Lynching Argumentative Essay

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Lynching was a popular form of punishment in the southern United States from 1892-1900. Lynching is killing someone without legal trial, often times by hanging. African Americans were subjects of lynching for several different crimes that often times were not even committed. Southern citizens used lynching to intimidate African Americans, causing the freedoms they were allowed to not be easily exercised. Southern whites used lynching to punish African Americans for unjust crimes, scare them from using their freedoms, and to allow the whites to remain in control of the African Americans. Lynching became a popular part of American Culture in the south. Southern whites used lynching because slavery was abolished and whites did not want African Americans to become …show more content…
Lynching was derivative of American culture in the south because southern whites were upset that slavery was abolished. Many southern whites did not want slavery to be abolished, nor did they agree with the fact that slavery was abolished. Slavery being abolished made southern whites feel as if they had lost control of their land, as well as the African Americans living on their land. These southern whites used lynching as a way of gaining back control. Southern whites saw lynching as a powerful tool to control African Americans by punishing for crimes they did not necessarily commit, but were even accused of committing. Lynching was very much a southern way of life. In 1892, Ida B. Wells wrote in The Red Record, “...the majority of the victims of lynchings were African Americans and the majority of lynchings were in the South.” (page 10). Ida B. Wells was born a slave in Mississippi in 1862. Wells was active in journalism, particularly exposing the unjustness performed against African Americans in the South. Southerners used lynching to gain back the control

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