Italian La Mano Nera. any of various secret criminal groups organized in Italy and operating in the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, practicing blackmail and violence.
2.
an anarchistic society in Spain, suppressed in 1883.
3.
a nationalistic society in Serbia, suppressed in 1914.
Related forms
Blackhander, noun
British Dictionary definitions for Black Hand
Black Hand
noun
1.
a group of Sicilian blackmailers and terrorists formed in the 1870s and operating in the US in the early 20th century
2.
(in 19th-century Spain) an organization of anarchists
Word Origin and History for Black Hand
n.
Italian immigrant secret society in U.S., 1904; earlier a Spanish anarchist society, both from the warning mark they displayed to potential victims.