Local sequential patterns: The structure of lynching in the Deep South, 1882-1930

White-on-black violence was a fact of life in the Deep South during the dec ades straddling the turn of the century. Yet though the lynching of blacks is historically significant, it was, statistically speaking, a relatively r are event. While each lynching is associated with a complex and often grues ome narrative, particularities often overwhelm efforts to reveal anything o ther than broad structural determinants or proximate causes. Efforts to app ly narrative methods have been limited to the analysis of a single lynching incident, and yield more insight into patterns of interaction than into th e phenomena of lynching as a whole. This article offers a new analytic desc ription of the temporal structure of local lynching histories in the Deep S outh between 1882 and 1930. Sequential analysis reveals robust variation in the temporal pattern of local lynching; interpretation of the finite set o f patterns of lynching histories focuses on the sequential consequences of various microlevel mechanisms, and demonstrates the advantages of moving be yond the analysis of discrete incidents.