Primary source exercise #5
Primary source: Ida B. Wells-Barnett, “Lynch Law in America”
1900
Element
Explanation (in your own
words)
Quote/evidence
Key concepts
●​ Jim Crow
●​ Segregation
●​ Black codes
Quotes not required
Author
●​ Ida was an enslaved
woman in Mississippi,
she gained her
freedom and became
an activist
●​ We can consider her
a reliable source of
information.
●​ She is commenting on
the injustices that
were happening in the
south and trying to
make people aware of
what was happening
and how the white
citizens were justifying
this barbaric practice
of lynching.
“It represents the cool,
calculating deliberation of
intelligent people who openly
avow that there is an
“unwritten law” that justifies
them in putting human beings
to death without complaint
under oath, without trial by jury,
without opportunity to make
defense, and without right of
appeal. ..”
Historical context
●​ She is referring to the
unwritten lynching
laws that were part of
the Jim crow laws
●​ She is pointing out
that many times black
men were lynched for
being faslely accused
of insult or assault of
a white woman.
●​ We should recall that
rape of slave women
was very common
“ The result is that many men
have been put to death whose
innocence was afterward
established; and to-day, under
this 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.”
Element
Explanation (in your own
words)
Quote/evidence
and not considered as
a crime. There was
blatant hypocrisy in
their justifications of
lynchings and it
showed that this was
never an issue of
protecting women.
Argument
●​ She is trying to say
that the calculated
murder of mostly
innocent black men
was wrong and
barbaric.
●​ These men that were
lynched had no due
process, they were
never formally
charged for any
crimes. It was white
men and women that
were demonizing
black men and
believing that they
were justified in killing
them in the most
horrible ways
possible. They used
the argument of
protecting women to
justify these
lynchings.
“–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. ”
Significance
●​ This is important
because it documents
some of the lynchings
that occurred in the
south and provides
examples of the
horrible conditions
that these men
endured before their
deaths.
●​ It shows us how white
supremacists beliefs
allowed for the white
“There is, however, this
difference: in those old days
the multitude that stood by was
permitted only to guy or jeer.
The nineteenth century
lynching mob cuts off ears,
toes, and fingers, strips off
flesh, and distributes portions
of the body as souvenirs
among the crowd. If the
leaders of the mob are so
minded, coal-oil is poured over
the body and the victim is then
roasted to death.”
Element
Explanation (in your own
words)
Quote/evidence
Americans to justify
and commit these
heinous crimes
against the black
populations.
●​ She explains that it
was common for white
women to lie about
being assaulted by
black men, and for the
truth to come out after
the men were already
lynched. That less
than ⅓ of these cases
had any merit and the
men were often
proven innocent after
the fact.
●​ This still happens to
this day, it is a trend to
“always believe
women” when it
comes to sexual
assault, and for the
most part, we should
believe women but
there are cases where
women have lied in
attempts to ruin men’s
lives. These women
ruin the feminist
movement and they
make women look
bad, and people are
even more skeptical
when sexual assault
is reported.
Question(s)
●​ I would ask, how she
would feel about the
incarceration rates of
today?
Quotes not required
Reflect
●​ This source solidified
a lot of what I had
learned before. It’s
very sad and hard to
Quotes not required
Element
Explanation (in your own
words)
read about.
●​ Yes, this is a good
source that depicts
the cruelty of lynching
in America. She does
not hold back on the
descriptions of how
these men were
tortured. She recounts
of the public hangings
that took place during
slavery and tells of
how more depraved
the lynchings were in
comparison and that
they were made a
spectale for all the
community to see and
participate in.
●​ It added more depth
to what I knew about
this time period, I was
under the assumption
that it was only men
that participated in the
lynchings but to learn
that they included
most of the town - that
children were let out
of school and work
was stopped so that
everyone can see it…
It just adds more
horror to the already
horrendous truth.
Quote/evidence