CARNIVAL OF BLOOD
Dueling, Lynching, and Murder in South Carolina,
1880–1920
John Hammond Moore
Carnival of Blood presents the often disturbing history of changes in homicidal
tendencies in South Carolina over four formative decades on the cusp of our modern
era. In his investigation into murder and death in the Palmetto State, John Hammond Moore identifies three specific trends that emerged during the period from
1880 to 1920—the demise of dueling, the rise and fall of lynching, and the proliferation of murder. Moore details specific incidents, ranging from the notorious to the
relatively unknown, and questions why more stringent steps were not taken during
those decades to curb the mayhem.
Revisiting one of the nation’s last formal duels, Moore recounts details of the CashShannon meeting of July 1880 and the ensuing circle of carnage that left nine dead.
He explores the circumstances that prompted duels and the reasons for their eventual
disappearance.
In his history of lynching, Moore describes the role politicians such as Ben Tillman
and Cole Blease played in encouraging the lynching mentality, and he uncovers the
underlying forces that pushed white South Carolinians to whip, hang, and otherwise
brutalize African Americans. His adroit investigation of published and unpublished
sources of information gives readers the best extant view of the number of lynchings
in South Carolina, the perceived reasons for their occurrences, and their public or
private circumstances.
As dueling and lynching waned, murder and manslaughter escalated. Moore finds
that, although South Carolinians may have armed themselves for racially motivated
reasons, they were more likely to use their weapons on wives, husbands, lovers, and
random strangers of like skin color rather than on people of other races. Examples
range from sensational murder cases of the era, such as the killing of Charleston Post
and Courier editor Francis Dawson, to boisterous shoot-outs and bizarre crimes
involving children, food, and game play.
A compendium of deadly crimes and the social trends that surrounded them, Carnival of Blood invites further inquiry into South Carolina’s violent transition from the
nineteenth to the twentieth century.
John Hammond Moore has held
teaching positions at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina;
Georgia State University in Atlanta;
and Macquarie University in Sydney,
Australia. His numerous publications include Columbia and Richland
County: A South Carolina Community,
1740–1990 and A Plantation Mistress
on the Eve of the Civil War: The Diary
of Keziah Goodwyn Hopkins Brevard,
1860–1861.
May 2006, 304 pages, 18 illus.
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