The hangman's knot : lynching, legal execution, and America's struggle with the death penalty

Format:

Book

Title:

The hangman's knot : lynching, legal execution, and America's struggle with the death penalty

Author:

Steelwater, Eliza.

ISBN:

9780813340425

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

ix, 280 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Contents:

Introduction: the hanging of George Woods -- "The right type of case": capital punishment, prisoners without capital, and public support for executions -- The worst of the worst: Puritans, punishment and political power -- "A vast circle of people": authority, public execution, and crowd control -- "Darkness, threatening, ruins, terror": the penitentiary and capital punishment -- The will of the people: early reactions against capital punishment -- Legacy of conquest: Civil War, slavery and the first Ku Klux Klan -- Shivaree: punishment by mob -- "Let each man be his own executioner": rise of San Francisco vigilantes -- Takeover: return of the San Francisco vigilantes -- Boots, bullets, and big bucks: the vigilante myth -- "Beaten all to smash": labor, the Robber Barons, and the law -- "Death and destruction of the system": labor on trial -- White on white terrorism after the Civil War -- "Serving your racial needs": Colonel Simmons's Ku Klux Klan -- "Foreigners and Negroes": discrimination, lynching, and the penalty of death -- A clean, well-lighted place: death penalty reform in the Progressive Era -- "Evolving standards of decency": civil rights and abolition of the death penalty -- The endless end of capital punishment.

Summary:

Traces the history of public execution, arguing that capital punishment is a form of legalized mob lynching and ultimately fails to promote criminal justice.

Subject(s):

Capital punishment -- United States -- History.

Executions and executioners -- United States -- History.

Geographic Term:

United States.

Genre:

History.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Stayton Public Library	364.66 STEELWATER	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Public executions were once commonplace American spectacles. In one instance, Puritan clergymen convicted and executed nineteen people for the "crime" of witchcraft. On the other side of the country many years later, San Francisco's city fathers held "official" vigilante hangings. But today, executions are rigidly controlled bureaucratic procedures authorized by the state. In The Hangman's Knot: Lynching, Legal Execution, and America's Struggle with the Death Penalty , Eliza Steelwater presents a fascinating history of execution in the United States, from colonial times to the present. With a compelling narrative and gripping personal stories, she documents how this debate became one of the most contentious of our time. The author, a veteran death-penalty researcher and co-founder of Project HAL (Historical American Lynching), shows that the answer to the death penalty's future lies in a discussion of its past. Using information from Project HAL and the authoritative Capital Punishment Research Project - including records of over 15,000 legal executions and 4,500 lynchings nationwide - Steelwater delivers a vivid understanding that America's unparalleled and powerful 200-year-old policy of execution as "punishment politics" is alive and well today. Bringing a fresh perspective to the death-penalty debate, she demonstrates that execution has often had less to do with crimes committed than with the political and economic ambitions of those who controlled the punishment system.

Author Notes

Eliza Steelwater, a native of New Orleans, has researched and written about capital punishment for fifteen years, since receiving a four-year Alumni Federation doctoral fellowship to study at Louisiana State University. One of her study sites was the nearby and infamous Angola penitentiary. She is the co-founder of Project HAL, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to collect and provide information about lynchings and legal executions, with the goal of one day eradicating them. She lives in Bloomington, Indiana

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

This is an excellent short history of capital punishment-from Civil War-era lynchings to Illinois Gov. George Ryan's recent commuting of the sentences of that state's death row inmates-written by a fierce death penalty opponent who nonetheless displays an acute sensitivity to the many complexities of this issue. As founder of the nonprofit Project HAL (which tracks executions), and as part of the Capital Punishment Research Project, Steelwater has had access to records of thousands of legal executions, as well as thousands of lynchings. She skillfully and judiciously uses this information to argue that the struggles over the death penalty throughout U.S. history-and especially during three distinct eras of reform and rejection of capital punishment followed by eras of acceptance-are less about making sure that the death penalty is applied equally and more about "our many battles over who's in charge." Steelwater has written a definitive history of the arguments that have been used to justify the use of the death penalty: the early attempt to "politicize punishment" through the creation of penitentiaries and the death penalty; the influence of the Southern festival of shivaree along with the Ku Klux Klan in making lynching acceptable as a way to "express moral judgment," however dubious such judgments were; the influence of the vigilantes in the West, especially San Francisco, on efforts "to justify illegal execution and other lawless acts in the name of a moral crusade, a demonstration of popular sovereignty, or both." (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Library Journal Review

Steelwater, founder of Project HAL (Historical American Lynching) and an opponent of the death penalty, recounts the history of legal and extralegal executions in the United States and seeks an answer to why the death penalty persists here and not in other modern democracies. Using source materials from Project HAL, the Capital Punishment Research Project, newspaper accounts, and records of executions, she describes events and cases, examines thinking for and against the death penalty, and chronicles efforts to end the death penalty. Among the examples of executions (and occasionally, other punishments) she chronicles since medieval times are those of witches, African Americans, labor activists, immigrants, and persons of supposed "low moral character." This is an important, eyeopening book for the information it provides and for connections the author makes. She shows relationships between extralegal punishments (lynching and vigilantism) and court-imposed death sentences and then links executions generally to struggles for economic and political power. Thousands of books have been written on capital punishment. This is one that should be in the collections of every academic, public, and law library.-Mary Jane Brustman, Univ. at Albany Libs. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Dedication	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: The Hanging of George Woods	p. 1
1 "The Right Type of Case" Capital Punishment, Prisoners without Capital, and Public Support for Executions	p. 11
2 The Worst of the Worst: Puritans, Punishment, and Political Power	p. 21
3 "A Vast Circle of People" Authority, Public Execution, and Crowd Control	p. 39
4 "Darkness, Threatening, Ruins, Terror" The Penitentiary and Capital Punishment	p. 51
5 The Will of the People: Early Reactions Against Capital Punishment	p. 63
6 Legacy of Conquest: Civil War, Slavery, and the First Ku Klux Klan	p. 75
7 Shivaree: Punishment by Mob	p. 87
8 "Let Each Man Be His Own Executioner" Rise of the San Francisco Vigilantes	p. 97
9 Takeover: Return of the San Francisco Vigilantes	p. 109
10 Boots, Bullets, and Big Bucks: The Vigilante Myth	p. 121
11 "Beaten All to Smash" Labor, the Robber Barons, and the Law	p. 133
12 "Death and Destruction to the System" Labor on Trial	p. 149
13 White on White Terrorism after the Civil War	p. 161
14 "Serving Your Racial Needs" Colonel Simmons's Ku Klux Klan	p. 171
15 "Foreigners and Negroes" Discrimination, Lynching, and the Penalty of Death	p. 185
16 A Clean, Well-Lighted Place: Death-Penalty Reform in the Progressive Era	p. 203
17 "Evolving Standards of Decency" Civil Rights and Abolition of the Death Penalty	p. 215
18 The Endless End of Capital Punishment	p. 229
Photo Credits	p. 239
Notes	p. 243
Index	p. 273

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Library Journal Review

Table of Contents