Legal and extralegal executions in the American South -- Lethal punishment in Tennessee and Florida -- Eleven lynchings for every execution: lethal punishment in northwest Tennessee -- "There can be nothing but death": lethal punishment for rape in Shelby County, Tennessee -- "The first time a charge like this has ever been tried in the courts": the end of lynching in Marion County, Florida -- The mob and the law: mock trials by mobs and sham legal trials -- "The first duty of a government": lynching and the fear of anarchy -- When the mob ruled: the lynching of Ell Persons -- Prevented lynchings: white intervention and black resistance -- "No reason why we should favor lynching or hanging": efforts to end legal and extralegal executions in Tennessee
Summary
Why did some offenses in the South end in mob lynchings while similar crimes led to legal executions? Why did still other cases have nonlethal outcomes? In this well-researched and timely book, Margaret Vandiver explores the complex relationship between these two forms of lethal punishment, challenging the assumption that executions consistently grew out of-and replaced-lynchings
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-273) and index
