty plane of morality they professed to stand,
their propaganda did not comprehend even ordinary honesty. Indeed,
it appears as only another illustration,—for history affords so many
instances,—of self-elected good men endeavoring to impose their own
half-blind perception of the way of the Lord, or their own ideas
of what constitutes righteousness on their open-eyed and superior
fellow-men, and exerting themselves to the utmost of their ignorance in
such efforts,—thus, as is usual in such cases, making hell on earth.
Even the Kaiser claims to be the agent of the Lord.
William Lloyd Garrison, the leading exponent of the abolition movement,
called the Constitution of the United States “An Agreement with Death
and a Covenant with Hell.” In the beginning his most earnest supporters
were some pious old women, who doubtless with fair intelligence and
good intentions, like many professed good people, let their emotions
aided by their imagination get the better of their heads. They seemed
to enjoy criticizing the South, with the occasional diversion of
holding prayer-meetings for Negroes.
However, it was a long while (even in the North) before the abolition
movement gained much headway. Garrison himself was treated with
scarcely more consideration in the North than awaited those Apostles
of anti-slavery that should go South, having persuaded themselves that
they were called to preach the “gospel” of abolition in that benighted
section. Indeed, once, in 1835, he hid himself in order to escape
from a mob of some thousands of people,—including many of the leading
citizens of Boston,—that had collected in front of his office. Some
of the crowd found him and soon had a rope around his neck, but he
was rescued by the mayor of the city. About two years later, however,
a noted abolition editor, Rev. E. P. Lovejoy, was killed by a mob in
Illinois.
In 1856 _The Liberator_ made the following remarkable statement in
regard to the treatment of abolitionists in the South:
“A record of the cases of Lynch-Law in the Southern States
reveals the startling fact that within twenty years over three
hundred white persons have been murdered upon the occasion—in
most cases unsupported by legal proof—of carrying among the
slaveholders arguments addressed to their own intellects and
consciences as to the morality and expediency of slavery.”[14:2]
This is evidently a great exaggeration. If it were alleged that over
three hundred had been “lynched,” bearing in mind that during those
years the word, more often than otherwise, meant giving the victim
a coat of tar and feathers, and so on, it would not even then be in
accord with what is indicated by better evidence. Books of travel and
other literature of the time fail to show that any great number of
abolitionists in the South met death by lynching during the period in
question.
Indeed, a booklet, “The New Reign of Terror,” published early in
1860,—and in all probability compiled by Garrison himself,—is
weighty evidence against the truth of this statement. According to
_The Liberator_, the booklet gave “multiplied newspaper accounts of
lynchings, murders, and mob raids of the Black Power of the Slave
States within the past year [1859].” Although this was a time of
intense excitement throughout the South,—a time when a more bitter
feeling was manifested against abolitionists than in any previous
period, a careful examination of the “New Reign of Terror” failed to
reveal more than one case in which an abolitionist was put to death by
lynching.
There is much evidence of a law-abiding spirit in the South (especially
in the eastern part) at the beginning of the Anti-Slavery agitation.
Indeed, even when lynching was resorted to, it seems to have been done
with great reluctance.
Another thing that had some effect on lynching was the Southampton
Slave Insurrection, which occurred in 1831. About sixty white men,
women, and children were murdered in cold blood by Negroes. However,
not more than one of the fifty or more Negroes concerned in it was
lynched. Instead, they were given a fair trial, and disposed of
according to law. The Insurrection may have caused an increase in
the lynching of Negroes by the fact that it begat a kind of fear and
distrust of the blacks everywhere, caused them to be more carefully
looked after, and more severely dealt with when refractory or guilty of
crime.
This was no more than could be expected. In 1835 there were four great
fires in the city of Charleston,—all supposed to have been the work of
slaves. Moreover, up to 1860 there were rumors of insurrections, and
many minor insurrections did take place. The abolitionists, not without
reason, were accused of trying to set the slaves against their masters
and of fostering outbreaks of the bondmen.
Such things could hardly be considered lightly, for in many places the
whites were practically at the mercy of the Negroes. A quotation from
Murray,[16:3] an English traveler, may be interesting as it gives an
example of the situation in many of the Slave States:
“The farms of the two gentlemen whom I visited occupied the
whole of the peninsula formed by the James River; they had each
two overseers: thus (their families being young) the effective
strength of white men on their estates amounted to six: the
Negroes were in number about two hundred and fifty: nor was
there a village or place within many miles from which help
could be summoned.”
Could one reasonably expect that any man so situated would be inclined
to be too ceremonious with any person, black or white, however innocent
or saintlike his looks, who might be caught tampering with the Negroes
and thereby jeopardize the safety of his family and those of his
neighbors as well? When one considers the exasperating circumstances,
the wonder is not that there were so many lynchings but rather that
there were so few, comparatively.
Some interesting lynchings occurred in 1835. They were widely commented
upon at the time. One, the case of a mulatto from Pennsylvania, who was
supposed to have some connection with the abolitionists, was burned
at St. Louis for killing an officer who was trying to arrest him for
some crime he had committed. The judge’s charge to the grand jury in
reference to the matter is worth consideration as it indicates the
attitude toward lynching shown at the time by those in authority:
“He told the jury that a bad and lamentable deed had been
committed in burning a man alive without trial, but that it was
quite another question whether they were to take any notice of
it. If it should prove to be the act of a few, every one of
those few ought undoubtedly to be indicted and punished; but if
it should be proved to be the act of the many, incited by that
electric and metaphysical influence which occasionally carries
on a multitude to do deeds above and beyond the law, it was no
affair for the jury to interfere with.”[18:4]
The same year, 1835, two Negroes were burned near Mobile.[18:5] The
circumstances were these:
Upon the failure of a certain little girl and her brother to return
from school at the proper time a search was made and the body of the
girl at last found. It appeared that she had been violated, then
murdered, and her body hid in order to conceal the crime. Soon after
this, two young ladies of Mobile were seized by two Negroes near the
place where the body of the little girl was found. The young ladies
escaped. At once suspicion pointed to these Negroes as the murderers of
the children. They were arrested, tried by the court, and found guilty.
The gentlemen of Mobile, it is said, then seized the Negroes, took them
to the place of their crime, and burned them. For it was felt that the
law did not furnish adequate means of punishment for such fiendish
criminality.
Another noted instance of lynching took place at Vicksburg in the same
year. This time it was not a Negro but whites that were lynched.
For many years the population of the Mississippi Valley had been
increasing rapidly. The courts of law were so few, weak, or dilatory,
that the better citizens sometimes found it necessary to take the law
into their own hands in order to insure for themselves protection.
Such was the case at Vicksburg. Some gamblers had lately made this
town their home and had established themselves at the low taverns to
which they decoyed the young men of the vicinity. These, after being
plundered and debauched, often cast their lot with the gamblers and
became almost as desperate as their corrupters. After a while all
restraint was thrown off, and the gamblers went about the streets
even in the daytime armed with deadly weapons, and by their insults,
drunkenness, and crimes, made themselves a terror to the inhabitants.
At length the people, having decided to put an end to such conditions,
held a meeting and passed resolutions, giving the gamblers notice
to leave within twenty-four hours. But, instead of doing so, they
garrisoned themselves in a house. This the men of the town surrounded,
and breaking open a door, they were fired upon from within, one of the
most prominent men of the town being killed. This so enraged the people
that they took the house by storm. Five of the gamblers were made
prisoners. Then a procession, headed by the leading men of the town,
led the gamblers to execution, hung them, and buried them together in a
ditch.
Featherstonhaugh, an English traveler, in writing of the Mississippi
gamblers, says:
“In various travels in almost every part of the world, I
never saw such a collection of unblushing, low, degraded
scoundrels.”[20:6]
He also quotes a passage from a justification of the above lynching,
which was drawn up by the people of Vicksburg, and is as follows:
“Society may be compared to the elements, which, although,
‘order is their first law,’ can sometimes be _justified only by
a storm_. Whatever, therefore, _sickly sensibility or mawkish
philanthropy_ may say against the course pursued by us, we
hope that our citizens _will not relax the code of punishment_
which they have enacted against this infamous, unprincipled,
and baleful class of society; and we invite Natchez, Jackson,
Columbus, Warrenton, and all our sister towns throughout the
State, in the name of our insulted laws, of offended virtue,
and of slaughtered innocence, to aid us in exterminating this
deep-rooted vice from our land. The _revolution_ has been
conducted here _by the most respectable_ citizens, heads
of families, _members_ of _all classes and professions_
and pursuits. None have been heard to utter a syllable of
censure against either the act _or the manner in which it was
performed_; and so far as we know, public opinion, both in town
and country, is decidedly in favor of the course pursued. We
have never known the public so unanimous on any subject.”
Only a few days before the Vicksburg affair two white men and seven
Negroes were lynched about forty miles from Vicksburg on the charge
of attempting to organize an insurrection of slaves. Featherstonhaugh
quotes the following account of it from a newspaper:
“Twenty miles from this place [Jackson, in Madison County] a
company of white men and Negroes were detected before they did
any mischief. On _Sunday_ last they hung two steam doctors,
one named Cotton and the other Saunders; also, seven Negroes
without law or gospel, and from respectable authority we learn
that there were _two preachers_ and ten Negroes to be hanged
this day.”
That such lynchings were exceptional in the South before about 1855,
or even before the war, is shown by the fact that these cases were
mentioned by several different travelers and the papers of the time as
well. I examined with more or less care books of travel too numerous to
mention,—scores of them,—for the period between 1830 and 1860. Those
travelers, especially, who visited the South between 1838 and 1854 are
eloquently silent on the subject. I examined _The Liberator_[22:7] for
1839 and 1840, but found mention of only one Negro who was put to death
by a mob. No State was given so I am not sure whether it was in the
North or the South. However, it gave five instances of Negroes legally
executed in the South; one for rape, one for arson, one for firing on
two white men and threatening two others, and two for connection with
an attempt at insurrection. Two more cases may be given: that of a
Negro in New Orleans suspected of rape and murder, and one sentenced in
Kentucky for rape upon two white women.
Again, a search of _The Liberator_ for 1848 and 1849; Niles’
_Register_, July, 1845-January, 1849; _The Vicksburg Sentinel_, and
_The Augusta_ (Va.) _Democrat_, July, 1846-January, 1849, reveal
but two lynchings: One a Negro “hung by a committee of citizens”
at Bentonville, Arkansas; the other, a white man named Yeoman, in
Florida, for robbery. The latter was given both by Niles’ _Register_
and a book of travel. However, one Negro was sentenced to death in the
South for rape, and ten legally executed, the majority for murder.
As one might naturally expect, _The Liberator_ for 1855 and 1856 shows
several lynchings in the South. At least six Negroes were lynched in
the South during these years,—two for rape (one of whom was burned) and
four for murder (one of whom also was burned). Two of these criminals
were lynched in Arkansas by a mob,—after being acquitted by the
court,—led by the sons of their master, whom they had killed. Two white
men were also lynched: one, in Texas, for stealing Negroes, and the
other, in Missouri, for poisoning a spring. Moreover, eighteen Negroes
were legally executed in the South: two for rape, and nearly all the
others for murder. In addition, seven Negroes were mentioned as under
sentence of death.
A quotation from Bancroft clearly shows that the number of lynchings in
the South at this time hardly compares with the number in the West:
“Out of 535 homicides which occurred in California during the
year 1855,” he says, “there were but seven legal executions
and forty-nine informal ones.”[24:8]
One does not need to go far in order to find the causes of the increase
of lynching in the South after 1850, or for the disorder and commotion
both North and South as well.
In 1850 the Fugitive Slave law was passed. The endeavor to enforce
it gave great impetus to the abolition cause in the North; this
reacted on the South. Indeed, many of the same men who were ready to
hang Garrison in 1835, now became his earnest adherents. This great
change in the feeling of the North opened the way for the enthusiastic
reception of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” when, in 1852, it was published in
book form. The author of this book ingeniously made the isolated and
exceptional incidents of slavery appear as the general condition of the
institution; however, as for the chief character of the book, Uncle
Tom, it is very doubtful whether the pure Negro race ever produced such
an individual. Nevertheless, this piece of fiction was read by hundreds
of thousands both in the North and in foreign countries as if it were
“Gospel truth.”
Another thing that added to the excitement and helped the abolitionists
was the Dred Scott Decision, given in 1857. Then, in 1859, came
“Helpers’ Impending Crisis,” a book of great influence. At last, in
1859, as if to “cap the climax,” the whole country was startled by John
Brown’s Raid. After this, the greater part of the South, suddenly,
became an extremely unhealthful place for both abolitionists and
unruly, criminal, or insurrectionary Negroes.
“The New Reign of Terror,” mentioned above, published early in 1860,
not many months after John Brown’s Raid, has the following, which
indicates the then feeling in the South:
“In almost every city, town, and village south of the
border slave-holding States, Vigilance Committees have been
appointed to put to inquisition every Northern man who makes
his appearance in the place, whether as foe or friend. Even
harmless young women, who have gone from Northern boarding
schools to be teachers of Southern children have been waited
upon by respectable and even clerical gentlemen with the polite
hint that the sooner they leave the State the better for their
safety.”
_The Augusta Dispatch_[25:9] warned the South against “strange loafing
white men, and especially the one-horse invalid preachers from the
North,” for it said:
“We would guard well against imposition from transient ‘candles
of the Lord’ lest we suffer them to light the fires of
insurrection, instead of bearing aloft the light of the Gospel.”
Indeed, in many Southern States there were rumors of Negro
insurrections. In Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama plots of Negro
insurrections were discovered in 1860. In Texas, however, the greatest
excitement prevailed. What was supposed to be a State-wide insurrection
was discovered. Dallas and other towns were partly burned before it was
checked.
The excited state of the public mind in some instances may have
suspected plots of insurrection when none existed. However that may be,
wherever and whenever such a plot was discovered, investigation nearly
always pointed to the abolitionists as the instigators. Indeed, even
when Negroes were insubordinate and refractory on a plantation, it was
often found that they had been tampered with by abolitionists.
Occasionally, when such things were proved against an abolitionist
beyond the possibility of a doubt, he would be immediately hanged
to the limb of some convenient tree. Several were so dealt with in
connection with the insurrection in Texas. As a rule, however, when
the proof was not so conclusive, a severe whipping, or a coat of tar
and feathers, would be given him, and then he would be forcefully
admonished to leave the South.
One cannot but reach the conclusion that the anti-slavery agitation was
detrimental to the happiness and welfare of the slaves, and to the free
Negroes as well. Of the latter there were in the slave States (by the
fifties) something like 225,000. The majority of these were indolent,
miserable, and often vicious. Finally some States passed laws giving
them the option of leaving such State or of being sold into slavery.
Nearly everywhere more stringent regulations and laws[27:10] were made
both for slaves and for free Negroes. The slaves were deprived of
many former privileges, the enjoyment of which by the Negroes might
be dangerous for the white people. They were more closely guarded and
much more harshly dealt with when guilty of offenses or crimes. Indeed,
three Negroes in as many States were burned in 1859 for the murder of
their masters,—one of these was burned before 1,500 or 2,000 people.
Nevertheless, it is quite evident that throughout the period from 1830
to 1860 the lynching of Negroes was sporadic,—and usually was resorted
to only for exceptional reasons. Generally the law was allowed to take
its course. However, it is also plain that after 1850 the law was
relied on less and less, while the people more and more assumed the
initiative in such matters as the excitement increased. What was true
as regards the Negro was undoubtedly true also as regards the treatment
of the abolitionists.
FOOTNOTES:
[10:1] Vol. V, p. 218.
[14:2] _The Liberator_, Dec. 19, 1856.
[16:3] Murray, “Travels in North America,” Vol. I, p. 166.
[18:4] Harriett Martineau, “Retrospect of Western Travel,” pp. 30-1.
[18:5] _Ibid._, “Society in America,” Vol. II, pp. 141-2.
[20:6] G. W. Featherstonhaugh, “Excursion through the Slave States,”
pp. 136-9.
[22:7] In using _The Liberator_ one needs to be careful, for the
same instance is often found to be given two or three different
times,—weeks, even months apart.
[24:8] H. H. Bancroft, “Popular Tribunals,” Vol. I, p. 749.
[25:9] Quoted by _Liberator_, Aug. 24, 1860.
[27:10] The attitude toward both slaves and free Negroes varied
in different Southern States; but as a result of the anti-slavery
agitation, as we approach 1860 the more severe it becomes.