Abstract
Justice scholars have failed to distinguish an accurate historical record of female lynchings in the United States. Most probably, one reason for this lapse in the lynching scholarship is that researchers lack the fact-based information required to document troubling narratives of women irrevocably harmed by mob violence. It is impractical for researchers to bring into sharper focus the fiendish torture women suffered from vigilantism without a reliable historical record of confirmed female lynchings. The present work provides an inventory of 179 confirmed cases of women and young girls murdered at the hands of mostly White terrorists from 1835 to 1965. It is equally important, however, to distinguish 57 cases of unconfirmed and factually inaccurate female lynchings that directly challenge the reliability of existing registries. The present work remedies inaccuracies in these inventories with more historically precise narratives of misidentified cases.
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