joy in causing pain, disease, poverty—these are but a few of the items which lynching has caused to those who practised them. The description of the effect of slavery which Winwood Reade used in The Martyrdom of Man applies with equal force to the effect of oppression as represented by mob-law—"the Fathers of the country ate sour grapes, and the children's teeth were set on edge."
Certain factors which have been largely contributory to the low mental estate of the parts of the country where lynching has flourished are treated in later chapters. These include the influence of evangelical religions, the use by unscrupulous politicians of mythical fear of "Negro domination," the important role of sex, and the strenuous efforts to keep the Negro ignorant and intimidated that he may the more easily be exploited. The present chapter is devoted to an attempt to point out some of the factors which have created and are perpetuating the psychology of the lyncher, actual or potential.
Obviously, the lynching states have suffered most from derelict officials. Until very recent times, and in most of the South, even today, no lyncher has ever needed to feel the slightest apprehension regarding punishment or even the annoyance of an investigation. Even in the few instances where there were arrests and trials, the accused usually had friends on the jury, if not fellow lynchers; in others he knew that jurors and court officials
