Electrocution and the Tar Heel state: The advent and demise of a southern sanction

During the latter decade of the nineteenth century and early decades of the twentieth century, adoption of the electric chair spread rapidly from the North, down the eastern seaboard, and throughout the Deep South States. The method of execution was hailed as technologically advanced, and proved to be the most prevalent means of execution in the twentieth century. In 1909, North Carolina became the sixth state in the nation to adopt the new method, which would later stand as a cultural icon of southern punishment. In 1935, the state oddly abandoned the method, and shifted to lethal gas, a method that until that time had only been employed in a few western states. While North Carolina’s violent crime rates and yearly executions rivaled those of the Deep South during the 1920s and 1930s, the state’s political and social climate would directly lead to the demise of a cultural artifact that became synonymous with the institution of southern justice.