Definition
Black mail (also written blackmail) has two distinct meanings in legal usage, separated by centuries of development:
1. HISTORICAL TRIBUTE MEANING: In its original and strictly historical legal sense, black mail was a form of tribute or rent paid by vulnerable inhabitants — particularly in the border counties of northern England and Scotland — to powerful local chieftains or armed men in exchange for protection from raids, theft, and violence. It was, in effect, coerced payment for safety: pay the stronger party, or suffer plunder at the hands of those the stronger party could either restrain or unleash.
2. MODERN EXTORTION MEANING: In contemporary legal usage, blackmail is a form of extortion in which a person threatens to expose damaging, embarrassing, or incriminating information about another unless that person pays money or provides some other benefit. The threat is the mechanism; the demanded benefit is the goal. Unlike robbery or traditional extortion by physical threat, blackmail operates through the leverage of reputational or legal harm.
The two meanings share a structural core — coerced payment under threat — but differ in the nature of the threat and the historical context in which each arose.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To blackmail someone is to coerce them into doing something by threatening to reveal compromising or damaging information. Colloquially extended to any situation where pressure is applied through threatened exposure or harm.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Black mail" is defined as a tribute formerly exacted in the north of England and in Scotland by freebooting chiefs for protection from pillage; by extension, any payment extorted by intimidation or pressure.
The gap between common and legal usage is narrower here than for many legal terms — popular usage has largely absorbed the extortion meaning. The important distinction for legal research is that "blackmail" as a statutory offense in modern law is defined with precision (specific mens rea, specific categories of threat, specific demanded benefit), while casual usage applies the term loosely to any perceived coercion. Researchers should also note that in some jurisdictions "blackmail" and "extortion" are separate statutory offenses with technical distinctions, even when colloquially treated as synonyms.
Common Confusion
Blackmail and extortion are frequently used interchangeably in popular and even legal writing, but they are not always identical as statutory terms. Extortion traditionally encompassed coercion through threats of physical violence or abuse of official power; blackmail more specifically targeted threats of exposure or reputational harm. Many modern codes have merged the two or defined blackmail as a subspecies of extortion. A researcher must identify the specific jurisdiction and statute before assuming the terms are coextensive. Similarly, the historical "black mail" (tribute paid to border ruffians) should not be read backward into modern extortion doctrine — the historical usage is descriptive of a feudal protection-rent arrangement, not a criminal offense in the modern sense.
Why It Matters in Research
The spelling and spacing of the term matters in older sources: "black mail" (two words) almost invariably signals the historical tribute meaning; "blackmail" (one word) typically signals the modern extortion offense. Researchers working in pre-twentieth-century materials, particularly English and Scottish legal sources, will encounter "black mail" as a feudal or quasi-feudal economic arrangement, not as a crime label. Confusing the two produces serious anachronism.
In American legal materials, blackmail as a criminal offense developed primarily through state statutes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Federal law addresses related conduct under mail fraud and wire fraud statutes rather than under a standalone "blackmail" offense — a structural choice that affects how federal cases are searched and classified. Researchers looking for federal prosecutions of classic blackmail conduct should search under extortion (Hobbs Act) and mail/wire fraud, not under a "blackmail" heading.
Jurisdictional variation in statutory language is significant. Some states use "blackmail" as the operative charge; others fold the conduct into extortion or theft by coercion. Cross-referencing statutory indexes for all three terms is advisable before concluding that a jurisdiction does or does not criminalize particular conduct.
The historical record for the tribute meaning is primarily found in English and Scottish antiquarian legal sources, border history chronicles, and Spelman's Glossarium — not in case reporters. Burrill draws directly on Spelman and on Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border for the historical meaning. Researchers should not expect to find court decisions applying "black mail" in its tribute sense; the evidence is archival and historical rather than judicial.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the most developed treatment of the historical tribute meaning among the standard shelf dictionaries. Burrill defines black mail as rent or tribute paid by poorer inhabitants of the northern English border counties to powerful Scottish border chieftains (potenti alicui Scoto limitaneo) for protection against Scottish rievers and moss troopers — armed border raiders who operated in the lawless marches between England and Scotland. Burrill cites Spelman's Glossarium for the Latin formulation and Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border for narrative context.
This is a case where the historical dictionaries are genuinely useful for the original meaning but offer limited guidance on the modern criminal offense. The evolution from tribute-rent to extortion offense happened largely through statutory development that post-dates the classic legal dictionaries. Researchers relying solely on Burrill or similar sources will find a thorough account of the feudal origin but will need to turn to criminal law treatises and statutory compilations for the modern doctrine.
The "mail" element in the original term did not refer to postal mail — it derived from an Old English or Norse term for rent or tribute paid in goods or coin (as distinguished from "white mail," which was rent paid in silver). This linguistic origin is occasionally relevant to historical interpretation but has no bearing on modern blackmail doctrine.
Jurisdictional Note
In England and Wales, blackmail is a statutory offense under the Theft Act 1968 and is defined with specific elements distinct from general extortion. In the United States, the term is used inconsistently across jurisdictions — some states have standalone blackmail statutes, others treat the conduct under extortion, coercion, or theft provisions. Federal prosecutors pursuing blackmail-type conduct typically proceed under the Hobbs Act or mail/wire fraud theories rather than any "blackmail" statute.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia: Wire Fraud and Mail Fraud (18 USC 1341, 1343) — relevant for federal prosecution theories applied to blackmail-type conduct.