The gruesome lynching of that black boy in 1916 told by Harry Belafonte...

And he beat a white woman to death with a hammer and confessed to it over an argument regarding mules. I suppose you wanted him to have three hots and a cot?

Apart the fact it wasn't clear if Washington was dead when being burned, I think the movie pretty much covered how barbaric was his death. I know he killed that woman but definitely didn't deserve such an horrific death. The crowd was probably pissed that they could not hang him before the trial so they tortured him to show they still had "control".

It's beyond me how normal people can assist and enjoy such things. But in medieval times, torture was very common and people were enjoying it like a show. In fact, only 100 years or so before Washington, they were still officially doing even more gruesome sentences. Lookout the guy who tried to kill the French king Louis XV. I won't repeat the details here but be ready to make nightmares after reading it. I remember Casanova relating in his novel that some people had intercourses while watching the horrific death and the crowd applauded after the untenable ordeal...