The term "lynching" originated in Altavista, Virginia, during the
Revolutionbry War, when Col. Charles Lynch took the law into his own hands
instead of taking British sympathizers to Williamsburg for trial.  He tied
the accused to a tree on the Avoca property and lashed them.  The tree
remains, filled with concrete, are on the Avoca Museum property.  Later the
term came to mean "hanging by the neck until dead".

Just a tidbit of Virginia history.

Laura Catherine D. Fortune
James R. Fortune