Violence and the Rights of African Americans in Civil War–Era Indiana: The Case of James Hays
Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: In August 1859, an African-American man by the name of James Hays was attacked and brutally beaten by a small group of Franklin County white men, allegedly under the hire of George W. Kimble, Hays's em ployer. The intention of the beating was to drive Hays from the neigh borhood, forcing him to join the substantial exodus of African Americans from Franklin County and indeed from the whole of rural southern In diana.1 While Hays did move his family just across the county line into Fayette County, he stood up to Kimble and his hired thugs, who faced not only criminal prosecution but were forced to reply to the civil ac tion Hays filed against them. In Indiana, African Americans were not welcome members of the social or political community. The few rights they held under the law
Source: Indiana Magazine of History
Author: Richard F. Nation
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2128608034