Nassau Plantation: The evolution of a Texas-German slave plantation

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In the 1840s an organization of German noblemen, the Mainzner Adelsverein, attempted to settle thousands of German emigrants on the Texas frontier. Nassau Plantation, located near modern-day Round Top, Texas, in northern Fayette County, was a significant part of this story. James C. Kearney has studied a wealth of original source material (much of it in German) to illuminate the history of the plantation and the larger goals and motivation of the Adelsverein. This new study highlights the problematic relationship of German emigrants to slavery. Few today realize that the society’s original colonization plan included ownership and operation of slave plantations. Ironically, the German settlements the society later established became hotbeds of anti-slavery and anti-secessionist sentiment. Several notable personalities graced the plantation, including Carl Prince of Solms-Braunfels, Johann Otto Freiherr von Meusebach, botanist F. Lindheimer, and the renowned naturalist Dr. Ferdinand Roemer. Dramatic events also occurred at the plantation, including a deadly shootout, a successful escape by two slaves (documented in an unprecedented way), and litigation over ownership that wound its way to both the Texas Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Date: March 15, 2010
Creator: Kearney, James C.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
From Slave to Statesman: The Legacy of Joshua Houston, Servant to Sam Houston (open access)

From Slave to Statesman: The Legacy of Joshua Houston, Servant to Sam Houston

This biography discusses the life of Joshua Houston starting at around twelve years of age until his death in 1902. The text includes commentary on the historical context of his life and anecdotal accounts. Index starts on page 259.
Date: 1993
Creator: Prather, Patricia Smith, 1943- & Monday, Jane Clements, 1941-
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Juneteenth Texas: Essays in African-American Folklore (open access)

Juneteenth Texas: Essays in African-American Folklore

Volume of essays about African-American folklore, including reminiscences of African-American folk culture in Texas, studies of specific genres of folklore, information about Texas-African food-ways, studies of specific performers, information about songs and other folklore. The index begins on page 353.
Date: 1996
Creator: Abernethy, Francis Edward
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tone the Bell Easy (open access)

Tone the Bell Easy

Volume of Texas and Mexican folklore, including folktales about witches, superstitions, slavery, folk cures, folk songs and other legends. The index begins on page 190.
Date: 1932
Creator: Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank), 1888-1964
Object Type: Book
System: The Portal to Texas History

Spartan Band: Burnett's 13th Texas Cavalry in the Civil War

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In Spartan Band (coined from a chaplain’s eulogistic poem) author Thomas Reid traces the Civil War history of the 13th Texas Cavalry, a unit drawn from eleven counties in East Texas. The cavalry regiment organized in the spring of 1862 but was ordered to dismount once in Arkansas. The regiment gradually evolved into a tough, well-trained unit during action at Lake Providence, Fort De Russy, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and Jenkins' Ferry, as part of Maj. Gen. John G. Walker's Texas division in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Reid researched letters, documents, and diaries gleaned from more than one hundred descendants of the soldiers, answering many questions relating to their experiences and final resting places. He also includes detailed information on battle casualty figures, equipment issued to each company, slave ownership, wealth of officers, deaths due to disease, and the effects of conscription on the regiment’s composition. “The hard-marching, hard-fighting soldiers of the 13th Texas Cavalry helped make Walker’s Greyhound Division famous, and their story comes to life through Thomas Reid’s exhaustive research and entertaining writing style. This book should serve as a model for Civil War regimental histories.”—Terry L. Jones, author of Lee’s Tigers
Date: March 15, 2005
Creator: Reid, Thomas
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

William & Rosalie: a Holocaust Testimony

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William & Rosalie is the gripping and heartfelt account of two young Jewish people from Poland who survive six different German slave and prison camps throughout the Holocaust. In 1941, newlyweds William and Rosalie Schiff are forcibly separated and sent on their individual odysseys through a surreal maze of hate. Terror in the Krakow ghetto, sadistic SS death games, cruel human medical experiments, eyewitness accounts of brutal murders of men, women, children, and even infants, and the menace of rape in occupied Poland make William & Rosalie an unusually explicit view of the chaos that World War II unleashed on the Jewish people. The lovers’ story begins in Krakow’s ancient neighborhood of Kazimierz, after the Germans occupy western Poland. A year later they marry in the ghetto; by 1942 deportations have wasted both families. After Rosalie is saved by Oskar Schindler, the husband and wife end up at the Plaszow work camp under Amon Goeth, the bestial commandant played by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List. While Rosalie is on “heaven patrol” removing bodies from the camp, William is working in the factories. But when Rosalie is shipped by train to a different factory camp, William sneaks into a boxcar to …
Date: August 15, 2007
Creator: Schiff, William; Schiff, Rosalie & Hanley, Craig
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Rainbow in the Morning (open access)

Rainbow in the Morning

Collection popular folklore of Texas, including work songs, reptile myths, ballads and other folk songs of the South. The index begins on page 185.
Date: 1975
Creator: Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank), 1888-1964
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Sutton-taylor Feud: the Deadliest Blood Feud in Texas

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The Sutton-Taylor Feud of DeWitt, Gonzales, Karnes, and surrounding counties began shortly after the Civil War ended. The blood feud continued into the 1890s when the final court case was settled with a governmental pardon. Of all the Texas feuds, the one between the Sutton and Taylor forces lasted longer and covered more ground than any other. William E. Sutton was the only Sutton involved, but he had many friends to wage warfare against the large Taylor family. The causes are still shrouded in mystery and legend, as both sides argued they were just and right. In April 1868 Charles Taylor and James Sharp were shot down in Bastrop County, alleged horse thieves attempting to escape. During this period many men were killed “while attempting to escape.” The killing on Christmas Eve 1868 of Buck Taylor and Dick Chisholm was perhaps the final spark that turned hard feelings into fighting with bullets and knives. William Sutton was involved in both killings. “Who sheds a Taylor's blood, by a Taylor's hand must fall” became a fact of life in South Texas. Violent acts between the two groups now followed. The military reacted against the killing of two of their soldiers in …
Date: February 15, 2009
Creator: Parsons, Chuck
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Women in Civil War Texas: Diversity and Dissidence in the Trans-Mississippi

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Women in Civil War Texas is the first book dedicated to the unique experiences of Texas women during this time. It connects Texas women’s lives to southern women’s history and shares the diversity of experiences of women in Texas during the Civil War. Contributors explore Texas women and their vocal support for secession, coping with their husbands’ wartime absences, the importance of letter-writing, and how pro-Union sentiment caused serious difficulties for women. They also analyze the effects of ethnicity, focusing on African American, German, and Tejana women’s experiences. Finally, two essays examine the problem of refugee women in east Texas and the dangers facing western frontier women. The contents include: "Everyone has the war fever" / Vicki Betts -- Caroline Sedberry, politician's wife / Dorothy Ewing -- He said, she said / Beverly Rowe -- Finding joy through hard times / Brittany Bounds -- Black Texas women and the freedom war / Bruce A. Glasrud -- Black women and Supreme Court decisions during the Civil War era / Linda S. Hudson -- Mexican-Texan women in the Civil War / Jerry Thompson and Elizabeth Mata -- Courage on a Texas frontier / Judith Dykes-Hoffman -- "In favor of our fathers' country …
Date: October 2016
Creator: Liles, Deborah M. & Boswell, Angela
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Queen of the Confederacy: the Innocent Deceits of Lucy Holcombe Pickens

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From book jacket: "Submissiveness is not my role, but certain platitudes on certain occasions are among the innocent deceits of the sex." A strong character with a fervent belief in woman's changing place, Lucy Holcombe Pickens (1832-1899) was not content to live the life of a typical nineteenth-century Southern belle. Wife of Francis Wilkinson Pickens, the secessionist governor of South Carolina on the eve of the Civil War, Lucy was determined to make her mark in the world. She married "the right man," feeling that "a woman with wealth or prestige garnered from her husband's position could attain great power." She urged Pickens to accept a diplomatic mission to the court of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, and in St. Petersburg Lucy captivated the Tsar and his retinue with her beauty and charm. Upon returning to the states, she became First Lady of South Carolina just in time to encourage a Confederate unit named in her honor (The Holcombe Legion) off to war. She was the only woman to have her image engraved on Confederacy paper currency, the uncrowned "Queen of the Confederacy."
Date: May 15, 2002
Creator: Lewis, Elizabeth Wittenmyer
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Living in the Shadow of a Hell Ship: The Survival Story of U.S. Marine George Burlage, a WWII Prisoner-of-War of the Japanese

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U.S. Marine George Burlage was part of the largest surrender in American history at Bataan and Corregidor in the spring of 1942, where the Japanese captured more than 85,000 troops. More than forty percent would not survive World War II. His prisoner-of-war ordeal began at Cabanatuan near Manila, where the death rate in the early months of World War II was fifty men a day. Sensing that Cabanatuan was a death trap, he managed to get transferred to the isolated island of Palawan to help build an airfield for his captors. Malaria and other tropical diseases caused him to be sent to Manila for treatment in 1943 (a year later, 139 of his fellow POWs were massacred on Palawan). After another year of building airfields, Burlage survived a 38-day voyage in the hull of a Japanese hell ship and ended the war as a miner for Mitsubishi in northern Japan. By sheer luck, strength, and a bit of sabotage, he survived and was freed in September 1945 after the Japanese surrendered. He had endured starvation and torture and lost half of his prewar weight, but no one had killed him. After the war Burlage became a journalist and wrote about …
Date: September 15, 2020
Creator: Burlage, Georgianne
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Gideon Lincecum's Sword: Civil War Letters From the Texas Home Front (open access)

Gideon Lincecum's Sword: Civil War Letters From the Texas Home Front

Compilation of letters written by Gideon Lincecum, a natural scientist and philosopher living in Texas, discussing various events and his experiences during the Civil War as a proponent of the Confederacy. The collection includes editorial notes and commentary. Index starts on page 373.
Date: 2001
Creator: Lincecum, Jerry Bryan; Phillips, Edward Hake & Redshaw, Peggy A.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Analytical Index to Publications of the Texas Folklore Society, Volumes 1-36 (open access)

Analytical Index to Publications of the Texas Folklore Society, Volumes 1-36

Index to the first thirty six volumes of the Publications of the Texas Folklore Society. The book is broken up into three parts: Specialized Indexes, Tale Synopses and an Alphabetical Index.
Date: 1973
Creator: Bratcher, James T.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Still the Arena of Civil War: Violence and Turmoil in Reconstruction Texas, 1865/1874

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Following the Civil War, the United States was fully engaged in a bloody conflict with ex-Confederates, conservative Democrats, and members of organized terrorist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, for control of the southern states. Texas became one of the earliest battleground states in the War of Reconstruction. Throughout this era, white Texans claimed that Radical Republicans in Congress were attempting to dominate their state through “Negro-Carpetbag-Scalawag rule.” In response to these perceived threats, whites initiated a violent guerilla war that was designed to limit support for the Republican Party. They targeted loyal Unionists throughout the South, especially African Americans who represented the largest block of Republican voters in the region. Was the Reconstruction era in the Lone Star State simply a continuation of the Civil War? Evidence presented by sixteen contributors in this new anthology, edited by Kenneth W. Howell, argues that this indeed was the case. Topics include the role of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the occupying army, focusing on both sides of the violence. Several contributors analyze the origins of the Ku Klux Klan and its operations in Texas, how the Texas State Police attempted to quell the violence, and Tejano adjustment to Reconstruction. Other chapters …
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Howell, Kenneth W.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

A History of Fort Worth in Black & White 165 Years of African-American Life

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A History of Fort Worth in Black & White fills a long-empty niche on the Fort Worth bookshelf: a scholarly history of the city's black community that starts at the beginning with Ripley Arnold and the early settlers, and comes down to today with our current battles over education, housing, and representation in city affairs. The book's sidebars on some noted and some not-so-noted African Americans make it appealing as a school text as well as a book for the general reader. Using a wealth of primary sources, Richard Selcer dispels several enduring myths, for instance the mistaken belief that Camp Bowie trained only white soldiers, and the spurious claim that Fort Worth managed to avoid the racial violence that plagued other American cities in the twentieth century. Selcer arrives at some surprisingly frank conclusions that will challenge current politically correct notions. "Selcer does a great job of exploring little-known history about the military, education, sports and even some social life and organizations."--Bob Ray Sanders, author of Calvin Littlejohn: Portrait of a Community in Black and White.
Date: November 2015
Creator: Selcer, Richard F.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Family Saga: A Collection of Texas Family Legends (open access)

The Family Saga: A Collection of Texas Family Legends

Series of family anecdotes, collected from authors across the state of Texas describing general family history, how families arrived in Texas, and experiences related to the Civil War, Indians, animals, religion, ghosts, feuds, historic figures, and various other topics. Index starts on page 349.
Date: 2003
Creator: Abernethy, Francis Edward; Lincecum, Jerry Bryan & Vick, Frances Brannen, 1935-
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Between the Cracks of History: Essays on Teaching and Illustrating Folklore (open access)

Between the Cracks of History: Essays on Teaching and Illustrating Folklore

Volume of twenty-one essays about folklore in Texas, including essays about police burials, railroads, graffiti, folk music, dance halls, and other folklore. The index begins on page 279.
Date: 1997
Creator: Abernethy, Francis Edward
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Follow de Drinkin' Gou'd (open access)

Follow de Drinkin' Gou'd

This volume includes information about the play-party in Oklahoma, folklore of Texas birds, tall tales, folk anecdotes, Texas folk songs and ballads, and other folklore (back cover). The index begins on page 185.
Date: 2000
Creator: Texas Folklore Society
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
2001: A Texas Folklore Odyssey (open access)

2001: A Texas Folklore Odyssey

This volume of the Publications of the Texas Folklore Society "contains a sample of the research that members of the Society were doing at the turn of the millennium as represented at the 1998, 1999, and 2000 meetings." The volume covers "a wide variety of contemporary and historical topics," including baby lore, stories about notable women, stories about food and cooking, information about the Model T Ford, and more (inside front cover). The index begins on page 339.
Date: 2001
Creator: Abernethy, Francis Edward
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Seventh Star of the Confederacy: Texas During the Civil War

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On February 1, 1861, delegates at the Texas Secession Convention elected to leave the Union. The people of Texas supported the actions of the convention in a statewide referendum, paving the way for the state to secede and to officially become the seventh state in the Confederacy. Soon the Texans found themselves engaged in a bloody and prolonged civil war against their northern brethren. During the course of this war, the lives of thousands of Texans, both young and old, were changed forever. This new anthology, edited by Kenneth W. Howell, incorporates the latest scholarly research on how Texans experienced the war. Eighteen contributors take us from the battlefront to the home front, ranging from inside the walls of a Confederate prison to inside the homes of women and children left to fend for themselves while their husbands and fathers were away on distant battlefields, and from the halls of the governor’s mansion to the halls of the county commissioner’s court in Colorado County. Also explored are well-known battles that took place in or near Texas, such as the Battle of Galveston, the Battle of Nueces, the Battle of Sabine Pass, and the Red River Campaign. Finally, the social and …
Date: March 15, 2009
Creator: Howell, Kenneth W.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Spur-of-the-Cock (open access)

Spur-of-the-Cock

Collected miscellany of Texas and Mexican folklore, including stories about the Mayo Indians, Mexican folk plays, folk songs, information about Texas cacti and other folklore. The index begins on page 110.
Date: 1933
Creator: Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank), 1888-1964
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Captain J.A. Brooks, Texas Ranger

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James Abijah Brooks (1855-1944) was one of the four Great Captains in Texas Ranger history, others including Bill McDonald, John Hughes, and John Rogers. Over the years historians have referred to the captain as “John” Brooks, because he tended to sign with his initials, but also because W. W. Sterling’s classic Trails and Trials of a Texas Ranger mistakenly named him as Captain John Brooks. Born and raised in Civil War-torn Kentucky, a reckless adventurer on the American and Texas frontier, and a quick-draw Texas Ranger captain who later turned in his six-shooter to serve as a county judge, Brooks’s life reflects the raucous era of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century American West. As a Texas Ranger, Brooks participated in the high profile events of his day, from the fence-cutting wars to the El Paso prizefight, from the Conner Fight–where he lost three fingers from his left hand–to the Temple rail strike, all with a resolute demeanor and a fast gun. A shoot-out in Indian Territory nearly cost him his life and then jeopardized his career, and a lifelong bout with old Kentucky bourbon did the same. With three other distinguished Ranger captains, Brooks witnessed and helped promote the …
Date: March 15, 2007
Creator: Spellman, Paul N.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Both Sides of the Border: A Scattering of Texas Folklore (open access)

Both Sides of the Border: A Scattering of Texas Folklore

Collection of Tex-Mex folklore and related essays, including papers presented at Texas Folklore Society meetings. The book is organized into four topical categories: I. Remembering Our Ancestors, II. Texas-Mexican Folklore, III. Miscellaneous Memorabilia, and IV. The Family Saga (Cont'd).
Date: November 15, 2004
Creator: Abernethy, Francis Edward & Untiedt, Kenneth L.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Best of Texas Folk and Folklore: 1916-1954 (open access)

The Best of Texas Folk and Folklore: 1916-1954

This volume of the Publications of the Texas Folklore Society contains information about folklore in Texas and Mexico, including folk songs and ballads, ghost stories, Mexican animal tales, sermons, stories about games and celebrations, folklore of Texas plants, and information about folk remedies. The index begins on page 349.
Date: 1998
Creator: Texas Folklore Society
Object Type: Book
System: The Portal to Texas History