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"The United States of Lyncherdom " is an essay by Mark Twain written in 1901.[1] He wrote it in response to the mass lynchings in Pierce City, Missouri , of Will Godley, his grandfather French Godley, and Eugene Carter (also known as Barrett). The three African Americans were accused in the rape and murder there of Gazelle Wild (or Casselle Wilds) on August 19, 1901,[2] Twain blamed lynching in the United States on the herd mentality that prevails among Americans .[1] Twain decided that the country was not ready for the essay, and shelved it.[1]
A redacted version was published in 1923, when Twain's literary executor, Albert Bigelow Paine , slipped it into a posthumous collection, Europe and Elsewhere .[1] In his essay, Twain noted two law enforcement officials who had intervened and prevented lynchings in early 20th-century America. They were Sheriff Joseph Merrill of Carroll County, Georgia ,[3] and Thomas Beloat of Gibson County, Indiana .[3]
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Before 1900 1900–1940 After 1940
Multiple victims
Death of Joseph Smith (Joseph Smith , Hyrum Smith ) (1844)
Marais des Cygnes, KS, massacre (1858)
Great Hanging at Gainesville, TX (1862)
New York City draft riots (1863)
Detroit race riot (1863)
? Lachenais and four others (1863)
Fort Pillow, TN, massacre (1864)
Plummer Gang (1864)
Memphis massacre (1866)
Gallatin County, KY, race riot (1866)
New Orleans massacre of 1866
Reno Brothers Gang (1868)
Camilla, GA, massacre (1868)
Steve Long and two half-brothers (1868)
Pulaski, TN, riot (1868)
Samuel Bierfield and Lawrence Bowman (1868)
Opelousas, LA, massacre (1868)
Bear River City riot (1868)
Chinese massacre of 1871
Meridian, MS, race riot (1871)
Colfax, LA, massacre (1873)
Election riot of 1874 (AL)
Juan, Antonio, and Marcelo Moya (1874)
Benjamin and Mollie French (1876)
Ellenton, SC, riot (1876)
Hamburg, SC, massacre (1876)
Thibodeax, LA, massacre (1878)
Mart and Tom Horrell (1878)
Nevlin Porter and Johnson Spencer (1879)
Elijah Frost, Abijah Gibson, Tom McCracken (1879)
T.J. House, James West, John Dorsey (1880)
New Orleans 1891 lynchings (1891)
Ruggles Brothers (CA) (1892)
Thomas Moss, Henry Stewart, Calvin McDowell (TN) (1892)
Porter and Spencer (MS) (1897)
Phoenix, SC, election riot (1898)
Wilmington, NC, insurrection (1898)
Julia and Frazier Baker (1898)
Pana, IL, riot (1899)
Watkinsville lynching (1905)
Atlanta race riot (1906)
Kemper County, MS (1906)
Walker family (1908)
Springfield race riot of 1908
Slocum, TX, massacre (1910)
Laura and L.D. Nelson (1911)
Harris County, GA, lynchings (1912)
Newberry, FL, lynchings (1916)
East St. Louis, IL, riots (1917)
Lynching rampage in Brooks County, GA (1918)
Jenkins County, GA, riot (1919)
Longview, TX, race riot (1919)
Elaine, AR, race riot (1919)
Omaha race riot of 1919
Knoxville riot of 1919
Red Summer (1919)
Duluth, MN, lynchings (1920)
Ocoee, FL, massacre (1920)
Tulsa race massacre (1921)
Perry, FL, race riot (1922)
Rosewood, FL, massacre (1923)
Jim and Mark Fox (1927)
Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith (1930)
Tate County, MS (1932)
Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes (1933)
Roosevelt Townes and Robert McDaniels (1937)
Beaumont, TX, Race Riot (1943)
O'Day Short, wife, and two children (1945)
Moore's Ford, GA, lynchings (1946)
Harry and Harriette Moore (1952)
Anniston, AL (1961)
Freedom Summer Murders (James Chaney , Andrew Goodman , Michael Schwerner ) (1964)
Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore (1964)
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