The Hangman's Knot: Lynching, Legal Execution, And America's Struggle With The Death Penalty [Hardcover]

Eliza Steelwater (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2003

Public executions were once commonplace American spectacles. In one instance, Puritan clergymen convicted and executed nineteen people for the "crime" of witchcraft. On the other side of the country many years later, San Francisco's city fathers held "official" vigilante hangings. But today, executions are rigidly controlled bureaucratic procedures authorized by the state. In The Hangman's Knot: Lynching, Legal Execution, and America's Struggle with the Death Penalty, Eliza Steelwater presents a fascinating history of execution in the United States, from colonial times to the present. With a compelling narrative and gripping personal stories, she documents how this debate became one of the most contentious of our time. The author, a veteran death-penalty researcher and co-founder of Project HAL (Historical American Lynching), shows that the answer to the death penalty's future lies in a discussion of its past. Using information from Project HAL and the authoritative Capital Punishment Research Project - including records of over 15,000 legal executions and 4,500 lynchings nationwide - Steelwater delivers a vivid understanding that America's unparalleled and powerful 200-year-old policy of execution as "punishment politics" is alive and well today. Bringing a fresh perspective to the death-penalty debate, she demonstrates that execution has often had less to do with crimes committed than with the political and economic ambitions of those who controlled the punishment system.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is an excellent short history of capital punishment-from Civil War-era lynchings to Illinois Gov. George Ryan's recent commuting of the sentences of that state's death row inmates-written by a fierce death penalty opponent who nonetheless displays an acute sensitivity to the many complexities of this issue. As founder of the nonprofit Project HAL (which tracks executions), and as part of the Capital Punishment Research Project, Steelwater has had access to records of thousands of legal executions, as well as thousands of lynchings. She skillfully and judiciously uses this information to argue that the struggles over the death penalty throughout U.S. history-and especially during three distinct eras of reform and rejection of capital punishment followed by eras of acceptance-are less about making sure that the death penalty is applied equally and more about "our many battles over who's in charge." Steelwater has written a definitive history of the arguments that have been used to justify the use of the death penalty: the early attempt to "politicize punishment" through the creation of penitentiaries and the death penalty; the influence of the Southern festival of shivaree along with the Ku Klux Klan in making lynching acceptable as a way to "express moral judgment," however dubious such judgments were; the influence of the vigilantes in the West, especially San Francisco, on efforts "to justify illegal execution and other lawless acts in the name of a moral crusade, a demonstration of popular sovereignty, or both."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A fierce opponent of the death penalty argues that capital punishment is simply a form of legalized mob lynching--and, as such, is doomed to failure The Hangman's Knot is a fascinating history of public execution from medieval times to the present. Eliza Streelwater, an anti-death penalty crusader and founder of Project HAL (Historical American Lynching), puts capital punishment in a necessary historical context through the use of a compelling narrative, gripping personal stories, and rare archival photographs. She convincingly argues that capital punishment is just another name for legalized mob lynching--and, as such, is doomed to failure. Steelwater shows that the answer to the death penalty's future lies in a discussion of its past. Using data from Project HAL and the authoritative Capital Punishment Research Project, and working from records of over 15,000 legal executions and 4,500 lynchings nationwide, she delivers a vivid understanding that America's unparalleled and powerful 200-year-old use of execution as "punishment politics" is alive and well today.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; First edition. edition (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081334042X
• ISBN-13: 978-0813340425
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,816,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding capital punishment, September 15, 2003

By 

Elizabeth Hines (Wilmington, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hangman's Knot: Lynching, Legal Execution, And America's Struggle With The Death Penalty (Hardcover)

This book's importance reaches beyond the debate over the death penalty as it demonstrates and explains the relationship between power, money and punishment in America. It is a fascinating story, representing years of research by one of the best and most original minds in the country. Dr. Steelwater's examples brilliantly illustrate communities' and the State's involvement with capital punishment within the context of the contemporary events that shaped American attitudes toward community vigilantism and State supported and regulated legal execution. From the frontier experience to industrial labor unrest, from the racial violence of the Deep South to the mayhem of Western boom towns (and much more), violent historical events have shaped our attitudes about the need for and right of the community and the State to take life as retribution and/or deterrent. The Hangman's Knot is immensely readable with a bibliographic essay for each chapter. It should be included in the library of anyone who has an opinion about capital punishment. American history, social theory and economic geography are elegantly merged in this deeply intelligent and humane book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hangman's Knot, September 28, 2003

By 

Inga M Bennett (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hangman's Knot: Lynching, Legal Execution, And America's Struggle With The Death Penalty (Hardcover)

Excellent book, but not a book that is easy to read. Facing our country's history in this area makes us look at our past and often gives a different slant on what we have accepted as history. The information in the book is so well researched and documented. The author does not rely on personal opinion to make her points, but cites numerous sources. She presents evidence and allows the reader to form their own opinion. Anyone with an interest in history and the social conscience of America would find this a worthwhile read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MARVELLOUS BOOK, August 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hangman's Knot: Lynching, Legal Execution, And America's Struggle With The Death Penalty (Hardcover)

At last some original perspectives on the capital punishment debate! This
is a history of capital punishment in America from the Salem witch trials
up to the present, as it explains how the U. S. wound up being one of the
few countries to retain the death penalty. The author also devotes several
chapters to America's efforts to end the death penalty, exploring the
beginnings and endings of each movement and and why some were more
effective than others.

Steelwater tells the stories of particular episodes like the San Francisco
vigilantes and post-Civil-War terrorists to show how much vigilante
lynchings had in common with legal executions. These stories point out how
much both legal execution and lynching had to do with what was going on
politically at the time (including rivalries within local communities, the
suppression of the labor movement, and discrimination against people of
color). There is obviously a lot of research behind this book, but it isn't
a dull recitation of facts and figures. The author writes very clearly and
she presents the history of the death penalty as a series of well-written,
suspenseful true stories.