Primary Source Assignment

This is what a typical article might look like from the Revel primary source assignments. Scroll down to see the essay that is written as an example.

IDA B. WELLS
FROM “Lynch Law in America” (1900)

While Progressives helped improve the lives of immigrants, convince Congress to provide the vote for women, and establish national parks, they did little to address the surge of racism that welled up at the turn of the century. Throughout the South during the 1890s, state after state passed laws effectively disenfranchising
African Americans and instituting statutory segregation of public facilities. The most vicious manifestation of this new racism was the vigilante lynching of blacks accused of various crimes. On average, over 100 African Americans were lynched each year, most of them in the South. An investigative journalist, Ida Wells, born a slave in 1862, organized in the early twentieth century a national crusade against lynching. Despite her efforts it would be another generation before Congress addressed the issue. Comment by Knode, Hollis: This paragraph in italics contains contextual information – what is going on that might pertain to the article at hand.
From “Lynch Law in America,” Arena 23 (January 1900): 15-24

Our country’s national crime is lynching. It is not the creature of an hour, the sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury, or the unspeakable brutality of an insane mob. It represents the cool, calculating deliberation of an intelligent people who openly avow that there is an “unwritten law” that justifies them in putting to death without complaint under oath, without trial by jury, without opportunity to make defense, without right of appeal….
The alleged menace of universal suffrage having been avoided by the absolute suppression of the negro vote, the spirit of mob murder should have been satisfied and the butchery of negroes should have ceased. But men, women, and children were the victims of murder by individuals and murder by mobs, just as they had been when killed at the demands of the “unwritten law” to prevent “negro domination.” Negroes were killed for disputing over terms of contracts with their employers. If a few barns were burned some colored man was killed to stop it. If a colored man resented the imposition of a white man and the two come to blows, the colored man had to die, either at the hands of the white man then and there or later at the hands of the mob that speedily gathered. If he showed a spirit of courageous manhood he was hanged for his pains, and the killing was justified by the declaration that he was a “saucy nigger.” Colored women have been murdered because they refused to tell the mobs where relatives could be found for “lynching bees.” Boys of fourteen years have been lynched by white representatives of American civilization. In fact, for all kinds of offenses – and for no offenses – from murders to misdemeanors, men and women are put to death without judge or jury; so that although the political excuse was no longer necessary, the wholesale murder of human beings went on just the same. A new name was given to the killings and a new excuse was invented for doing so.
Again the aid of the “unwritten law” is invoked, and again it comes to the rescue. During the last ten years a new statute has been added to the “unwritten law.” This statute proclaims that for certain crimes or alleged crimes no negro shall be allowed a trial; that no white woman shall be compelled to charge an assault under oath or to submit any such charge to the investigation of a court of law. The result is that many men have been put to death whose innocence was afterward established; and today, under the reign of the “unwritten law,” no colored man, no matter what his reputation, is safe from lynching if a white woman, no matter what her standing or motive, cares to charge him with insult or assault.
It is considered a sufficient excuse and reasonable justification to put a prisoner to death under this “unwritten law” for the frequently repeated charge that these lynching horrors are necessary to prevent crimes against women. The sentiment of the country has been appealed to, in describing the isolated condition of white families in thickly populated negro districts; and the charge is made that these homes are in as great danger as if they were surrounded by wild beasts. And the world has accepted this theory without let or hindrance. In many cases, there has been open expression that the fate meted out to the victim was only what he deserved. In many other instances there has been a silence that says more forcibly than words can proclaim it that it is right and proper that a human being should be seized by a mob and burned to death upon the unsworn and uncorroborated charge of his accuser. No matter that our laws presume every man innocent until proved guilty; no matter that it encourages those criminally disposed to blacken their faces and commit any crime in the calendar so long as they can throw suspicion on some negro as is frequently done, and then lead the mob to take his life; no matter that mobs make a farce of the law and a mockery of justice; no matter that hundreds of boys are being hardened in crime and schooled in vice by the repetition of such scenes before their eyes – if a white woman declares herself insulted or assaulted, some life must pay the penalty, with all the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition and all the barbarism of the Middle Ages. The world looks on and says it is well.
* * *

Quite a number of the one-third alleged cases of assault that have been personally investigated by the writer have shown that there was no foundation in fact for the charges; yet the claim is not made that there were no real culprits among them. The negro has been too long associated with the white man not to have copied his vices as well as his virtues. But the negro resents and utterly repudiates the effort to blacken his good name by asserting that assaults suffered far more from the commission of this crime against the women of his race by white men than the white race has ever suffered through his crimes. Very scant notice is taken of the matter when this is the condition of affairs. What becomes a crime deserving capital punishment when the tables are turned is a matter of small moment when the negro woman is the accusing party….

Review Questions: Comment by Knode, Hollis: There will be similar questions at the end of each primary source in Revel. Depending upon the questions, you can answer them all in a paragraph or take a paragraph for each. Some work well together and some need to be in separate paragraphs.

1. According to Wells, what rights were denied to accused blacks?

2. What was one of the most common charges leveled against black men? In what way did this reveal a double standard?

Hollis Knode Comment by Knode, Hollis: Name, Class and Class period (AHS 2nd 3rd or 4th, OR if you are an online class, just 1302 ONLINE is fine)
History 1301
2nd Period AHS

Lynch Law in America Comment by Knode, Hollis: Your title should be the title of the article you just read.

The primary source article “Lynch Law in America,” written by Ida B. Wells, is a magazine article that was published in 1900 for the general public. Though slavery had been made illegal after the Civil War, by 1900 African Americans were being disenfranchised, segregation laws had been passed in the South, and the lynching of African Americans was rampant. Ida B. Wells was an investigative journalist who made it her priority to organize a national crusade against lynching. Comment by Knode, Hollis: Questions 1, 2 and 3 on prewriting sheet – put things into context! Also include the article name and author.
In her article, she calls lynching a national crime, and claims that there is an “unwritten law” that justifies and allows white people to put African Americans to death without any kind of trial. She gives numerous examples of African Americans being brutally murdered for “all kinds of offenses – and for no offenses.” Especially for certain specific crimes, she writes, the “unwritten law” called for no trial. Specifically, when a white woman claimed that she was insulted or assaulted by a black man, there was rarely a trial. The man accused was usually “brought to justice” by a mob. In many cases, there were men who were killed whose innocence was established after the fact. Wells explains that the horror of lynching is often justified by saying that it is “necessary to prevent crimes against women.” Part of the justification for this in the South is that in many areas, the white population is much smaller than the black population, so it is intimated that these white families are in great danger. Sometimes the sentiment is that the victim of the lynch mob “got what he deserved,” but often, Wells points out, there is simply silence, which essentially means acceptance of the crime. People do not consider the fact that national law presumes every man innocent until proven guilty. That does not apply in these cases. Wells points out that studies have shown that attacks on white women were far more likely to made by white men, though little notice is taken of those crimes. Lastly, when an African American woman is the accusing party, once again, very little notice is taken. Comment by Knode, Hollis: Summary of article (Question 4 on prewriting sheet). Note that a summary is at the VERY least, five good, long sentences. It is not, however, the same length or longer than the actual document.
According to Wells, the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty, to have an investigation of the matter, and to have a trial by jury are all rights in the United States that are denied to accused blacks. One of the most common charges leveled against black men was that of insulting or assaulting a white woman. This was a double standard because if a white man insulted or assaulted a white woman, there was no lynch mob, and if a black woman accused someone of insulting or assaulting her person, very little notice was taken. Comment by Knode, Hollis: Question 5 on prewriting sheet. This can be more than one paragraph if the questions on your document need separate attention.
This article was written by an African American woman who had firsthand knowledge of what was going on around her. Her goal was to get people to realize how horrible lynching was, and to get legislation passed to help end it. As an African American woman, she did have a bias because of her status in society, which was basically as a second class citizen at that time. She may have known people personally who had been lynched, or known family members or friends of people who had been lynched. This definitely gives her a bias. However, it does not make her unreliable. In this case, I would say she was more reliable than most. Her information can be verified, and her opinion is definitely a point of view that would not have received much attention at the time, being African American and a woman at the turn of the century. Comment by Knode, Hollis: Question 6 on prewriting sheet. NOTE that EVERYONE is biased in some way; however, bias is not necessarily bad. It is just something that you must consider when evaluating their words.