The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916

by William D. Carrigan

On May 15, 1916, a crowd of 15,000 witnessed the lynching of an 18-year-old black farm worker. Most central Texans of the time failed to call for the punishment of the mob's leaders. This work seeks to explain how a culture of violence that nourished this practice could form and endure for so long among ordinary people.

Genres: History

308 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2004

About the author

William D. Carrigan is Professor of History at Rowan University. A native Texan, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993. In 1999, he earned his PhD in American history from Emory University and joined the faculty in the Department of History at Rowan. In addition to publishing numerous scholarly essays, he is the author or editor of four books, including The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916 (University of Illinois Press, 2004), winner of the Richard Wentworth Prize. Since 1995, he has been collaborating with Clive Webb and studying the lynching of Mexicans in the United States. With the support of grants and fellowships from numerous institutions, including the Huntington, the National Science Foundation, and the Clements Center, they have published four essays on the subject as well as Forgotten Dead: Mob Violence against Mexicans in the United States, 1848-1928 (Oxford University Press, 2013). Professor Carrigan’s research has been cited in numerous publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Houston Chronicle. With his wife and two daughters, he lives in Glassboro, New Jersey.

Reviews

[Tanweer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very visceral and good read

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

well this sure wasn't part of the curriculum for my 7th grade texas history class

[Charles Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about racial violence. Carrigan argues that "historical memory" of violence in Texas contributed (contributes) to the state's horrifying record of racial violence. How and why did central Texans (the book focuses on seven counties around Waco, TX) come to embrace mob violence, vigilantism, and lynching as a means to ensuring the social order? First, the "frontier experience," where whites were the "victims" of predatory Native Americans, and who responded with violence and murder to eventually expel the Indians. Second, the history of racial slavery (and the slave patrol) shaped the region's culture of violence for decades. Third, whites responded to minority resistance with mob violence. Fourth, and maybe most importantly, the idea of "sovereignty;" that is, the (white) peoples rights to exact justice, the will of the majority, and the legal system and law enforcement's failure to act or outright complicity in lynching.

This is a powerful, logical, and well-presented argument. It is not for the faint-of-heart. Carrigan is an excellent historian, researcher, writer. The force of his evidence and the compassion of his prose combine to make this an unforgettable read. Maybe one of the most important social histories of Texas and the nation from Reconstruction to the Great Depression.

[John Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep look at a little known part of Texas history. Well written and well researched.

[Jim Potter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a long time ago that when horse thieves of any ethnicity or race were captured in the American Frontier, especially the American West, many met their maker at the end of a rope, hanging from a tree. I was also aware that the Ku Klux Klan terrorized people, especially Blacks, by intimidation that included lynching.
Thanks to William D. Carrigan, author of The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas,1836-1916, I have a better understanding of how and why white Americans tolerated extreme violence in their communities. In central Texas, lynching was acceptable when the powerful white majority perceived a threat to their political, economic, or social authority.
After reading Carrigan’s meticulously researched and skillfully written book, I have a much better understanding how the act of mob violence was accepted as a way of securing “justice” despite its brutality.
Targets of lynchings by vigilantes in central Texas after the Civil War started with whites, then concentrated on Blacks, and finally, Mexican immigrants.
I especially appreciated author Carrigan examining people who had the courage to stand up to vigilantes who attempted—and sometimes succeeded—to stop lynchings.
As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
--Reviewed by Jim Potter

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched and compelling in its argument about the role of memory in history. I can’t say I’m surprised at the history I learned about regarding Central Texas, but I really appreciated the parts that focused on black resistance beyond flight, an area not too often mentioned.