The 1893 Lynching by Fire of Henry Smith

Lynchings occurred with regularity in the late 19th century America, and hundreds took place, primarily in the South. Distant newspapers would carry accounts of them, typically  as small items of a few paragraphs. One lynching in Texas in 1893 received far  more attention. It was so brutal, and involved so many otherwise ordinary people, that newspapers carried extensive stories about it, often on the front page. The lynching of Henry Smith, a black laborer in Paris, Texas, on February 1, 1893, was extraordinarily grotesque. Accused of raping and murdering a four-year-old girl, Smith was hunted down by a posse. When returned to town, the local citizens proudly  announced they would burn him alive. That boast was reported in news stories which traveled by telegraph and appeared in newspapers from coast to coast. The killing of Smith was carefully orchestrated. The townspeople constructed a large wooden platform near the center of town. And in view of thousands of spectators, Smith was tortured with hot irons for nearly an hour before being soaked with kerosene and set ablaze. The extreme nature  of Smiths killing, and a  celebratory parade that preceded it received attention which included an extensive front-page account in the New York Times. And the noted anti-lynching journalist Ida B. Wells wrote about the Smith lynching in her landmark book, The Red Record. Never in the history of civilization has any Christian people stooped to such shocking brutality and indescribable barbarism as that which characterized the people of Paris, Texas, and adjacent communities on the first of February, 1893. Photographs of the torture and burning of Smith were taken and were later sold as prints and  postcards. And according to some accounts, his agonized screams were recorded on a primitive graphophone and later played before audiences as images of his killing were projected on a screen. Despite the horror of the incident, and the revulsion felt throughout much of America, reactions to the outrageous event did virtually nothing to stop lynchings. The extra-judicial executions of black Americans continued for decades. And the horrendous spectacle of burning black Americans alive before vengeful crowds also continued. The Killing of Myrtle Vance According to widely circulated newspaper reports, the crime committed by Henry Smith, the murder of four-year-old Myrtle Vance, was particularly violent. The published accounts strongly hinted that the child had been raped and that she had been killed by literally being torn apart. The account published by Ida B. Wells, which was based on reports from local residents, was that Smith had indeed strangled the child to death. But the grisly details were invented by the childs relatives and neighbors. There is little doubt that Smith did murder the child. He had been seen walking with the girl prior to her body being discovered. The childs father, a former town policeman, had reportedly arrested Smith at some earlier point and had beaten him while he was in custody. So Smith, who was rumored to be mentally retarded, may have wanted to get revenge. The day after the murder Smith ate breakfast at his house, with his wife, and then disappeared from town. It was believed he had fled by freight train, and a posse was formed to go find him. The local railroad offered free passage to those searching for Smith. Smith Brought Back to Texas Henry Smith was located at a train station along the Arkansas and Louisiana Railway, about 20 miles from Hope, Arkansas. News was telegraphed that Smith, who was referred to as the ravisher, was captured and would be returned by the civilian posse to Paris, Texas. Along the way back to Paris crowds gathered to see Smith. At one station someone tried to attack him with a knife when he looked out the train window. Smith was reportedly told that he would be tortured and burned to death, and he begged members of the posse to shoot him dead. On February 1, 1893, the New York Times carried a small item on its front page headlined To Be Burned Alive.   The news item read: The negro Henry Smith, who assaulted and murdered four-year-old Myrtle Vance, has been caught and will be brought here tomorrow.He will be burned alive at the scene of his crime tomorrow evening.All the preparations are being made. The Public Spectacle On February 1, 1893, the townspeople of Paris, Texas, assembled in a large crowd  to witness the lynching. An article on the front page of the New York Times the following morning described how the city government cooperated with the bizarre event, even closing the local schools (presumably so the children could attend with the parents): Hundreds of people poured into the city from the adjoining country, and the word passed from lip to lip that the punishment should fit the crime, and that death by fire was the penalty Smith should pay for the most atrocious murder and outrage in Texas history.Curious and sympathizing alike came on trains and wagons, on horse and on foot, to see what was to be done.Whisky shops were closed, and unruly mobs were dispersed. Schools were dismissed by a proclamation from the mayor, and everything was  done in a business-like manner. Newspaper reporters estimated that a crowd of 10,000 had gathered by the time the train carrying Smith arrived in Paris at noon on February 1. A scaffold had been built, about ten feet high, upon which he would be burned in full view of the spectators. Before being taken to the scaffold, Smith was first paraded through the town, according to the account in the New York Times: The negro was placed upon a carnival float, in mockery of a king upon his throne, and followed by the immense crowd, was escorted through the city so that all might see. A tradition at lynchings at which the victim was alleged to have attacked a white woman was to have the womans relatives extract vengeance. The lynching of Henry Smith followed that pattern. Myrtle Vances father, the former town policeman, and other male relatives appeared on the scaffold. Henry Smith was led up the stairs and tied to a post in the middle of the scaffold. The father of Myrtle Vance then tortured Smith with hot irons applied to his skin.   Most of the newspaper descriptions of the scene are disturbing. But a Texas newspaper, the Fort Worth Gazette, printed an account that seems to have been crafted to excite the readers and make them feel as if they were part of a sporting event. Particular phrases were rendered in capital letters, and the description of the torture of Smith is gruesome and ghastly. Text from the front page of the Fort Worth Gazette of February 2, 1893, describing the scene on the scaffold as Vance tortured Smith; the capitalization has been preserved: A tinners furnace was brought on with IRONS HEATED WHITE.Taking one, Vance thrust it under first one and then the other side of his victims feet, who, helpless, writhed as the flesh SCARRED AND PEELED  from the bones.Slowly, inch by inch, up his legs the iron was drawn and redrawn, only the nervous jerky twist of the muscles showing the agony being induced. When his body was reached and the iron was pressed to the most tender part of his body he broke silence for the first time and a prolonged SCREAM OF AGONY rent the air.Slowly, across and around the body, slowly upward traced the irons. The withered scarred flesh marked the progress of the awful punishmen. By turns Smith screamed, prayed, begged and cursed his tormentors. When his face was reached HIS TONGUE WAS SILENCED by fire and thenceforth he only moaned or gave a cry that echoed over the prairie like the wail of a wild animal.Then his EYES WERE PUT OUT, not a finger breath of his body being unscathed. His executioners gave way. They were Vance, his brother-in-law, and Vances song, a boy of 15 years of age. When they gave over punishing Smith they left the platform. After the prolonged torture, Smith was still alive. His body was then soaked with kerosene and he was set on fire. According to the newspaper reports, the flames burned through the heavy ropes that bound him. Free from the ropes, he fell to the platform and began to roll about while engulfed in flames. A front-page item in the New York Evening World detailed the shocking event that happened next: To the surprise of all he pulled himself up by the railing of the scaffold, stood up, passed his hand over his face, and then jumped from the scaffold and rolled out of the fire below. Men on the ground thrust him into the burning mass again, and life became extinct. Smith finally died and his body continued to burn. Spectators then picked through his charred remains, grabbing pieces as souvenirs. Impact of the Burning of Henry Smith What was done to Henry Smith shocked many Americans who read about it in their newspapers. But the perpetrators of the lynching, which of course included men who were readily identified, were never punished. The governor of Texas wrote a letter expressing some mild condemnation of the event. And that was the extent of any official action in the matter. A number of newspapers in the South published editorials essentially defending the citizens of Paris, Texas. For Ida B. Wells, the lynching of Smith was one of many such cases she would investigate and write about. Later in 1893, she embarked on a lecture tour in Britain, and the horror of the Smith lynching, and the way it had been widely reported, no doubt gave credibility to her cause. Her detractors, especially in the American South, accused her of making up lurid stories of lynchings. But the way Henry Smith was tortured and burned alive couldnt be avoided. Despite the revulsion many Americans felt over their fellow citizens burning a black man alive before a large crowd, lynching continued for decades in America. And its worth noting that Henry Smith was hardly the first lynching victim to be burned alive. The headline on the top of the front page of the New York Times on February 2, 1893, was Another Negro Burned. Research in archival copies of the New York Times shows that other blacks were burned alive, some as late as 1919. What happened in Paris, Texas, in 1893 has largely been forgotten. But it fits a pattern of injustice shown to black Americans throughout the 19th century, from the days of slavery to the broken promises following the Civil War, to the collapse of Reconstruction, to the legalization of Jim Crow in the Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Sources Burned at the Stake: A Black Man Pays for a Towns Outrage.ANOTHER NEGRO BURNED; HENRY SMITH DIES AT THE STAKE.The Evening World. (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, February 02, 1893.Fort Worth Gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, February 02, 1893.

Learning Classical Conditioning - 1132 Words

Learning Learning is more than a person sitting at a desk and studying off a book. Everything that we do is a result of what we have learned. We respond to things that happen to us, we act and experience consequences from our behavior, and we observe what others say and do. Psychologists explain our many experiences with basic learning processes. Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience (Santrock, p.146). By learning how to use a computer you will change from being someone who could not operate a computer to being one who can. Learning anything new involves change. You learned how to use a computer through experience with the machine. Once you have learned to use a computer, the†¦show more content†¦He keeps nagging. Finally you get tired of the nagging and clean out the garage. Your response removed the unpleasant stimulus. Whereas punishment refers to a consequence that decreases the likelihood a behavior will occur (Santrock, p.161). In positive punishment, a behavior decreases when it is followed by an unpleasant stimulus (Santrock, p.162). Many people associate this by yelling at children or beating them. Positive punishment is often not a good idea. In negative punishment, a behavior decreases when a positive stimulus is removed from it (Santrock, p.162). Time-out is a form of negative punishment in which a child is removed from a positive reinforcement. Observational learning, also called imitation or modeling, is learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates someone s behavior (Santrock, p.165). Albert Bandura described four main processes: attention, retention, motor reproduction, and reinforcement. Before people can reproduce a model s actions, they must attend to what the model is saying or doing. To reproduce an action, you must retain the information and keep it in memory so that it can be retrieved. 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Occurrence Of Dental Caries Health And Social Care Essay Free Essays

The recent diminution in the happening of dental cavities has brought a alteration in distribution of the cavities job in many populations. At present bulk are particularly kids and striplings, have no or merely a few cavitated lesions, while for a few the cavities experience still remains comparatively high.1,6 Clinical variables, particularly past cavities experience, have been confirmed as the most important forecasters of future cavities development. We will write a custom essay sample on Occurrence Of Dental Caries Health And Social Care Essay or any similar topic only for you Order Now The position of the most late erupted or open surface is the most appropriate step of past cavities experience. Sociodemographic variables are most of import to anticipation theoretical accounts for immature kids and older grownups. Microbial degrees are included in the most accurate anticipation models.2 Cavities risk appraisal is an of import portion of preventative dental medicine since cavities is preventable, early designation of relevant factors impacting populations that may increase the hazard of cavities is of import. Appraisal of single aetiologic factors for bing carious lesions is a requirement for future cavities risk.3 Repeated finding of the caries-risk allows an rating of the success or the demand for alteration of preventative steps. Indications of an increased caries-risk in specific population in community preventative programmes will let choice of an single preventative programme in order to understate the development of carious lesions.4 Multifactorial appraisal of cavities hazard: Dental cavities is a multifactorial disease in which there is interplay of four chief factors: The host ( saliva and dentitions ) , The microbic vegetation ( plaque A ; micro-organisms ) The substrate ( diet ) and The time.4 The hazard of dental cavities can be evaluated by analyzing and incorporating several causative factors. In day-to-day pattern the caries-risk is determined in order to measure the single patient ‘s hazard, to place the chief causative factors and to urge specific preventative steps for single needs.4 Cariogram aa‚ ¬ † A multifactorial appraisal tool: The Cariogram is a cavities hazard forecaster theoretical account that has been developed to depict and cipher the single cavities risk profile. It was developed in 1996 by Bratthall as educational theoretical account, taking at exemplifying the multifactorial background of dental cavities in a simple way.5 The chief intent of the Cariogram is to show the cavities risk diagrammatically, expressed as the Chance to avoid new cavities in the close hereafter. It besides illustrates to what extent assorted factors affect the Chance. And besides to promote preventative steps before new pits could develop.5 The five sectors of the cariogram: The Cariogram, a pie circle-diagram, is divided into five sectors, in the undermentioned colors: green, dark blue, ruddy, light blue and xanthous bespeaking the different groups of factors related to dental cavities. An account of each sector is as follows. The green sector shows an appraisal of the Actual opportunity to avoid new pits. The green sector is what is left when the other factors have taken their portion. The dark blue sector Diet is based on a combination of diet contents and diet frequence. The ruddy sector Bacteria is based on a combination of sum of plaque and mutans streptococci. The light blue sector Susceptibility is based on a combination of fluoride plan, saliva secernment and spit buffer capacity. The yellow sector Circumstances is based on a combination of past cavities experience and related diseases. 7 5 Factors assessed by cariogram: The Cariogram plan with a constitutional algorithm, evaluates the cavities risk profile of an person. Nine factors of relevancy to cavities are entered into the plan and given a mark harmonizing to predetermined graduated tables for each factor. Cavities experience: Clinical scrutiny of figure of rotten, filled and losing dentitions should be recorded. The cavities prevalence is an of import factor as it illustrates how the balance between opposition factors and cavities bring oning factors has been in the yesteryear. If the cavities prevalence is high, it means that the patient has been susceptible to the disease during a past period of clip. Related general diseases: Several general diseases, conditions can straight or indirectly act upon the cavities procedure, either through impacting saliva formation and composing, through a caries-inducing dietetic form or through medical specialties. Diseases or conditions in early childhood may hold influenced the formation of the enamel. For illustration: Autoimmune diseases, like Sjogren ‘s syndrome Intake of medical specialties Radiation towards the head-neck part Disabilities should be taken into consideration. Because of hapless eye-sight may impact right unwritten hygiene steps. They have troubles in cleaning their dentitions decently. Diet contents: Diet plays a cardinal function in the development of dental cavities, and there is a correlativity between ingestion of fermentable saccharides and cavities. Fermentable saccharides include dietetic sugars chiefly sucrose, glucose, fructose and cooked starches, which can be broken down quickly by salivary amylase to fermentable sugars. A high lactobacillus count will bespeak high saccharide ingestion. Diet frequence: Frequency of consumption of fermentable saccharides is one of the cardinal factors in the appraisal of cavities hazard. 24 hr callback diet history is recorded for frequence of meal consumption. Plaque sum: Plaque is the direct and of import aetiologic factor for cavities as it harbours micro-organisms. Plaque Index harmonizing to Silness A ; Loe ( 1964 ) was used to gauge the plaque sum. Scoring standards for Silnesss A ; Loe plaque index. PI 0= No plaque PI 1= A movie of plaque adhering to the free gingival border and next country of the tooth. The plaque may be seen in situ merely after application of unwraping solution or by utilizing the investigation on the tooth surface. PI 2= Moderate accretion of soft sedimentations within the gingival pocket or on the tooth and gingival border which can be seen with the bare oculus. PI 3= Abundance of soft affair within the gingival pocket and/or on the tooth and gingival border. Mutans streptococcuss: Streptococcus mutans considered to play active function in the development of cavities, particularly in the early phases of the lesion formation. Mutans streptococcus are acidogenic and acidophilic bacteriums that they can bring forth acids which can fade out the tooth substance and that they can last and even in a low pH environment. They can besides bring forth extracellular glucans, which helps them to adhere to the tooth surfaces. Fluoride programme: Fluoride is a really strong factor bring oning opposition to cavities and of importance for remineralisation of early cavities lesions. The relevant information on fluorides has to be obtained by patient interviews. Amount spit secreted: Appraisal of the saliva flow rate is done. The sum and the quality of the spit is recorded. Medication, radiation therapy to caput and cervix that affect the salivary secretory organs, salivary rocks, anorexia nervosa, autoimmune diseases and diabetes mellitus are illustrations of grounds for the low secernment rate. In mensurating saliva flow rate, either unstimulated or stimulated saliva secernment is chosen. Saliva buffer capacity: The spit has several of import protective maps, both for dentition and for unwritten mucosal surfaces. Its clearance of nutrient dust, sugars and acids from the unwritten pit is of import for cavities protection. Saliva buffer system seek to maintain pH near to impersonal. Buffer capacity is of import spits factor that is measured. Clinical opinion: The entire feeling of the cavities state of affairs, including societal factors, gives a positive position, more positive than what the Cariogram seems to bespeak. The tester would wish to do the green sector bigger or smaller to better or diminish the Chance to avoid cavities sector for the patient.5 Estimating cavities hazard utilizing cariogram: When all the information associating to the factors was estimated, including consequences of the spit trials, the relevant information was entered into the Cariogram computing machine plan to cipher the cavities hazard. Cariogram assesses the hazard of future cavities activity and expresses the consequence as the opportunity of avoiding cavities. The opportunity varies on a graduated table from 0 to 100 % . A 0 % opportunity of avoiding cavities means that lesions will decidedly happen over clip ( high cavities hazard ) . And 100 % opportunity of avoiding cavities means that there is no hazard of future cavities activity ( low cavities hazard ) . 8 Decision: Cariogram theoretical account can be able to place the caries-related factors that could be the grounds for the hereafter cavities hazard anticipation, and hence assist the tooth doctor to be after appropriate preventative measures.9 This caries-risk appraisal should be repeated on a regular basis as an assistance in the preventative and non-operative direction of the cavities disease.6 Cavities hazard can be estimated in particular attention kids, disabled, bedfast patients and appropriate cavities preventative actions can be initiated. How to cite Occurrence Of Dental Caries Health And Social Care Essay, Essay examples