Prometheus 6

This article is fascinating.

The Legacy of Lynching: Part I
By Richard Morin
Sunday, September 25, 2005; Page B05

For decades, scholars have sought to answer this bloody question: Why has the murder rate been disproportionally high in the South for more than a century? Some argue it's the weather -- hot, steamy conditions setting tempers on edge and provoking deadly violence. Others blame widespread poverty and illiteracy. Still others fault a so-called southern "code of honor" that requires any slight to be avenged.

Now three sociologists have found an additional explanation: lynchings.

Revolt Against Chivalry author: Jacquelyn Dowd Hall asin: 0231082835

Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries author: Orlando Patterson asin: 158243039X