Regulators Lynched Albert Aiken in 1909 Lincoln County, Georgia

Just like groups in the Wild, Wild West, the self-described regulators across the South considered themselves to be good town folk simply seeking justice for victims of criminal acts.  This vigilantism, however, was discriminatory.  It was almost always African Americans who paid the debt to society with their lives.

In Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930, author Fitzhugh Brundage writes, "Mob members did not suffer wrenching guilt; rather, they rejoiced that they had punished a deserving victim." (Emphasis mine.)

Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)
Tuesday, 25 May 1909 -- pg. 1 [via GenealogyBank]

SPIRES' ASSAILANT LYNCHED BY MOB

100 Lincoln County Farmers Took Negro From Jail.

STRUNG UP; BODY RIDDLED

Recent Activities of Negro Secret Societies Stirred Up Whites – Climax Came With Attack on Respectable Farmer – Mob Left Warning.

Special to The Chronicle.
Lincolnton, Ga., May 24 – The usual quiet village of Lincolnton was awakened at midnight last from peaceful slumber by the noise of a mob of about one hundred enraged citizens as they stormed the county jail and brought forth Albert Aiken, the negro farm hand who so viciously cut Jno Spires a highly respected white farmer last Thursday morning.  It is learned here that the body of the negro was found swinging to a limb of a tree at Dry Fork Creek, three miles from this place, this morning and that the body was filled with bullet holes.

Upon the body was a placard which read:  "Notice this is what will happen to all negroes in Lincoln county under similar circumstances," (Signed) "Regulators."

The place where the negro is said to have been lynched is near the place where he committed the crime and it is supposed that the mob who took him there had it in view to let the many negroes in that neighborhood see that it was time that they quieted down and stopped their efforts to ride over the farmers of this section.

The crime for which Aiken was lynched was committed last Thursday morning and has been the subject of conversation in the county ever since, but it was thought that there would be nothing done to him as the days passed and the farmers apparently were willing to let the law take its course, but yesterday the news went out that Mr. Spires, the injured man, was not likely to live many days and it rekindled the fire in the breasts of the white men of the county and the work of the mob last night is the climax of their deliberation over the matter.

This morning it is reported that Mr. Spires is very feeble and there is but little if any chance of his living.

He was…cut to a depth of three inches in [the] right side, the knife severing two ribs, lacerating the lung and injuring the stomach walls.

This is the first time in the history of Lincoln county that the jail has been stormed and the second time a lynching has occurred.  There is but little trouble between the two races.  Recently, however, inklings of negro secret societies being formed have reached the ears of the white citizens and they are of the belief that Aiken was a member of one of them, from remarks that he let fall while in jail.  They seem determined to break up these clandestine meetings and the work of last night is said to be but a beginning of what will follow if the negroes show any more meanness.

A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.