Reseña del libro "A Less Perfect Union: Texans Against Succession (en Inglés)"
Slavery had a rapidly growing footprint in Texas prior to the Civil War. It was originally concentrated in the Blackland area around the Brazos River basin in southeast Texas that was prime for cotton-growing, and, to an increasing extent, in northeast Texas. Large areas of west and north Texas were sparsely settled or occupied (and fiercely defended) by Native Americans. The Hill Country was increasingly settled by German immigrants who were mostly ambivalent to, or further to the west, heavily opposed to slavery. Other early settlers throughout Texas came from Southern states where slavery was accepted. As the Civil War loomed, the split between Unionists and pro-slavery Texans became more apparent. Governor Sam Houston tried to avert secession but found pro-slavery and secession fervor impossible to overcome. Texas finally seceded and joined the Confederacy in March of 1861. There is little or no new factual history presented here. Standard sources are used to construct the general national background that illuminates the more local Texas events. Rather, the purpose of this book is to examine the effects of slavery in Texas, how it contributed to the rift between Unionist and secessionist factions, and how it led to bloody internal fights and rifts within the Lone Star State before, during, and after the Civil War. Lingering effects up to the present are also explored. For the convenience of the reader, some material is collected at the end of the text. Included are a timeline of relevant events, full texts of some important documents and monument inscriptions, a bibliography, a list of some terms that are becoming obsolete or had different meanings in earlier times, and an index.
