Author:  Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Release Date:  February 8, 2005 [EBook #14976]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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Mob rule in new Orleans: 
Robert Charles and his fight to death,
the story of his life,
burning human beings alive,
other lynching statistics

BY

IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT

1900

[Transcriber’s Note:  This pamphlet was first published in 1900 but was subsequently reprinted.  It’s not apparent if the curiosities in spelling date back to the original or were introduced later; they have been retained as found, and the reader is left to decide.  Please verify with another source before quoting this material.  Of special note are the names Cantrell/Cantrelle, Porteous/Porteus, and Ziegel/Zeigel.]

+Introduction+

Immediately after the awful barbarism which disgraced the State of Georgia in April of last year, during which time more than a dozen colored people were put to death with unspeakable barbarity, I published a full report showing that Sam Hose, who was burned to death during that time, never committed a criminal assault, and that he killed his employer in self-defense.

Since that time I have been engaged on a work not yet finished, which I interrupt now to tell the story of the mob in New Orleans, which, despising all law, roamed the streets day and night, searching for colored men and women, whom they beat, shot and killed at will.

In the account of the New Orleans mob I have used freely the graphic reports of the New Orleans Times-Democrat and the New Orleans Picayune.  Both papers gave the most minute details of the week’s disorder.  In their editorial comment they were at all times most urgent in their defense of law and in the strongest terms they condemned the infamous work of the mob.

It is no doubt owing to the determined stand for law and order taken by these great dailies and the courageous action taken by the best citizens of New Orleans, who rallied to the support of the civic authorities, that prevented a massacre of colored people awful to contemplate.

For the accounts and illustrations taken from the above-named journals, sincere thanks are hereby expressed.

[Illustration]