It seems that the creation of the Italian state in the middle of the nineteenth century had resulted in large numbers of unskilled, landless Sicilians whom the Italians were glad to get rid of and whom plantation owners in the US deep south were glad to take to replace the black labour which was moving north. Opportunities which looked attractive enough from Sicily, but which often, if not usually, turned out to be pretty grim when they got there.
The local whites treated them in pretty much the same way as they treated the blacks - that is to say very badly - and over time the Sicilians made common cause with the blacks.
All of which culminated with a spate of lynchings around 1900, with perhaps 50 victims altogether. Not just race, as commercial rivalry was another part of the mix, as it had been with witches, several centuries earlier. About which lynchings the authorities did little, while otherwise respectable people looked on, some approvingly. Including here the future President Theodore Roosevelt.
So numbers small and it was all a long time ago - but I still found it rather shocking. A reminder that the ugly violence which is all too much part of life in the US has taken and continues to take many forms.
The piece closes by telling us that the author has been unable to arrange for publication into English. All the Amazons I tried know about the book, but the only translation I could find, into German, turned up in Amazon France. Sadly, no good to me.
Reference 1: NYRB - Vol.LXVI, No.10 - June 6, 2019.
Reference 2: Storia vera e terribile tra Sicilia e America - Enrico Deaglio - 2015.
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