Lynching in the New South

Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930

W. Fitzhugh Brundage

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9780252063459
  9780252019876
• eBook ISBN:
  9780252053733
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Lynching 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.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Mobs and Ritual
• 2 “To Draw the Line”: Crimes and Victims
• 3 “When White Men Merit Lynching”
• 4 The Geography of Lynching in Georgia
• 5 The Geography of Lynching in Virginia
• 6 “We Live in an Age of Lawlessness”: The Response to Lynching in Virginia
• 7 The Struggle against Lynching in Georgia, 1880–1910
• 8 Turning the Tide: Opposition to Lynching in Georgia, 1910–30
• Epilogue The Passing of a Tradition
• Appendixes
• Notes
• Index