STUDY QUESTIONS
CALIFORNIA: AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY (8th Ed.)
CHAPTER 10 - CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
- What is the historical debate about vigilantism in California? What
are the racist notions behind the historical defense?
- What opinion do the authors of the text hold as to vigilantism?
- Where did the first California committee of vigilance emerge?
- What, according to the text, has not been emphasized by historians as a
motive for vigilantism in California?
- What were the motives (overt, ulterior, irrational, and subconscious) of
the vigilantes?
- Who were the Hounds?
- What was the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance? What was the
crime of the first man it hanged?
- The Committee of 1851 was promoted as being the "best citizens"
of the community, but what type of citizens actually made up its early
members?
- Why weren't lawyers welcomed onto the Committee of 1851?
- Who was Josefa Segovia (aka Juanita) and why was she hanged?
- Were there differences in vigilante violence between San Francisco and Los
Angeles?
- How were the motivations of members of the San Francisco Committee of 1856
different from those of 1851?
- In what way was the 1856 Committee "a Business Man's
Revolution?"
Key Names, Terms, and Concepts