Popular Justice: A History of Lynching in America (American Ways)

Lynching has often been called "America's national crime" that has defined the tradition of extralegal violence in America. Having claimed many thousand victims, "Judge Lynch" holds a firm place in the dark recesses of our national memory. In Popular Justice , Manfred Berg explores the history of lynching from the colonial era to the present. American lynch law, he argues, has rested on three pillars: the frontier experience, racism, and the anti-authoritarian spirit of grassroots democracy. Berg looks beyond the familiar story of mob violence against African American victims, who comprised the majority of lynch targets, to include violence targeting other victim groups, such as Mexicans and the Chinese, as well as many of those cases in which race did not play a role. As he nears the modern era, he focuses on the societal changes that ended lynching as a public spectacle. Berg's narrative concludes with an examination of lynching's legacy in American culture. From the colonial era and the American Revolution up to the twenty-first century, lynching has been a part of our nation's history. Manfred Berg provides us with the first comprehensive overview of "popular justice." Lynching has often been called "America's national crime" that has defined the tradition of extralegal violence in America. Having claimed many thousand victims, "Judge Lynch" holds a firm place in the dark recesses of our national memory. In this book the author explores the history of lynching from the colonial era to the present. American lynch law, he argues, has rested on three pillars: the frontier experience, racism, and the anti-authoritarian spirit of grassroots democracy. He looks beyond the familiar story of mob violence against African American victims, who comprised the majority of lynch targets, to include violence targeting other victim groups, such as Mexicans and the Chinese, as well as many of those cases in which race did not play a role. As he nears the modern era, he focuses on the societal changes that ended lynching as a public spectacle. His narrative concludes with an examination of lynching's legacy in American culture. From the colonial era and the American Revolution up to the twenty-first century, lynching has been a part of our nation's history. The author here provides us with the first comprehensive overview of "popular justice." Manfred Berg traces the history of lynching in America from the colonial era to the present. Berg focuses on lynching as extralegal communal punishment performed by "ordinary" people. He confronts racially fragmented historical memory and legacies of popular justice to help the reader make better sense of lynching as part of American history. Berg analyses lynching cases with victims ranging from African American men to white women to cattle rustlers as he explores the concepts of "frontier justice" and "popular justice." The roots of lynching in Colonial and Revolutionary North America The rising tide of lynch-law in Antebellum America Frontier justice Lynching, riots, and political terror in the Civil War era "Indescribable barbarism": the lynching of African Americans in the age of Jim Crow Popular justice beyond black and white The struggle against lynching From lynching to hate crime.