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Lynching - a form of mob violence in which a mob executes a presumed offender, often also torturing the person and mutilating the body, without trial, under the pretext of administering justice. The term “lynch law” refers to a self-constituted court that imposes sentence on a person without due process of law. Lynching is also sometimes used to refer to a severe, but non-lethal punishment that is administered suddenly, and without opportunity for defense, by a group whose power and influence allow them to ignore any ethical or legal considerations. Both terms are derived from the name of Charles Lynch, a Virginia planter who lived during the 1700's. He and his neighbors took the law into their own hands and punished Tories, those who supported the British in the time surrounding the American Revolution, in a variety of ways, including tarring and feathering, sometimes killing them; sometimes not. Such "justice" was already being applied in other places, to other unfortunate people. The burning times in Europe were in full swing, claiming 100,000 lives, mostly women, between 1560 and 1760, as they were each accused by their neighbors of being witches, for God only knows what reasons. Most were burned at the stake. Our American version of the great witch-hunt was limited to only 19 women hanged and one man pressed to death in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1690. The leaders of the good Christian lynch mob were later found to have ulterior motives (namely coveting their neighbors' land) but it was no consolation to the dead. Subsequent to the Revolution, and prior to the late 1800's, lynching was primarily applied to persons accused of crimes where no legal authority was established, such as the American West. Objects of the lynch mob were often suspected horse thieves or other purported miscreants. Surely they were all guilty. As the West became civilized, lynching was redirected mostly toward black people in the South, and the favorite method of death was hanging. Almost any "offense" was sufficient grounds for this public spectacle. In these cases, those locals responsible for upholding law and order turned a blind eye at best, participated and even encouraged at worst. The last official recorded lynching of a black person, on account of race, occurred in 1968 (according to the 1990 World Book Encyclopedia). Those who assume lynching has fallen into disfavor in America would be mistaken, since hate is unfortunately still alive and well in the hearts of some Americans. The James Byrd Jr. dragging death in deep East Texas in 1998 certainly qualifies, as it meets the original definition of a lynching perfectly. That one happened only 100 miles or so from my doorstep. Other modern-day lynchings have simply found new targets, such as gay people, like Matthew Shepard, or transgendered people, like Brandon Teena or Gwen Araujo. No, I fear that lynching is here to stay. This concludes today's etymology lesson.
8/7/03 |
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Last Update 1/10/99 |