Slavery In The Jim Crow South

Due to the reformulation of slavery into the convict leasing system in the Jim Crow South, emancipation arguably did not end the economic imperative of captive Black labor. Confronted with the new population of free(d) Black people, however, former slaveholders presumably no longer had a personal economic investment for keeping Black folks alive. Whereas during enslavement, white slaveholders controlled the Black population through physical violence and the threat of death, intentional killing of enslaved people was rare because it represented a loss of property. Thus, in order to maintain white dominance in the antebellum South, former slaveholders and other white Southerners sought new ways to control the Black population. One such method

The accusations of Black insurrection and riots were obviously fabricated to justify the mass killing of Black communities because no white people were ever harmed during the rioting while “[between] 1864-1872, hundreds of colored men and women were mercilessly murdered [for] being alleged participants in an insurrection or riot.” Despite the continued attacks on Black communities by white people, Black people did not enact violence in either riots or insurrections. Thus, the race riot excuse expired, but racism is transformative. Because lynching could no longer serve the alleged purpose of preventing race riots, white Southerners needed a new excuse to lynch Black folks. The second function lynching served was to prevent “Negro Domination” after Black men gained the right to vote. A number of Black men were successfully elected into public office in the years directly following the passage of the 15th amendment, which threatened the political dominance of white men. White Southerners used murder and intimidation to prevent Black men from voting and, thus, from further maintaining or gaining political power. Within several years, Black men were successfully disenfranchised again as they could not safely vote or run for office. A third iteration of lynching served the purpose of protecting the constructed sanctity of white womanhood. Accusing Black men of sexaully assaulting white women, provided a third excuse to lynch Black men. One of the most famous cases of lynching to prevent or avenge interracial sex is the murder of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till who was lynched for allegedly asking a white woman on a date. This excuse for lynching has particular gender implications because it illuminates the ways in which constructions of white womanhood are foundationally connected to the criminalization and