| Roots of Disorder: Race and Criminal Justice in the American South, 1817-80 Contributor(s): Waldrep, Christopher (Author) |
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ISBN: 0252067320 ISBN-13: 9780252067327 Publisher: University of Illinois Press OUR PRICE: $32.67 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 1998 Annotation: Every white southerner understood what keeping African Americans "down" meant and what it did not mean. It did not mean going to court; it did not mean relying on the law. It meant vigilante violence and lynching. Looking at Vicksburg, Mississippi, Roots of Disorder traces the origins of these terrible attitudes to the day-to-day operations of local courts. In Vicksburg, white exploitation of black labor through slavery evolved into efforts to use the law to define blacks' place in society, setting the stage for widespread tolerance of brutal vigilantism. Fed by racism and economics, whites' extralegal violence grew in a hothouse of more general hostility toward law and courts. Roots of Disorder shows how the criminal justice system itself plays a role in shaping the attitudes that encourage vigilantism. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - 19th Century - Social Science | Discrimination & Race Relations - Political Science | Human Rights |
| Dewey: 364.349 |
| LCCN: 98-08928 |
| Physical Information: 0.81" H x 6.04" W x 8.99" (1.02 lbs) 296 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1800-1850 - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Cultural Region - Deep South - Cultural Region - Gulf Coast - Cultural Region - Southeast U.S. - Cultural Region - South - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Geographic Orientation - Mississippi |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Every white southerner understood what keeping African Americans "down" meant and what it did not mean. It did not mean going to court; it did not mean relying on the law. It meant vigilante violence and lynching. Looking at Vicksburg, Mississippi, Roots of Disorder traces the origins of these terrible attitudes to the day-to-day operations of local courts. In Vicksburg, white exploitation of black labor through slavery evolved into efforts to use the law to define blacks' place in society, setting the stage for widespread tolerance of brutal vigilantism. Fed by racism and economics, whites' extralegal violence grew in a hothouse of more general hostility toward law and courts. Roots of Disorder shows how the criminal justice system itself plays a role in shaping the attitudes that encourage vigilantism. "Delivers what no other study has yet attempted. . . . Waldrep's book is one of the first systematically to use local trial data to explore questions of society and culture." -- Vernon Burton, author of "A Gentleman and an Officer" A Social and Military History of James B. Griffin's Civil War |