Texas Terror: The Slave Insurrection Panic of 1860 and the Secession of the Lower South. By Donald E. Reynolds. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. xiv, 237 pp. $45.00, ISBN 978-0-8071-3283-8.)
2008; Oxford University Press; Volume: 95; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/25095686
ISSN1945-2314
Autores Tópico(s)Cuban History and Society
ResumoIn the summer of 1860 a series of mysterious fires in Dallas and other north Texas towns destroyed dozens of buildings. The fires were probably caused by the spontaneous ignition of a new type of phosphorous match, but within a week reports circulated, primarily through Texas newspapers, that the fires were set by slaves as part of a massive plot engineered by northern abolitionists active in Texas. Texas newspaper editors, especially Charles Pryor of the Dallas Herald, fanned fears of mass murder and a slave insurrection. Suspicion was immediately focused on all northerners in Texas, especially recent arrivals. Vigilante groups were organized throughout the state to ferret out those suspected of abolitionist activity. Vigilante justice was swift. The execution of at least thirty alleged conspirators can be documented; the author, Donald E. Reynolds, believes the total number of executions is probably higher. The best known of the executions was that of Anthony Bewley, a minister of the northern Methodist Church. Although born in Tennessee, Bewley refused to join the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, when the national church divided over the issue of slavery. After helping organize the Missouri Conference of the northern church, Bewley moved to Texas in the late 1850s to establish a missionary program for the northern church. When news of the Texas reaction to the mysterious fires spread, Bewley and his family fled from Texas. A local vigilante group pursued Bewley through Arkansas, caught him in southern Missouri, and escorted him back to Texas. Late on the evening of September 13, a mob hanged Bewley. His body was left hanging until the next day when he was cut down and hastily buried. His body was later unearthed, stripped of remaining flesh, and placed on the roof of a local storehouse.
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