The Trees

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racial violence, racial hatred, lynchings, and other forms of racist behavior.

The Trees is a novel that explores the long-lasting ramifications of America’s history with lynchings and Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that legalized segregation based on race. They were enforced as a reaction to the emancipation of enslaved peoples in 1863. Jim Crow laws allowed for states and towns to use arbitrary but abusive laws to keep the Black community poor, imprisoned, and in fear, much like under enslavement. These laws denied African Americans the right to vote, hold certain forms of employment and government positions, live in certain areas, and attend certain schools. Jim Crow laws gave white Americans the power to accuse Black people of almost anything.

The Jim Crow era Southern United States experienced frequent lynchings. Lynching refers to the extrajudicial and illegal murders of people from communities of color. Lynching was a form of stochastic terrorism used to frighten Black people away from fighting for their civil rights. Lynching typically involved hanging from trees. Lynching was such a part of American culture that some towns even held public lynching parties and featured graphic lynching photographs on postcards.