Ida B Wells Southern Horrors Summary

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In Ida B. Wells’ works Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases and A Red Record, Ida B. Wells argues against the lynching of African Americans of the time. Wells’ uses many strategies and techniques to make her arguments as convincing as possible throughout her works. She also uses clear language and well-structured sentences to make it clear what she is arguing. Ida B. Wells makes sure to use statistics and offers rebuttals to the opposing side’s point of view to strengthen her argument. Wells presents these arguments by isolating and clearly stating the problem, giving descriptive and specific examples, using statistics, and offering rebuttals. One major reason Ida B. Wells’ argument is so convincing is the way she isolated the problem at hand and stated it clearly. She made sure to bring the problem to light in its true form. Wells’ talks clearly of the true horror that lynching was in the south. Lynching was a horrible problem that was spreading throughout the south of the time. It was all too common and seemed to be an almost everyday occurrence where people were used to lynching taking place. For example, in A Red Record, Wells shows the records of 1894 and how 132 people were executed under United States law while 197 people were lynched and killed due to mobs without being able to defend themselves. Ida B. used lynching statistics of the time to show the sheer number of people who were lynched and just how common the problem was. These statistics showed how