Six Miles to Charleston Read Online Free PDF

Law” actually came from a 1780 compact signed by him and his neighbors in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The compact allowed them to uphold their own brand of law outside of legal authority. Regardless of the origins of Lynch’s Law, it was nothing more than mob justice without legal authority. The state of South Carolina eventually created laws against such acts.
    Lynching is now a felony. Lynching in the first degree, section 16-3-210 of the South Carolina Code of Laws, deals with the death of a person at the hands of a mob. Any person found guilty of lynching in the first degree shall suffer death unless the jury shall recommend the defendant to the mercy of the court, in which the defendant shall be confined at hard labor in the state penitentiary for a term not exceeding forty years or less than five years at the discretion of the presiding judge.
    Lynching in the second degree, section 16-3-220 of the South Carolina Code of Laws, is an act of violence by a mob in which death does not occur. It is a felony and any person found guilty of the crime shall be confined at hard labor in the state penitentiary for a term not exceeding twenty years or less than three years at the discretion of the presiding judge. While lynching in the first degree is rarely used when a charge of murder will suffice, second-degree lynching is still utilized in cases of gang violence within the state. It is considered by investigators to be the state’s gang statute. That is exactly what a gang is: it is a mob gathered together in unison to commit violent and criminal acts. Then again, in present-day South Carolina, lynch mobs, or gangs, are illegal. The year of 1819 was quite different. Remember that colonial justice does not equal criminal justice, but we will cover that in a later chapter.
    Apparently a gang of these robbers had set up shop in the area of Ashley Ferry just outside of Charleston. The robbers could not be identified by any of the victims, so the lynch mob set out to find and disband the group and force them away from the inns in the area. They allegedly had permission from the owners of several small houses in the area to proceed as they saw fit. The fact that the Charleston newspaper, the Courier , reports that this group set forth to find and drive away a group they could not even identify is quite interesting.
    The mob arrived at a house commonly called the Five Mile House and found a small group gathered there. The group was ordered to vacate the premises and was given fifteen minutes to comply. When they protested, resisted and failed to comply in leaving the building, the lynch mob responded by setting the building on fire. In a very short time it burned to the ground along with some adjacent outbuildings. The Five Mile House was completely destroyed.
    The lynch mob then reorganized and proceeded farther up the road to Six Mile House to repeat the process. The same order was given to vacate, and this time the occupants thought it best to comply quickly. Rest assured that the smoke and ash in the February air blowing from the remains of Five Mile House was incentive enough. So were the warnings of its former occupants. After the occupants had departed and the Six Mile House was vacant, the lynch mob placed a young man inside to watch over the property. That man’s name was David Ross.
    Armed under the pretext of Lynch’s Law, the mob had ridden out from Charleston first to the Five Mile House and, after administering their own brand of justice, they then proceeded to the Six Mile House to do the same. They had no legal authority and were not represented by such in any way. Documentation also shows that not one of the robbery victims could identify any of their assailants. Regardless of these facts, the lynch mob returned to Charleston with the feeling they had successfully and completely driven out and disbanded the occupants of both inns. An account of their actions was reported in the Charleston