A Bare Bones History: Lynching in Manatee County

This thesis examines lynchings in Manatee County. Most Florida residents associate Manatee County with the scenic Manatee River, sea cows, the festive Hernando-Desoto Parade, cattle or the beauty in developing the land. But, this wonderful place also has a dark past, secrets hushed by shame and time. This history includes Will English, a black man shot to death on the Fourth of July, 1912; the deaths of six unidentified black men in 1896; the lynching of Henry Thomas, also a black man, March 9th, 1903 and the many other gruesome racial murders that live on the memories and pasts of Manatee County\u27s inhabitants. The purpose of this thesis is to demarginalize the story of lynching victims by creating a more complete historical account of the county that I call home