ABOUT THIS BOOK

This anthology brings together the late Barry A. Crouch's most important articles on the African American experience in Texas during Reconstruction. Grouped topically, the essays explore what freedom meant to the newly emancipated, how white Texans reacted to the freed slaves, and how Freedmen's Bureau agents and African American politicians worked to improve the lot of ordinary African American Texans. The volume also contains Crouch's seminal review of Reconstruction historiography, "Unmanacling Texas Reconstruction: A Twenty-Year Perspective." The introductory pieces by Arnoldo De Leon and Larry Madaras recapitulate Barry Crouch's scholarly career and pay tribute to his stature in the field of Reconstruction history.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Barry A. Crouch (1941-2002) was a professor of history at Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C., for twenty-one years. During his distinguished scholarly career, he published three dozen journal articles, almost as many book reviews, and three books.

Larry Madaras is Professor Emeritus of History at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland. He lives in Lake Worth, Florida.

REVIEWS

Barry Crouch was a pioneer revisionist whose work greatly influenced a new generation of Texas historians. . . . This anthology will appeal to many audiences, both academic and general. It will be an ideal reader for courses on Southern history, Texas history, and the history of African Americans. . . . This volume will also be controversial among laypeople and some scholars, especially among white Texans and other white Southerners. Many of them believe the Civil War is still raging and that old Dixie still has a chance to win. Their sacred cows, such as their view of ‘scalawags’ and ‘carpetbaggers,’ are confronted head on. Crouch might become the man they love to hate.James

— Smallwood Oklahoma State University (emeritus), author of Murder and Mayhem: The War of Reconstruction in Texas (coauthored with Barry Crouch and Larry Peacock), Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans during Reconstruction, and The Struggle Upward: Blacks in Texas

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by Arnoldo De León
Acknowledgments by Larry Madaras
Introduction by Larry Madaras
Part I. Historiography
- 1. "Unmanacling" Texas Reconstruction: A Twenty-Year Perspective
- Postscript to Part I
Part II. Freedom
- 2. Reconstructing Black Families: Perspectives from the Texas Freedmen's Bureau Records
- 3. Black Dreams and White Justice
- 4. Seeking Equality: Houston Black Women during Reconstruction
- Postscript to Part II
Part III. Reaction
- 5. A Spirit of Lawlessness: White Violence, Texas Blacks, 1865-1868
- 6. Crisis in Color: Racial Separation in Texas during Reconstruction
- 7. "All the Vile Passions": The Texas Black Code of 1866
- 8. The Fetters of Justice: Black Texans and the Penitentiary during Reconstruction
- Postscript to Part III
Part IV. Freedmen's Bureau Agents and African American Politicians
- 9. Guardian of the Freedpeople: Texas Freedmen's Bureau Agents and the Black Community
- 10. Hesitant Recognition: Texas Black Politicians, 1865-1900
- 11. Self-Determination and Local Black Leaders in Texas
- 12. A Political Education: George T. Ruby and the Texas Freedmen's Bureau
- Postscript to Part IV
Bibliography of Works by Barry A. Crouch
Index