W. H. C.

Reids Grove, Md., January 30, 1918.

Reids Grove, Md.

January 30, 1918.

[9]

[9]

The Truth About Lynching and the Negro in the South

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 [10]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:

[10]

“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 

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