Carnival of Blood: Dueling, Lynching, and Murder in South Carolina, 1880-1920.

Carnival of Blood: Dueling, Lynching, and Murder in South Carolina, 1880-1920. By John Hammond Moore. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, c. 2006. Pp. [xiv], 250. $29.95, ISBN 978-1-57003-620-0.)

On February 3, 1903, the Columbia (S.C.) State bore the headline "HUMAN LIFE IS CHEAP IN SOUTH CAROLINA" (p. 189). John Hammond Moore illustrates quite persuasively how in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries South Carolinians tolerated, sanctioned, and participated in various acts of killing with cavalier regard. Although dueling ended during this period, lynchings waxed and waned, and the murder rate skyrocketed. Moore explains how violence became more commonplace because of the easy availability of weapons and the tendency to keep them concealed. One could buy a .22 caliber pistol from Sears Roebuck for sixty-five cents plus ten cents postage, and occasionally merchants threw in a free pistol with the purchase of a box of cartridges. Moore also attributes the increase in homicidal tendencies to the legacy of slavery and its abuses, the greater availability of liquor, and, more important, the structure of local government. In the South, unlike the Northeast, the county, not the township, was the center of administration. Moore suggests that violence may have been more limited in northern communities because towns were autonomous self-governing units in which neighbors and acquaintances kept each other's behavior in check. Below the Mason-Dixon Line governmental and administrative power was far more decentralized, and the layout of the county provided a "much bigger playground where community pressure, if it existed at all, was both more diffused and somewhat weaker" (p. 10).

Carnival of Blood: Dueling, Lynching, and Murder in South Carolina, 1880-1920 includes a detailed account of the Cash-Shannon duel in 1880, a look at two sensational murder cases involving the editors of the Charleston News and Courier and the State, a short history of lynchings, and an extensive survey of dozens of homicides committed by an array of people. Moore notes that South Carolina had a relatively low lynching rate compared to other southern states, notwithstanding Governor Ben Tillman's famous proclamation in 1892 that all black men who raped white women should be lynched. Most lynchings in South Carolina occurred in the western areas that bordered Georgia, a state with an exceedingly high rate of lynchings. The decline in the number of lynchings in South Carolina after the turn of the century can be attributed to the influence of national reform and the expansion of rural police forces. Moore explains that almost all homicides in South Carolina were acts of passion provoked by such things as slander, criticism of family, or perceived threats to a woman's honor. Homicide did not often cross racial lines. The only feature that made South Carolina unique was the high number of murders committed by prominent politicians and businessmen, and indeed the families of Tillman and Governor Cole Blease figure notably in the book. Well-connected men usually turned themselves in, claimed self-defense, and almost always were acquitted.

There is a useful appendix documenting the date, race, name, county, and alleged cause of all lynchings from 1880 to 1947 as well as several other statistical tables. At times the book is tedious in its description, particularly when Moore narrates crime after crime. But perhaps that is his aim. The endless parade of lynchings, shoot-outs, and homicides detailed only serves to reinforce the claim that violence in South Carolina was familiar and routine.

NATALIE J. RING

University of Texas at Dallas