Wells-Barnett's Agency

In Well's Barnett's "Lynch Laws of America" she uses various appeals of pathos and logos as a way to give herself authority in talking to not just black people about lynching but white people as well. In her opening statement on page 1 she says, "Our country's national crime is lynching." We noticed in discussion her use of language in this sentence is a way to lump all her readers into one category. As she continues to write using factual and graphic details she doesn't seem to be using her femininity or even her skin color as a way to prove her claims.

I believe this is done because she doesn’t wish to be just seen as black or white or even a woman, but she wants to be seen as an American. The presentation group for Agency stated that, “Agency is a social structure representative of individuals who are divided into different categories based on externals.” Wells-Barnett uses information like being sued by other countries for wrongful lynching deaths as a way to create an external force that gives the reader a sense of American agency. This American agency allows Wells-Barnett to reach not only a larger audience than just black readers who already know about lynching, but also a more sophisticated one in the case of white males who might have more power in changing these “unwritten laws”.