A Season for violence

Summary In this paper we explore the hypothesis that monthly variation in white mob violence against blacks in the American South was affected by seasonal variation in the demand for labor in southern agriculture. Using monthly data on black lynchings that occurred between 1882 and 1930 we find that mob violence was more frequent during times of stronger labor demand than during slack periods. While the manifest function of lynchings might well have been to rid the white community of offending blacks who violated the moral order, we suggest that the latent function was to tighten the reins of control over the black population, especially during times when whites most needed black labor to work fields of cotton or tobacco.