[41] In 1902 one Indian was lynched.
[42] For an interesting study of the early history of lynching and its causes, see note, p. 86.
[43] For outrages in Arkansas, see “Brooks-Baxter War.”
[44] Mr. Matthews points out that though rape existed and was frequently legislated against during the Colonial period, he cannot find between 1676 and 1825 a single instance of the illegal punishment of the crime.
[45] It is significant that, on large plantations where the Negroes, though in large numbers, are still in the position of old plantation servants, the crime of assault is almost unknown.
[46] The following table is from the Chicago Tribune. The number of legal executions in 1900 was 118, as compared with 131 in 1899, 109 in 1898, 128 in 1897, 122 in 1896, 132 in 1895, 132 in 1894, 126 in 1893, and 107 in 1892. The executions in the several States and Territories were in 1900 as follows:
| Alabama | 4 | New York | 3 |
| Arkansas | 0 | Nevada | 0 |
| California | 5 | North Carolina | 9 |
| Colorado | 0 | North Dakota | 1 |
| Connecticut | 1 | Ohio | 1 |
| Delaware | 0 | Oregon | 1 |
| Florida | 1 | Pennsylvania | 15 |
| Georgia | 14 | Rhode Island | 0 |
| Idaho | 2 | South Carolina | 3 |
| Illinois | 0 | South Dakota | 0 |
| Indiana | 0 | Tennessee | 4 |
| Iowa | 0 | Texas | 18 |
| Kansas | 0 | Vermont | 0 |
| Kentucky | 0 | Virginia | 7 |
| Louisiana | 6 | West Virginia | 0 |
| Maine | 0 | Wisconsin | 0 |
| Maryland | 3 | Wyoming | 0 |
| Massachusetts | 0 | Washington | 2 |
| Michigan | 0 | Arizona | 4 |
| Minnesota | 0 | District of Columbia | 3 |
| Mississippi | 1 | New Mexico | 0 |
| Missouri | 3 | Utah | 0 |
| Montana | 3 | Indian Territory | 0 |
| Nebraska | 0 | Oklahoma | 0 |
| New Jersey | 4 | Alaska | 0 |
| New Hampshire | 0 |
There were 80 hanged in the South and 39 in the North, of whom 60 were whites, 58 were blacks, and one a Chinaman. The crimes for which they were executed were: murder, 113; rape, 5; arson, 1. Thus, of the 119 hangings, about two-thirds (80) were in the South and one-third (39) in the North; about one-half (60) of the entire number were of whites, and one-half (58) were of blacks. So, the South appears to have done its part in the matter of punishing by law as well as by violence.
[47] See “The American Negro,” by William Hannibal Thomas, pp. 65, 177.