🎙 Episode 1 Fort Worth Before the Myth: Slavery, Power, and the City We Inherited Podcast: We Got The Funk Episode Length: ~30 minutes Format: Audio-only 📄 Episode Description Before Fort Worth became “where the West begins,” it was a slaveholding frontier town built on forced labor, silence, and selective memory. In this opening episode, we strip away the mythology and examine slavery in Fort Worth as it actually existed — not as a footnote, but as a foundation. Using court records, census data, and firsthand accounts, this episode names names, tells real stories, and confronts slavery’s most uncomfortable truths — including sexual violence, mixed-race children, and the ways power protected itself long after emancipation. This is not a general history of slavery. This is Fort Worth’s story. 🎧 What This Episode Covers •The largest slaveholders in early Fort Worth, including E.M. Daggett, Middleton Tate Johnson, Nathaniel Terry, and Charles Turner Where their names still appear today — in streets, buildings, and city memoryThe lynching of white minister Anthony Bewley, and how his wife later identified local elites as ringleaders“Slavery’s dirty secret”: sexual violence, coercion, and the creation of mixed-race childrenThe life of Jeff Daggett — from birth into slavery, through violence, law enforcement, and public scandal, to his deathHow slavery didn’t end cleanly in Fort Worth — it evolved🧠 Why This Episode Matters Fort Worth did not accidentally forget its past. It curated it. Understanding who held power, how they used it, and who paid the price helps explain: Why inequality persisted after emancipationWhy certain families retained influenceWhy some stories were preserved — and others erasedThis episode sets the foundation for everything that follows in this series. 📚 Sources & Research This episode draws heavily from: A History of Fort Worth in Black & WhiteCensus records and slave schedulesCourt transcripts and newspaper accountsReconstruction-era documentationAdditional sources and visuals will be shared on social media. 🔔 Subscribe, Support, Share If this episode gave you language, clarity, or discomfort — that’s the point. Follow or subscribe wherever you’re listeningRate & review the show to help others find itShare this episode with someone who loves Fort Worth — or needs to understand it betterTo support the research and production of this podcast, check the links below.
