The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994 Page: 149
754 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
sults were disappointing. Manpower was in limited supply, yet patrols were dou-
bled to prevent a general slave uprising. Slaves were excluded from the military
draft, but a handful did fight. An even smaller number were rewarded with free-
Negro status. Nevertheless, a harsh slave code was written into the constitution
of the Republic and persisted after statehood.
Lack has written a path-breaking book. His research is thorough and his writ-
ing style commands the reader's attention. Practitioners of Texas history are in
his debt.
University of Houston STANLEY E. SIEGEL
A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguin.
By Jesus F. de la Teja. (Austin: State House Press, 1991. Pp. xii+216. Pref-
ace, black-and-white photographs, illustrations, appendices, sources, bibli-
ography, index. $21.92.)
Of the Mexican Texans who fought on the side of the rebels in 1835-1836,
Juan N. Seguin played the most conspicuous role. After the rebellion, Seguin
served Texas in several ways, including as mayor of San Antonio and as the only
tejano elected to the senate of the Texas Republic. He also served himself as a
land speculator and as a smuggler, until a complex series of events cast doubt on
his loyalty to Texas and forced him to resign as mayor and seek exile in Mexico
in 1842. Six years later he returned to San Antonio, where he tried to refurbish
a reputation further tarnished by his participation on the Mexican side of the re-
cent war with the United States.
In the apparent hope of renewing his political career in Texas, Seguin wrote a
brief account of his role in the Texas rebellion and told his side of the story
about the events that drove him into exile. In 1858, Seguin published these Per-
sonal Memoirs in San Antonio in English (a Spanish version, if it existed, has nev-
er been found), but like Seguin himself the Memoirs were nearly forgotten until
the Chicano movement of the 196o0s nudged scholars to reexamine the Hispanic
past. By then, the Memoirs had become rare; not even the University of Texas at
Austin had a complete copy. A facsimile of the Memoirs appeared in 1976 (We-
ber, ed., Northern Mexico on the Eve of the United States Invasion: Rare Imprints ...
[New York: Arno Press]), but that volume, too, has become scarce.
The publication of A Revolution Remembered makes Seguin's Memoirs widely ac-
cessible for the first time. Expertly edited by Jesfs de la Teja, the Memoirs stand
as the centerpiece of this volume and appear in two versions: the original of
1858, written in fractured English, and de la Teja's more readable interpreta-
tion. A Revolution Remembered also contains seventy-three documents pertaining
to Seguin during the years treated in the Memoirs. Rich in details, such as
Seguin's recollection of crawling on all fours through enemy lines to carry a
message out of the Alamo, some of these documents have never appeared in
print and some are translated here for the first time. In his substantial introduc-
tion to A Revolution Remembered, de La Teja has written the fullest and most au-149
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994, periodical, 1994; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117154/m1/177/?rotate=90: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.