[238]. Evidence for this statement has been presented above. See Chapter IV.
[239]. Outlook, Dec. 26, 1903 (75: 984).
[240]. Outlook, Dec. 26, 1903 (75: 984).
[241]. Outlook, Dec. 26, 1903 (75: 984).
[242]. See p. 200 of monograph “The Negro in Africa and America,” referred to above. That this crime is of recent origin is either stated or assumed by almost every writer who discusses the lynching of negroes. See, for example, article by Thomas Nelson Page in The North American Review, January, 1904 (178: 33).
[243]. From a study of the prison statistics furnished by the United States census, Professor Walter F. Willcox came to the positive conclusion that “a large and increasing amount of negro crime is manifested all over the country.”—See an address on “Negro Criminality,” delivered before the American Social Science Association, on Sept. 6, 1899—“Journal of Proceedings,” No. 37, p. 97.
A like opinion is expressed by many writers. See, for example, Forum, October, 1898 (16: 167); Outlook, Oct. 31, 1903 (75: 493); Outlook, Dec. 26, 1903 (75: 984).
[244]. For a number of references on the subject of rape and its punishment, and also on the subject of burning alive as a legal punishment for crime, during the colonial period, the writer is indebted to Mr. Albert Matthews.
[245]. “Acts of Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania” (1775), pp. 45–46.
On May 5, 1722, it became the law of Pennsylvania that importers of servants who have been convicted of rape must pay a duty and enter security for good behavior for one year.—Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, III, 264.