Overview

In The Texas Lowcountry: Slavery and Freedom on the Gulf Coast, 1822–1895, author John R. Lundberg examines slavery and Reconstruction in a region of Texas he terms the lowcountry—an area encompassing the lower reaches of the Brazos and Colorado Rivers and their tributaries as they wend their way toward the Gulf of Mexico through what is today Brazoria, Fort Bend, Matagorda, and Wharton Counties. In the two decades before the Civil War, European immigrants, particularly Germans, poured into Texas, sometimes bringing with them cultural ideals that complicated the story of slavery throughout large swaths of the state. By contrast, 95 percent of the white population of the lowcountry came from other parts of the United States, predominantly the slaveholding states of the American South. By 1861, more than 70 percent of this regional population were enslaved people—the heaviest such concentration west of the Mississippi. These demographics established the Texas Lowcountry as a distinct region in terms of its population and social structure. Part one of The Texas Lowcountry explores the development of the region as a borderland, an area of competing cultures and peoples, between 1822 and 1840. The second part is arranged topically and chronicles the history of the enslavers and the enslaved in the lowcountry between 1840 and 1865. The final section focuses on the experiences of freed people in the region during the Reconstruction era, which ended in the lowcountry in 1895. In closely examining this unique pocket of Texas, Lundberg provides a new and much needed region-specific study of the culture of enslavement and the African American experience.

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9781648431753

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Reviews

"""Texas Lowcountry perfectly showcases the art of painstakingly combing local sources and weaving them together with larger context to create a study that is both a pleasure and a must read. Lundberg's new regional identity argument ties together an impressive amount of nineteenth century Texas history creating a field changer--hands down. The level of detail provided for almost a century of race relations and the unflinching portrayal of the realities of slavery and its aftermath will stay with readers long after the book's completion and very likely influence the field for decades to come.""--Jessica Brannon-Wranosky, distinguished professor of Digital Humanities and History, Texas A&M University-Commerce--Brannon-Wranosky ""In The Texas Lowcountry, John Lundberg makes a convincing case for a regional approach to Texas history. This detailed and deeply researched study centers the people caught within and constantly resisting slavery, convict leasing, and Jim Crow, which Lundberg illustrates were fundamental not only to this region but to the entire Lone Star State. The exhaustive research into the Texas Lowcountry's nearly 200 plantations is a boon not only to scholars but to the historic preservationists, local and public historians, and archaeologists working to save the region's real, honest history.""-- Whitney Nell Stewart, author of This Is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations--Whitney Nell Stewart ""This important book on slavery and freedom in the southern plantation belt of Texas provides a landmark study that will stand for decades as essential reading. The astute analysis presented in this volume rests on the highest standards of academic historical scholarship. It provides a comprehensive and unsurpassed discussion of chattel slavery across its entire existence in Texas from the arrival of Anglo-Americans until the end of the Civil War. The volume also cogently examines the impact that emancipation had on altering the lives of those freed by the war across the years of Reconstruction into the era of Jim Crow. The Texas Lowcountry blazes new trails of historical analysis that all future scholars working in nineteenth century Texas history will undoubtedly follow.""--Light Townsend Cummins, author of Emily Austin of Texas and former state historian of Texas--Cummins"

Author Information

John R. Lundberg is professor of history at Tarrant County College South and associate editor of the East Texas Historical Journal. He is the author of Granbury’s Texas Brigade: Diehard Western Confederates and The Finishing Stroke: Texans in the 1864 Tennessee Campaign.

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