History of the DP

1. History of the DP Much of our historical info about executions comes from the Espy File, a dataset compiled by Watt Espy that included data on about 15,000 executions. There is no data on victims in the Espy File so it is not as useful to researchers as it could be. But the patterns of executions do tell a story.

2. History of the DP Before the Civil War, execs were rare and sporadic Surplus pops moved west! Exceptions: Witches, Tories, Abolitionists 1600s Late 1700s mid-1800s In the first half of the 1800s, there were increasing numbers of executions as immigrants poured into the northern states and the abolitionist movement (against slavery) grew more assertive.

3. History of the DP After the Civil War, there were huge increases in both legal and illegal execs (lynchings) across the US (most lynching datasets start with the 1880s and thus don't include most northern lynchings) North - Industrialization/immigrants Note: our immigrants were Europe's surplus populations Surplus populations!

4. History of the DP South - Post-slavery Failure of "Reconstruction" and emergence of the “Jim Crow” system in the south) Former slaves became "surplus populations" and thus targets of both lynching and the DP

5. History of the DP West - late migration of eastern immigrants, mostly young males, plus Chinese railroad workers, Native Americans, and Hispanics. Lynching and legal execs of "Outlaws" and the Ranchers vs. farmers "wars"

6. History of the DP In the first half of the 1900s (up to WW II) there was a continuing slow worldwide trend away from executions in almost all prosperous modernizing countries. Mich, Wisc, etc. in mid 1800s The "Progressive Era" in the early 1900s - off and on abolition The peak of executions in the 1930s.

7. History of the DP Post WW2 - massive changes related to the DP • Worldwide trend away from the DP (still growing) • US also turned away from the DP - except the south • The Civil Rights Movement and Moratorium Campaign • The end in the 1960s, followed by Furman