Charles Lynch

Charles Lynch (August 8, 1783February 9, 1853) was a Democratic and Whig politician who served as Governor of Mississippi and was a former enslaver. Early life and career Charles Lynch was born in 1783 in either South Carolina or Virginia. He was born into a planter family, and settled as a farmer near Monticello, Mississippi, sometime before 1821, when he was appointed probate judge of Lawrence County, Mississippi. According to the 1820 US Federal Census, Lynch also enslaved seven people. In 1827, he was elected to the Mississippi State Senate, and returned to the State Senate after the Constitutional Convention of 1832. Governorship and Later Life Lynch returned to the Mississippi Senate in 1832. He was elected President of the Senate, and in June 1833, he succeeded Governor Abram L. Scott, who had died in office. He completed Scott's term, serving until November 1833, when he was succeeded by Hiram Runnels. In his first six-month tenure as governor, Lynch advocated for a state system of public schools, but his plan was rejected by the State Legislature.