Victim ID: VA1892101101
Victim Name: William Young
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: 26
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged
Accusation: Murder of a white boy
Date: 1892-10-11
City: Palmyra
Mob Composition: 20-25 men

Summary: William Young, a 26 years old African American man living in Fluvanna County, was lynched on October 11^th, 1892. A mob took him from the jail in Palmyra, where he was awaiting trial for the murder of a white boy, and hung him by a tree.

The Richmond Dispatch reported that on Saturday October 8^th, 1892, Philip Young, an ex-penitentiary convict, allegedly murdered Walter Glass, a white boy, by shooting him in the head with a gun loaded with gravel. According to the Alexandria Gazette, “Glass had accused Young of stealing money from him, and Young, it is charged, met him in the road near Central Plains and shot him.” Late at night on Tuesday, October 11^th, 1892, a group of 12-20 men took Young from the jail in Palmyra where he was chained and cuffed to the floor with multiple locks and hung him from a tree in a grave-yard near the jail. The Richmond Dispatch reported that “so quiet were the movements of the mob that no one but the participants (not even the jailer) knew of the tragedy being enacted in the quiet little village.”

While newspapers report the name of the lynching victim as Philip Young, a Coroner’s Inquisition in the Fluvanna Historical Society Archives identified the victim of the lynching as William Young. The Coroner’s report also indicated that Young’s body was still hanging in the tree at the site of an old cemetery for the enslaved residents of Solitude Plantation, while the inquest was being held.

For an in-depth examination of this lynching, you can read this essay from Dr. Steve Schlanger.

Archival Sources: Coroner’s Inquisition

News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Richmond Dispatch, Richmond Times, Roanoke Times

Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1892-10-11)
Article Link (from Richmond Dispatch published on 1892-10-13)
Article Link (from Richmond Times published on 1892-10-12)
Article Link (from Roanoke Times published on 1892-10-13)