Overview Of The Forgotten Dead By William D. Carrigan

The book, The Forgotten Dead by William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb, tells of the Mexican lynch victims from the 19th and 20th century whose stories’ were lost to history. The main idea of the book is to show the reason why Mexicans were lynched and to show how their under representation was due to the lack of documentation of their deaths. According to the authors, the book’s purpose is to unravel why the victims were lynched, why the witnesses of the murders did not share the victims’ stories, how their “fellow Mexicans” reacted to these lynching’s and what the meanings behind their deaths were (Carrigan et al). The book wants to get to the root of why the Mexicans lynched were not as acknowledged as other races; for example the African Americans’ lynched. In essence, the book is entitled The Forgotten Dead because “more than almost all other victims of lynching, Mexican victims have been the “forgotten dead” (Carrigan et al 13). Overall, the thesis of the book is to inform the reader of the Mexican lynch victims who have not been given the same acknowledgement as other races and to tell of what “the reactions of Mexicans, whites and blacks to…that violence” (Carrigan et al 13) was during the time of the lynching.

For example, they informed us of the violence towards Mexicans after the Mexican American war where although Mexicans were to be considered “white” by law, but were instead lynched for their race and property. Also, the authors’ offer the reader instances where not all Anglos considered the violent acts towards Mexicans as being justifiable by any means. As they give recollections of history during this time, they also offer the stories of both innocent and guilty lynch victims in hopes of assessing that the judicial system was not given the chance to be