I wondered myself, so looked it up on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitecapping
It says:
Whitecapping is a violent lawless movement among farmers that occurred
specifically in America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was
originally a ritualized form of enforcing community standards, appropriate
behavior and traditional rights.[1] However, as it spread throughout the poorest
areas of the rural South it took on a distinct anti-black characteristic.
History
The Whitecapping movement started in Indiana around 1873, as white males began
forming secret societies in order to attempt to deliver justice independent from
the state. These groups were known as the 'White Caps'. The first White Cap
encounters were generally aimed at those who went against a community’s values.
Men who neglected or abused their family, people who showed excessive laziness
and women who had children out of wedlock are all prime examples of possible
targets.[2] As whitecapping spread into the Southern states during the 1890s,
the targets became drastically different. In the South, White Cap societies were
generally made up of white dirt farmers that intended to control black laborers
and prevent merchants from acquiring more land.[3] These societies in the South
made it their task to attempt to force a person to abandon his home or property.
This racial character of whitecapping in the South is thought to have been
ignited by the agricultural depression that occurred around the same time. With
all of the attention centered on producing cotton, the South’s economy became
very unbalanced. Many farmers went into debt and lost their lands to merchants
through mortgage foreclosures.[4] The merchants and their black laborers became
quick targets for the dirt farmers who seemed to be losing everything. Racism
contributed to the problem as well, prosperous black men in the South always
faced resentment that could be expressed violently.[5]
Methodology
Despite the different whitecapping targets, the methods used by the White Caps
remained somewhat constant. Generally, the members of this society were
disguised in a way that somewhat resembled that of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and
always attacked at night. Physical attacks could include such things as
whipping, drowning, firing shots into houses, arson and other brutalities.[6]
The White Caps also used non-violent means of intimidation in order to get
certain residents to abandon their homes. These include posting signs on doors
of blacks' and merchants' homes, as well as cornering a target and verbally
threatening them. The victims of these attacks had little support from the legal
authorities until 1893, when the threat of whitecapping began to be taken more
seriously. However, even when the courts got involved it took time to completely
clear the jury of any White Cap members or sympathizers. Many White Cap
societies had become dormant by 1894 and members were punished with fines.
However, there were still active members of the White Caps who were found and
punished in the early 1900s (decade).[7]
Over many years, whitecapping not only affected individual people, but also the
communities and counties as a whole. In the South, whitecapping discouraged many
merchants and industrialists from doing business in the counties; it also
threatened to drive away all of the black laborers.[8]
__________
It gave sources for the article.
________________________________
From: Linda Laffey <linda(a)laffeygroup.com>
To: inwashin(a)rootsweb.com
Sent: Tue, January 3, 2012 2:17:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Washington Co IN] Twenty Whitecappers Charged at Salem
Hi, I also have family from Washington County, the Mitchells and the Kerns.
Can you explain what is "whitecapping" please? Thanks. Linda Laffey
-----Original Message-----
From: inwashin-bounces(a)rootsweb.com [mailto:inwashin-bounces@rootsweb.com]
On Behalf Of Antoinette Waughtel Sorensen
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 2:42 PM
To: inwashin(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: [Washington Co IN] Twenty Whitecappers Charged at Salem
Thanks for that info Randi. I did, at one time, subscribe to GenealogyBank
and also using Newspaper Archives along with Ancestry.com. I gave up my
subscription on Newspaper Archives as of this coming May as when I have
tried searching for something it is not there anymore. I have gone back and
checked on items that I had been able to retrieve, and they are no longer
available, so just plain gave up. Will keep Ancestry for while longer at
least. Think I have been using it for at least 10 years <lol> but it is a
big help in researching. I use to go to Salt Lake City once a year for a
weeks time but with so much available online I haven't gone down there in
several years. My youngest daughter & I have talked of going down sometime
this year but will see how that works out. My counties in Indiana are
Washington, Bartholomew, Floyd, Clark, Jennings, Decatur mainly, but several
other counties are involved also - Thanks for writing.
Antoinette (Tacoma, Washington)
On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 7:50 PM, gftl <gftl(a)bluemarble.net> wrote:
Antoinette,
I'm the relatively new south central district director for the Indiana
Genealogical Society. Washington is one of the 12 counties that I
represent. During my term of office, I'm going to try to devote time
to each of those counties including sending items to the county
Rootsweb list and the IGS quarterly. For the past 11 years I've
facilitated the INMONROE list and whitecapping has been one of my
special interests. So when I started my newspaper research with
Washington, I was surprised to see quite a bit there as well. Look for
these items
periodically.
By the way, most of my newspaper research is done online at home from
the GenealogyBank website. If you haven't already visited that site,
you might check it out. It is a paid site but well worth the money.
Randi Richardson
On Mon, 2 Jan 2012 19:17:01 -0800, Antoinette Waughtel Sorensen wrote:
> Oooooh, would I love to know more on this <lol>. My mother's people
> were from Salem, Indiana, and migrated out here to Washington state
> in the fall of 1904. I believe, they too, were "persecuted" due to
> their "religious"
> belief of what I have read of newspaper articles on the death of one
> of their daughters (my late grandmother's sister). They, at that
> time, were of the belief of no medication but prayer only. Their
> tune must have changed out here as they did all go to doctors
> <smile>.
> Antoinette (Tacoma, Washington)
>
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