Why Did Mark Twain Refer To America As The PDF

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Why did Mark Twain refer to America as the “United States of Lyncherdom”? Mark Twain referred to America as the “United States of Lyncherdom” because he lived in the time period of the Jim Crow Laws and all the effects that those laws cause. During that time period, 1860-1930, lynching was a common practice in the United States. Approximately 5,000 lynchings occurred in the United States in this time period, thus the reason why Mark Twain labeled America as the “United States of Lyncherdom”. Factors other than lynching, such as social control, Jim Crow Segregation, and disenfranchisement. The Jim Crow Laws were the main reason as to why lynching was such an American phenomenon and why Mark Twain would describe America as the United States of Lyncherdom. Jim Crow laws were racial segregation state and local laws enacted after the reconstruction time period in Southern United States that continued in force until 1985. Starting in 1890 with the Supreme Court case, Plessy v Ferguson, which ruled a “separate but equal” status for African Americans. However, this was nowhere near the case in America, especially in the south. Jim Crow laws mandated segregation from ‘whites’ and ‘blacks’ from public schools, cemeteries, water fountains, restaurants, restrooms, and public transportation. This is where the Jim Crow laws steer away from the equal accommodations for blacks. Blacks were always forced to sit in the back of the bus, go to less educated and maintained schools that had older materials and textbooks, and so on. The Jim Crow laws influenced the social practices that southerners came to adopt, such as lynching. Lynching was a common practice that acted as a method of social control. Lynching was when, typically whites, would violently punish mainly blacks by hangings from a tree or post, or even dragging them by the feet behind a vehicle throughout the city. These practices were used to violently intimidate African Americans from stepping out of their social norms and speaking out against whites. Social control was a big reason why Mark Twain labeled America as the United States of Lyncherdom. Whether it was lynching or disenfranchisement or rough justice. Disenfranchisement revoked the right of African American suffrage by passing laws such as the Grandfather Clause, literacy tests, and by distributing unfair, unequal tests to blacks compared to whites. The Grandfather Clause simply stated that if your grandfather could not vote before 1860, then neither could you. This mostly affected African Americans because they were the only ones who could not vote prior to 1860. Another method was the literacy test that was distributed to blacks in order for them to vote. It was unfair because, due to the Jim Crow laws, blacks received a lesser education making it harder, if not impossible, for them to pass the literacy test. Lastly, blacks received tests such as having to recite the constitution or know the names of congressmen while whites only had to fill out things such as names, address, etc. If blacks ever spoke out against the unjust treatments they were receiving, the immediate reaction was to lynch them in front of the public. The practice of lynching was the social belief that it was the peoples’ duty to sentence those who stepped out of line or spoke out against whites to death by lynching them. Lynchings were done in plain sight, the people involved were clearly shown in photographs that were posted throughout newspapers all over America, and yet not much was done to punish those involved or witnessing....