At the end of the 19th century, Mine Reed in his "Headless Horseman" very vividly described the massacre of the mob over the alleged criminal. Readers felt sorry for the victim and bewildered at the trial without any consequence.
Lynching took place in other countries, but only in the United States have become widespread. The country, dictating the image of a democratic society to the world, shyly closed its eyes and turned its head away when its citizens were beaten, tortured, hanged and burned.
Lynching - what is it? Why is this possible in a “free” country?
Definition of concept
Researchers of this issue give two definitions:
- Lynch law is a set of unspoken rules that gave the authority to lynch. Everyone who wants to commit lynching decides for himself whether he has the right to do so. Sometimes even the apparent innocence of the convict could not stop the angry mob.
- Lynching - brutal corporal punishment, torture or killing of a person without investigation and sentencing by officialcourt.
Some scholars believe that lynching was not an American invention. This ruthless violence arrived in the New World on English ships and at the right time surfaced and took root on fertile ground.
Dousing a recalcitrant Scot with hot tar, throwing it in feathers and driving soldiers away under the hooting is the most common pastime of English gentlemen. Thus they defended the right to be masters in a foreign country. And no one cared that the victim of "innocent fun" died from burns.
Background
A lot of unrest brought the Civil War in the United States. The northern and southern states pursued different goals. The former longed for democracy, rights, industrial development of the country. The planters of the south did not want to give up ownership of land and people, to share profits, to obey other people's orders.
The outcome of the war was the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution and countless bewildered former slaves. As a rule, these were blacks. Many did not want liberation at all. They were deprived of a roof over their heads, free food, clothes, and most importantly, a guaranteed job that gave them the right to everything else.
During the four years of confrontation, the economy of the South has fallen into decay. Cities are destroyed, plantations are trampled, orchards are burned, cattle are eaten or stolen. We althy residents tried to get away from the horrors of war, many died on the battlefield.
Deserts, unemployed, beggars raided farms in search of food. Former slaves begged for work and shelter andprotection, but the owners themselves survived as best they could, and no one needed extra mouths.
The united new government didn't care about the needs of free citizens. They were occupied with solving higher problems than arranging the fate of former slaves.
To protect the lives of their loved ones and preserve the remnants of property, the southerners who returned from the war took the solution of the problem into their own hands. There was only one thing left for them - to arbitrarily administer the lynching. What is it - an attempt to improve the justice system, to help the country be cleansed of thieves and body bugs, or a brutal murder? The government tacitly encouraged this behavior.
Founding Fathers
The founders of American lynching are two people with the same last name Lynch.
One was in the military and established his court during the War of Independence, thus trying to maintain order and fight enemies and criminals. Charles Lynch's trial was quick, but as fair as possible in wartime. The accused was given the right to argue his innocence.
The second is a planter from the south, William Lynch. It fell to his lot to restore order after the end of the Civil War. His victims were exclusively blacks. Some of the former slaves, in their own way, understood the meaning of the word "freedom" and openly entered into confrontation with the whites. Most simply wandered around without work and traded in petty robbery and theft.
The lynching was the deterrent. What is it - cruel reprisal against the innocent or protection of one's ownfamily and property? Now, after a century and a half, it is difficult to objectively understand.
Defenders and opponents of lynching still cannot come to a consensus. It is difficult to understand and evaluate each specific case. The current US judicial system of that time would hardly have been able to cope on its own with that rampant crime and tyranny.
Followers of the Lynch
The stormy activities of the founding fathers not only received the tacit approval of the citizens and the government, but also generated followers. From the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, groups of people united by one idea appeared here and there in the United States. The main purpose of these organizations is to administer a lynching. What is it - a way of self-expression, racial hatred or entertainment for bored gentlemen?
Let's try to answer these questions on the example of the activities of the largest and most famous formations. Each of them adhered to certain rules, had its own structure, ideological inspirer.
Ku Klux Klan Founding
The biggest lynching movement was the Ku Klux Klan. Started for fun, the organization left the bloodiest mark in US history.
In 1865, Confederate war veterans, scions of the best families in Tennessee, gathered at the local courthouse for Christmas. The six former officers were in a state of confusion.
The US Civil War is over. The Confederates fought for their foundations, but were defeated and now were in the status of humiliated and persecuted. At that time thosethose who supported the interests of the southerners had fewer rights than the blacks freed from slavery.
Peaceful life was full of boring everyday problems that had to be solved in order to continue what their ancestors did in their native land.
Who first came up with the idea to organize a secret society is not known for certain. But the idea was expressed, and young men, bored with concrete actions, picked it up. This is how the "Brotherhood of the Golden Circle" appeared, which was very soon renamed the "Clan of the Circle". For greater secrecy, they began to use the abbreviation KKK. There was a hint of magic in the three identical letters.
The Ku Klux Klan sounded like the rattling of skeletal bones. Immediately there was a proposal to cover the horses with white blankets, and to dress up in overalls with slits for the eyes.
The organization grew, the fun games ended. One of the new members offered to administer justice. The secret society decides to liberate the South from the presumptuous feds and unbridled blacks.
Numerous lynchings have begun. Blacks were hanged or burned without much conversation, and a ritual was invented for whites. A noose for hanging was put on the neck of the accused, and the accusations were read to him. The victim was not given much choice. Either plead guilty and comply with the demands, or the noose will tighten.
The government took care to isolate the founders of the KKK, but failed to completely stop the persecution of blacks.
Subsequent KKK revivals
Secondthe wave of the Ku Klux Klan rose a quarter of a century later. A wave of lynching swept across America, people in pointed white caps and robes acted as judges and executioners.
In the second decade of the 20th century, clan members stopped killing. Now they used whips and resin with feathers. The government actively opposed lynching. The perpetrators were denounced in the press and publicly reprimanded, but the law banning lynching was never passed.
As soon as America began to defend the rights of blacks or members of other minorities, people with covered white faces immediately appeared and crosses began to glow.
In the seventies, the "KKK" officially declared itself for the last time. But it was more like using attributes to remove objectionable politicians and economic competitors.
The John Birch Society
Another group of like-minded people for the return of Christian traditions and values. The persecution was directed against the actions of the government, the settlement of states by immigrants, communist ideas.
Society is considered the most anemic, but at the same time numerous. From 1958 to 1961, the number of official members grew from 12 to 100,000.
With branches all over the country, the leadership could simultaneously organize manifestos in different cities, show trials of public censure, lobby for government bills.
Ultimately, everything was ruined by the head of the society, Welch, who by that time had paranoid ideas about a worldwide communist conspiracy. Attemptremove Welch from leadership failed. Gradually, the activity became less and less advertised, until it completely passed into the corridors of power.
Jim Crow laws
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a number of legislative acts were passed in the United States regarding the separation of people by skin color. So they called them "Jim Crow Laws". A person with that name did not exist in real life. It was a theatrical character of a poorly dressed, illiterate Negro. Subsequently, all blacks began to be called by this name.
The laws provided for people with different skin colors a scheme of parallel life. They were divided into racial camps, and when a Negro wandered by mistake to where he was forbidden to be, he was awaited by execution. Hanging was one of the most humane ways.
Usually, the victim was mocked for a long time, beaten, stoned, burned. The family members of the accused or those who dared to save him or intercede could fall under the distribution.
The rampage lasted for almost half a century until the government and the court recognized Jim Crow laws as contrary to the US Constitution.
U. S. government and lynching
Franklin Roosevelt once refused to openly fight the lynching, as he was afraid of losing votes.
Harry Truman has spent a lot of effort and years explaining to Americans the dangers of lynching. Attempts ended with a notification that “there is no such thing anymore” in the country.
It turns out that lynching in the United States is a consequence of a failed legal and judicial system and criminal connivancegovernment? How often, because of the venality of judges, criminals were acquitted, and an innocent person ended up in the dock?
For centuries, the desires and whims of we althy people have been supported. As a rule, they got away with everything: lynching, brawls, buying senators and judges. It seems that for a person with money there are no restrictions in actions.
US law provides for some types of the death pen alty for crimes of varying degrees of complexity, but in all history not a single vigilante has answered with his life for death.
US lynching victims
Respectable Americans managed to lynch about six thousand people in 50 years. In some states, reprisals without trial or investigation turned into entertainment events. Families came to the execution. The presence of children and pregnant women did not bother anyone.
It was customary to make postcards with lynch scenes. Such congratulations were sent on Easter, Christmas, name day. Anyone could fall under lynching: a black man, a white man, a Jew, a Mexican. No distinction was made between men and women, not even pregnancy was taken into account. And belonging to the communists or trade unions often cost lives.
Angry mobs destroyed prisons, set fire to houses, kidnapped their victims. In each individual case, the authorities were powerless. However, their inaction can be considered a silent approval of the deeds of vigilantes.
I would like to dwell on two egregious atrocities in more detail. In one, an animal was lynched, and in the othertook the life of an innocent man.
Animal lynching
At the beginning of the 20th century, few people were surprised by the killing of a person on someone's whim. Life, especially for a black man, was cheap. Therefore, the fact that the animal was lynched has attracted close attention.
Distinguished residents of Tennessee. The circus troupe, who came on tour, used an elephant named Mary in their numbers. During the entrance to the arena, the animal rebelled against the cruel treatment of her. A circus worker was injured, although some sources claim that the enraged elephant trampled many more people.
The spectators, who were quick to kill, shot the animal with revolvers, which angered her even more. The news of the killer elephant instantly spread throughout the city. The sheriff was demanded an immediate execution, but he limited himself to putting Mary in a cage.
Residents of the surrounding towns gathered in anticipation of a funny spectacle. The uncontrolled crowd became more and more inflamed. Threats rained down on the owners of the circus. People (or nonhumans?) burned fires all night and demanded immediate reprisal.
In the morning, the unfortunate elephant was hung from a construction crane. And it was possible to do it only the second time. A crowd of several thousand people sang and danced as if it were not an animal hanging in front of them, but a Christmas tree shining with lights.
Lynched by mistake
Man has invented various types of the death pen alty during his existence. Some were used to establish the truth, others - to intimidate and subjugate. mostlynching is an outrageous reprisal concocted by a beast called man, especially when an innocent person is the victim.
Georgia factory manager Leo Frank was sentenced to death for raping and murdering a minor. The prosecution was based on the testimony of one person.
The state governor for some reason considered this punishment too harsh and replaced the execution with life imprisonment. Residents of the city were outraged by this decision. The crowd broke into the prison, recaptured Frank from the police and dragged him through the city, hanging him near the grave of the raped girl.
70 years have passed, and the lynched criminal has become the victim of a slander. There was another witness, intimidated by a real rapist almost to death. He dared to tell the truth 10 years after the killer's death.
Leo Frank was acquitted, and his relatives received compensation, but this act does not justify either the residents of the city, who are quick to reprisal, or the representatives of the legitimate authorities who allowed the lynching.
Most recently, the US Senate expressed sincere regret that the government allowed lynchings in the country, and apologized to the victims, promising not to allow such cruel dramas.
Probably, the matter will never come to the adoption of the law. Not even an African American president would dare to do that. The entire gold reserve of Fort Knox is not enough to compensate the descendants of people executed by the lynching.
