Postcard Lynchings
Writing 1211
17 February 2013 There are billions upon billions of postcards with pictures on them in the world. Why do people send these postcards? What is the meaning? Many postcards have pictures on them and are sent from spots of vacations or even just to say hello. Sometimes they hold great meaning, or sometimes their just sent for the beautiful picture stored on the front. For the most part, when people think of postcards they think of a beautiful picture that symbolizes happy times. However, back in the day, that wasn’t always the case, for the picture was not always beautiful. Without Sanctuary is a website that shows a myriad of postcards, but these post cards are completely out of the ordinary by our standards today. These post cards are of people being lynched, which isn’t exactly the most beautiful picture. In the picture you would not only see the lynching most times, but also the bystanders watching it happen often smiling about it like a social event. While it may seem awful nowadays, back then it was actually pretty common just to be an onlooker at a lynching, and for the most part a very socially acceptable thing to do. So maybe after all, the bystanders may not be complete monsters, as we make them out to be today. Today, when we think of people putting a lynching on a post card we think; how could you possibly put a lynching on a postcard, that’s quite absurd. However, in all honesty, they were doing the socially acceptable thing back then. Showing up to a lynching in their Sunday best was basically symbolizing that they support their community; by killing who they thought were monsters. Almost every person that got lynched in these pictures was of people who had committed a crime of some sort, whether it was rightfully accused or not. In many ways, the lynching was just a part of their culture back then. The people back then, thought they were just protecting their own communities by getting rid of people who brought harm into their town.
17 February 2013 There are billions upon billions of postcards with pictures on them in the world. Why do people send these postcards? What is the meaning? Many postcards have pictures on them and are sent from spots of vacations or even just to say hello. Sometimes they hold great meaning, or sometimes their just sent for the beautiful picture stored on the front. For the most part, when people think of postcards they think of a beautiful picture that symbolizes happy times. However, back in the day, that wasn’t always the case, for the picture was not always beautiful. Without Sanctuary is a website that shows a myriad of postcards, but these post cards are completely out of the ordinary by our standards today. These post cards are of people being lynched, which isn’t exactly the most beautiful picture. In the picture you would not only see the lynching most times, but also the bystanders watching it happen often smiling about it like a social event. While it may seem awful nowadays, back then it was actually pretty common just to be an onlooker at a lynching, and for the most part a very socially acceptable thing to do. So maybe after all, the bystanders may not be complete monsters, as we make them out to be today. Today, when we think of people putting a lynching on a post card we think; how could you possibly put a lynching on a postcard, that’s quite absurd. However, in all honesty, they were doing the socially acceptable thing back then. Showing up to a lynching in their Sunday best was basically symbolizing that they support their community; by killing who they thought were monsters. Almost every person that got lynched in these pictures was of people who had committed a crime of some sort, whether it was rightfully accused or not. In many ways, the lynching was just a part of their culture back then. The people back then, thought they were just protecting their own communities by getting rid of people who brought harm into their town.