Anthony Bewley (May 22, 1804 – September 13, 1860) was an

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

pastor who was lynched in

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

, Texas for his anti-slavery views. Bewley was born in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

and became a minister for the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

as a young man. After serving in Virginia and marrying his wife Jane Winton, the Bewleys moved to

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. In 1844, the church split over the issue of slavery, with Bewley rejecting the move of the Missouri church to join the pro-slavery Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1858, the Bewleys and their children moved to Johnson City, Texas, west of Austin. Later the next year, the Bewleys fled when pro-slavery activists disrupted a church conference. The Bewleys returned, however, in spring 1860. That year, as pro-slavery Texans sought out those who might harbor abolitionist sympathies, newspapers published an alleged letter to Bewley where another minister encouraged him to promote abolitionism. Bewley denied that the letter was authentic, but, fearing for his life, he fled for Kansas. Bewley departed under cover of darkness the same day that a mob lynched Unionist William Crawford. A posse chased him, and brought him back to Fort Worth on September 13. 1860. That same evening, a mob descended on the jail, seized him, and hung him from a nearby tree. Following his lynching, Bewley was placed in a shallow grave. As his bones became exposed, a local merchant displayed the bones on the roof of his warehouse.

References

1804 births 1860 deaths People from Tennessee {{US-bio-stub