The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 84, July 1980 - April, 1981 Page: 54
502 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
that era of inadequate medical knowledge and high child-mortality
rates. By the date of this journal, seven children had been born to Web-
ster and his wife, but only four survived. An eighth child was born on
December 8, 1858 ("Mrs. Webster's babe" referred to in the journal)
and a ninth in 1864. It seems that he was also a productive planter, who
gave considerable attention to the daily operation of his farm and who
remained attuned to the cycle of weather and crops. Like most com-
mercial farmers across Texas, he was concerned with the improvement
of transportation facilities that moved crops to market. As early as 1849
he promised, along with his father, to contribute to a fund being raised
for removing obstacles to nagivation on Caddo Lake, Harrison County's
primary connection to Shreveport. Undoubtedly he cheered the build-
ing of the county's first railroad in 1858. Finally, Webster was the owner
of human property. We cannot be certain, but it appears that he was a
trusting and perhaps even lenient master, who at the same time had no
qualms or anxieties about owning other men.10
Clearly John B. Webster was recognized as a man of standing and im-
portance in his community. In November, 186o, following the election
of Abraham Lincoln, "The Largest and Most Imposing Meeting Ever
Convened in the County" was held to consider the proper response to
the threat of northern Republicanism. John B. Webster was chosen to
preside and deliver the "keynote" address. Webster, said the Texas Re-
publican, is "a gentleman who has never occupied a prominent position
as a politican, and who, on this occasion, was selected on account of his
moral worth, his prudence, and known conservatism.""
Webster's speech, however, was anything but conservative. He in-
sisted that the South was being denied equal rights under the Constitu-
tion, that northern fanaticism threatened the Union, and that to accept
Lincoln's professions of conservatism would be "fatal and suicidal."
Speaking of the South's situation, he said:
I have given it my solemn and most serious thought. I am not ashamed to
say it-I profess to be a christian-I have made it a subject of prayerful
consideration; and before God, and with a full sense of the high responsi-
bility encountered, I say the South should withdraw from the Union!
Demographic Comment on the 'Buying' and 'Selling' States," Journal of Southern History,
XLII (Aug., 1976), 4o01-412. For the statistical context of slave labor productivity in Har-
rison County, see Randolph B. Campbell, "The Productivity of Slave Labor in East Texas:
A Research Note," Louisiana Studies, XIII (Summer, 1974), 154-172.
10Finnell (comp.), "Brown ... and Allied Families"; Texas Republican (Marshall), June
15, 1849.
11Texas Republican (Marshall), Dec. 1, 186o.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 84, July 1980 - April, 1981, periodical, 1980/1981; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101225/m1/74/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.