Rape in The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, 1880 & 1900

In her article, Freedman argues that rape coverage in American newspaper was racialized in the period from 1870 to 1900 and this racialization was deliberate because it attempted to support the establishment of a narrative that portrayed black men as violent, black women as promiscuous, and white women as defenseless creatures who needed protection from white men. The support of this narrative would help maintain the social hierarchy that white men wanted to sustain because it portrayed them as inherently superior to both black Americans and women.

The coverage of rape in the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer generally supports this argument, although the majority of the 30 selected stories does not specify the race of the offender or the victim. Of the total 30 stories of rape cases from 1880 and 1900, 7 stories specified the offender as a black man and the victim as a white woman, one story specified the offender as a black man and the victim as a black woman, one story only specified the race of the offender as a black man, and the remaining 21 stories did not specify the race of the offender or the victim.

Many of the stories that specify a black offender and a white victim focus on the consequences that befell the offender. Freedman explains that newspapers often presented the subject of the rapist through mention of the consequences of the man’s crime: executions, revenge killings, and lynchings. Lynchings and mob violence are a key focus in many of the stories of rape in the Intelligencer, which can be seen in the level of attention the paper gave stories that involved racial tension. For example, one of the lengthier stories of 1900 at 975 words, “Peck Pleads Guilty and is Sent to the Pen,” involved the arrest and conviction of a black man in Ohio charged with criminal assault of a 4 year-old girl which then incited a riot and mob violence that ended up killing at least one innocent woman.

The only story that specified a black offender and a black victim involved a black man, who had “been considered a bad negro for several years,” who was arrested for attempted rape of an 11 year-old black girl in West Virginia. So, the credibility of the black man is still mentioned even though the victim was black, and this case was most likely reported because of both the man’s reputation and the young age of the victim.