The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991 Page: 637
692 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Book Reviews
ers, and laws to preserve slave families from separation, might bring
Southern society into harmony with its divine mission, but they threat-
ened to undercut the very control mechanisms on which slavery was
based. Dependent on the largely non-slaveholding soldiers for their
survival, planters were forced to react to and accommodate concepts
contrary to their own interests.
Faust believes that the existence of this basic disharmony is more im-
portant than current disagreements among historians concerning the
actual degree of internal dissent, class tension, or the Southern people's
will to victory. "The substance of Confederate nationalism, rather than
the quantity or quality of its adherents' faith, was thus the ultimate
source of its disintegration. Confederate ideology was defeated in large
measure by internal contradictions that wartime circumstances brought
so prominently to the fore" (p. 84).
The constraints of a brief review cannot do justice to the subtlety or
complexity of Faust's arguments. This work, now available in paper-
back, will make a fine assignment for graduate-level seminars in South-
ern history.
Southwest Missourz State University WILLIAM GARRETT PISTON
An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 182I-I865. By
Randolph B. Campbell. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University
Press, 1989. Pp. xii+ 306. Preface, introduction, tables, maps, notes,
conclusions, appendices, bibliography, index. $35.)
Remarkably enough, this volume is the first book-length study of
slavery in Texas. Yet now Texans can lay claim to having the newest and
arguably the best of the state studies of human bondage in the Old
South. The author, Randolph B. ("Mike") Campbell of the University
of North Texas, has since the early 197os written numerous articles and
monographs on various aspects of mid-nineteenth-century Texas his-
tory and society, some of them coauthored with his North Texas col-
league Richard G. Lowe. An Empire for Slavery, which has already won
the Texas State Historical Association's Coral Horton Tullis Memorial
Prize for 1989's best work in Texas history, clearly establishes Campbell
as the premier historian of antebellum Texas.
For those who think of Texas as only a marginal slave state on the eve
of the Civil War, and as therefore more western than southern, this
book will make for disconcerting reading. Indeed, Campbell empha-
sizes the importance of slavery to the first Anglo-American settlers in
Mexican Texas, including Stephen F. Austin, who concluded in 1833
that "Texas must be a slave country" (p. 30). In 1835-1836 Anglo-Tex-
ans often justified their revolution against Mexico with arguments that637
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991, periodical, 1991; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101214/m1/715/?rotate=90: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.