Narrative Essay Ap World History

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I drew nearer to my aunt, confused and more than a little afraid, but she shook off my clutching hand. Her head turned like an antenna seeking a signal. The sound of a chase grew closer -- desperate, pounding feet and shouts. A man with a wild expression came around a corner and nearly knocked over a stall. Young men were almost on his heels, followed some distance behind by a larger cluster. The man ran past us, and it seemed as if I could see the pores in his skin. As he pushed past, my aunt slapped him across the face. He flinched but didn't stop; he was headed for the courtyard in the middle of the market, where the retired elders sat daily to dispense justice. I imagined the man bursting into the clearing, cries of ''Sanctuary, sanctuary!'' breaking from his lips. The council of elders was the highest court in my community, besides, of course, the civil system. It arbitrated on everything from murder…show more content…
Rife with condemnations of the mob lynchings that were becoming the norm in the 70's, the editorials pointed out that these victims of vigilante justice received no trials and that the crimes they were accused of were never investigated. The editorials went a step further to suggest that most of those killed this way were probably innocent. But in the terror of that moment, editorials were of little use to the man running for his life and would do little to placate the angry horde. My aunt dragged me along behind the crowd that swept past us. The man stood in the middle of the clearing facing the elders while the crush of people pressed around them. In the center of this sacred space, the sole elder to stand up and call for tolerance was booed and pelted with rotten fruit. He sat down quickly and turned his face away. I was sure that the man was about to be lynched. How could the crowd ignore the elder's intervention? And why didn't the other elders speak

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