It Could Happen Here Weekly 167

3917.255 - 3940.208 Steven Monticelli

Eventually, they hanged three African Americans and set off what would become known as the Texas Troubles. Fires broke out across the state, and each got blamed on black suspects and their supposed white abolitionist instigators, often men from northern states. As one historian put it, white Texan enslavers decided it was better to, quote, hang 99 innocent men than to let one guilty pass.