@therealblackhistorian: Anthony Crawford was a prominent black farmer who owned 427 acres of land in Abbeville County, adjacent to his brothers’ properties. He was assaulted, arrested and placed in jail after a disagreement with a white store owner over the price of cottonseed that Crawford brought to the market on Oct. 21, 1916.
Crawford was released on $15 bail, but was later abducted by a mob of at least 200 white men and then lynched at a nearby fairground. A South Carolina newspaper reported a headline the next day: “Negro Strung Up and Shot to Pieces.
Anthony Crawford was lynched in 1916 in Abbeville, SC by a crowd estimated to be between 200 and 400 blood-thirsty white people. His crime you might ask? Cursing a white man for offering him a low price for the cotton seed he was trying to sell and being too rich for a Negro.
His ordeal lasted all day. His body was beaten and dragged through town to show other Negroes what would happen to them if they got “insolent.” Finally, he was taken to the county fair grounds and strung up to a tree and riddled with bullets. Although we have heard his body was thrown on someone’s lawn, we have yet to locate his grave.
The family was ordered to vacate their land, wind up business and get out of town. They did just that.
His family was given only a short window to leave the state, under threat and intimidation. They were forced to abandon their home, land, and possessions in a matter of days.
The mob that took his life also took what he had built over decades. His farm, equipment, and property were seized, erasing much of the economic foundation he had created for his family.
Land ownership was more than wealth. It represented independence, stability, and a pathway to generational progress. For many Black families, it was one of the few ways to build security in a system stacked against them.
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