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Lynching in Virginia
The history of lynching in the state of Virginia is still surrounded by many misconceptions. Even though is has been decades since the last of the official lynchings took place, it is still difficult to find reliable and accurate information that accurately represents what went on during that period in history. Many of the primary documents on the issue are relatively sketchy and they avoid the real truth of the matter. Memories that have been passed down through generations are also somewhat sketchy and often they are changed by the passage of time. There are some surviving photographs but they do not really give insight into the meanings and motivations of the tradition, and instead show only the brutality (Allen, 2000).
It does appear, however, that the lynching practice did originate in Virginia with Col. Charles Lynch and some of his associates (Brundage, 1993). It is not known whether the activities that took place under this gentleman account for the naming of the town of Lynchburg, Virginia, or not. Even though the practice of lynching originated in that state, Virginia has the lowest rate of all ex-confederate states for lynchings that can be historically verified. Evidence also indicates that lynching in the state of Virginia has not officially existed since the 1920s but it does continue even today in many isolated cases.
According to dictionary definitions of the issue and within popular usage of the term, lynching refers to any type of mob-style action outside of the law involving more than...
Many of the crimes that were punishable by lynching were not specifically limited to ongoing and official investigations or to crimes that were seen outlined within the actual law. One of the main misconceptions regarding the use of the word lynching is that it was used as a synonym for hanging. This is not the case, however, as most early lynchings in Virginia consisted of whipping or similar punishments (Cutler, 1905). Even the early Virginia lynchings that did resulted in death were not always related to hanging. Other methods for lynching included torturing, shooting, skinning, beheading, burning alive, and other grizzly methods (Brundage, 1993). Lynching is believed to be peculiar to the United States alone, with no other countries having this type of problem in their history, at least not in the same context.
Most people also believe that lynching was always involved with white individuals torturing or killing a black individual. However, between the 1830s and the 1850s the vast majority of individuals that were lynched in this country were white. This did not change until the 1890s. In an important work written by Fitzhugh Brundage (1993), lynching is described in the ways in which physical geography and social patterns in the nation contributed to the issue. The highest rate of lynchings was in the state of Georgia and Brundage (1993) discusses the state of Virginia as having few lynchings because those who were white in Virginia believed…
Bibliography
Allen, James, ed., Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America. Santa Fe: Twin Palms
Publishing, 2000.
Brundage, Fitzhugh W. Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1993.
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