Rev. Mr. Jotham Warren Horton (1826 – August 5, 1866) was a clergyman originally from
New England
New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
and a supporter of black suffrage in Louisiana after the American Civil War who was assassinated by the
New Orleans Police Department
The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) has primary responsibility for law enforcement in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The department's jurisdiction covers all of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Orleans Parish, while the city itself is div ...
under New Orleans mayor
John Monroe as part of the
New Orleans massacre of 1866.
Biography
The son of a Rev. Jotham Horton, Methodist of Nantucket and Bromfield, Horton was a graduate of
Newton Theological Seminary. He was married in Acton, Massachusetts, on June 4, 1848, to Mary Rowell. Horton was the pastor of the Coliseum Baptist Church of New Orleans and had been asked to open the planned
constitutional convention with a prayer.
According to a newspaper account published in November 1866, "Reverend Horton received five balls in his body and fell. Those balls were fired by policemen. Not satisfied with their work, they seized him battered his head with their billy clubs, stabbed him, then kicked and dragged him over the pavements to the first Police station. The mob followed behind cursing and trampling him with their shoes. Then thrusted him into a cell where he was left mangled and senseless."
He was said to have been waving a white flag of truce when he was first shot. He died of his injuries on August 5.
Before he died he asked his wife to make sure someone else covered a sermon he was expected to make at another church. His funeral was Wednesday, August 29 at
Tremont Temple
The Tremont Temple on 88 Tremont Street is a Baptist church in Boston, Massachusetts, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches, USA. The existing multi-storey, Renaissance Revival structure was designed by Boston architect Clarence Blackall ...
in Boston.
He was buried at
Mount Auburn.
Horton's
Southern Unionist
In the United States, Southern Unionists were white Southerners living in the Confederate States of America and the Southern Border States opposed to secession. Many fought for the Union during the Civil War. These people are also referred t ...
brother
Gustavus Horton was military mayor of
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobil ...
in 1867.
Two of Jotham Horton's nephews had served in the Confederate Army.
See also
*
J. B. Blanding
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horton, Jotham
1826 births
1866 deaths
Baptist ministers from the United States
Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
People murdered in Louisiana
People murdered in 1866
Violence during Reconstruction (1865–1877)
People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Louisiana
People murdered by law enforcement officers in the United States
Activists for African-American civil rights
Assassinated American civil rights activists