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.