Texas slave insurrection panic of 1860

Law-enforcement agencies stepped aside to allow extrajudicial killing of Black Texans and of white people thought to be abolitionists.

[1]: 14–21 On July 8, 1860 fires broke out in more than a dozen Texas towns, destroying parts of Dallas, Denton, Pilot Point, and other communities.

The fires were likely caused by the extremely hot and dry weather – 110 degrees Fahrenheit was reported that day in Dallas – and in particular by stores of white phosphorus matches which spontaneously combust in high heat.

Pryor believed the ministers wanted "to devastate, with fire and assassination, the whole of Northern Texas"[2] by recruiting opponents of slavery to commit arson, and then to cause a slave revolt on an upcoming election day.

Panic spread, and many communities in Texas formed vigilance committees to respond to the alleged conspiracy with racist violence.

Through tortured confessions and their own paranoia, vigilance committees elaborated a complex conspiracy, imagining a white command hierarchy directing an army of Black arsonists, assassins, poisoners, and wife-stealers.

"[5] An estimated 30 to 100 people were killed, according to historians, although "no hard evidence was ever adduced to prove the guilt of a single alleged Black arsonist or White abolitionist.

For example, a 1949 article in the journal of the Texas State Historical Association says that violent reprisal is a justified response to insurrection "whether real or imagined.