A "Lynch" mob. How did it get its name?

Question

Does anyone know how the name "Lynch Mob" came to be? Or a "Lynching"?

Answer 1

The most likely eponym for the concept of Lynch law as summary justice is William Lynch, the author of "Lynch's Law", an agreement with the Virginia General Assembly (Virginian state legislature) on September 22, 1782, which allowed Lynch to pursue and punish criminals in Pittsylvania County, without due process of law, because legal proceedings were in practical terms impossible in the area due to the lack of adequate provision of courts.

Others believe the term came into use only with Colonel Charles Lynch, a Virginia magistrate and officer on the revolutionary side during the American Revolutionary War, who in any case continued William's practice, as the head of a vigilance committee, an irregular court, trying and sentencing to fining and imprisoning petty criminals and pro-British "Tories" in his district circa 1782.

Answer 2

The term "lynch law" refers to a self-constituted court that imposes sentence on a person without due process of law. Both terms are derived from the name of Charles Lynch, a Virginia planter and patriot who, during the American Revolution, headed an irregular court formed to punish Loyalists.

Summary and irregular justice have been practiced in many countries under unsettled conditions whenever informally organized groups have attempted to supplement or replace legal procedure. The fehmic courts of medieval Germany had some aspects of lynching, as did the gibbet law and Cowper justice of border districts in England. The Santa Hermandad institution in medieval Spain and pogroms directed against Jews in Russia and Poland were similar, though in these cases there was support from legally constituted authorities.

Statistics of reported lynching in the United States indicate that, between 1882 and 1951, 4,730 persons were lynched, of whom 1,293 were white and 3,437 were black. Lynching continued to be associated with racial disputes during the 1950s and '60s when civil rights workers and advocates were threatened and in some cases killed by mobs.

Answer 3

ok this is a racial subject so im going to tread lightly!

Lynching is the illegal execution of an accused person by a mob. The term lynching probably derived from the name Charles Lynch (1736-96), a justice of the peace who administered rough justice in Virginia. Lynching was originally a system of punishment used by whites against African American slaves. However, whites who protested against this were also in danger of being lynched. On 7th November, 1837, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, the editor of the Alton Observer, was killed by a white mob after he had published articles criticizing lynching and advocating the abolition of slavery.

After the establishment of the Ku Klux Klan in 1867 (who by the way should all be castrated) the number of lynching of African American increased dramatically. The main objective of the KKK was to maintain white supremacy in the South, which they felt was under threat after their defeat in the Civil War. It has been estimated that between 1880 and 1920, an average of two African Americans a week were lynched in the United States

Answer 4

From lynching people - for whatever reason - must have been terrible as well. Imagine - " mum lynch mob are at door, they want a word...."

Answer 5

In the late 18th century, Pittsylvania County, Virginia, was troubled by criminals who could not be dealt with by the courts, which were too distant. This led to an agreement to punish such criminals without due process of law. Both the practice and the punishment came to be called lynch law after Captain William Lynch, who drew up a compact on September 22, 1780, with a group of his neighbors. Arguing that Pittsylvania had "sustained great and intolerable losses by a set of lawless men ... that ... have hitherto escaped the civil power with impunity," they agreed to respond to reports of criminality in their neighborhood by "repair[ing] immediately to the person or persons suspected ... and if they will not desist from their evil practices, we will inflict such corporeal punishment on him or them, as to us shall seem adequate to the crime committed or the damage sustained." Although lynch law and lynching are mainly associated with hanging, other, less severe punishments were used. William Lynch died in 1820, and the inscription on his grave notes that "he followed virtue as his truest guide." But the good captain, who had tried to justify vigilante justice, was sentenced to the disgrace of having given his name to the terrible practice of lynching.

Answer 6

Perhaps the word comes from the Irish name, Lynch.

Answer 7

Mobs used to lynch people in the Middle Ages. To 'lynch' someone means to hang someone, but not lawfully.