On September 13, 1860, a mob in Fort Worth, Texas, lynched a Methodist pastor named Anthony Bewley. His crime? He dared to oppose slavery in a state where even the faintest whisper of abolitionism could cost a person their life.
Born in Tennessee on May 22, 1804, Anthony Bewley was a man of deep religious conviction. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church as a young man and went on to serve as a pastor in Virginia, where he married Jane Winton. Together they moved to Missouri, where the issue of slavery would soon divide their church, and the country.
Although slavery was often defended using the Bible, not all pastors agreed. Some ministers, including Bewley, believed that owning other human beings was morally wrong, even if the practice was condoned in the Bible. These men believed that true Christian values meant treating all people with dignity and justice, something slavery clearly violated.
In 1844, the Methodist Church split over the issue of slavery. While many Southern congregations aligned themselves with the newly formed Methodist Episcopal Church, South, a denomination that supported slavery, Bewley refused to join them. He remained loyal to the anti-slavery Methodist Episcopal Church, a decision that would shape the rest of his life and ultimately cost him his life.
In 1858, Bewley and his family moved to Johnson City, Texas. But Texas was a dangerous place for anyone who opposed slavery. In 1859, after pro-slavery groups disrupted a church conference, the Bewleys left town for their safety. They returned in the spring of 1860, hoping things had settled down.
Their return coincided with a wave of hysteria sweeping Texas in the summer of 1860. Following a series of unexplained fires, rumours spread that abolitionists and Unionists were plotting slave revolts. Newspapers fueled the paranoia, and local vigilante groups formed to hunt down anyone they thought might be involved. In this climate of suspicion, a letter surfaced, supposedly written by another minister to Bewley, urging him to spread abolitionist ideas in Texas. Bewley insisted the letter was a forgery, but no one cared.
Sensing danger, Bewley fled for Kansas under the cover of darkness. That same day, a mob lynched another man accused of Unionist sympathies, William Crawford. A group of men tracked Bewley down, arrested him, and dragged him back to Fort Worth. On the night of September 13, a mob stormed the jail, seized the 56-year-old preacher, and hanged him from a pecan tree near the intersection of White Settlement Road and Jacksboro Road.
Even in death, Bewley was not allowed peace. His body hung for over a day, left out in the open as a warning to anyone who might dare speak out against slavery in Texas. Later, he was buried in a shallow grave, but his remains were eventually dug up and placed on the roof of a local store, where they were put on display.
Source:
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