The Dance of Freedom: Texas African Americans during Reconstruction

by Barry A. Crouch, Larry Madaras

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292782396
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	02/17/2009
Series:	Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture , #19
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Foreword   Arnoldo De Leon     vii
Acknowledgments   Larry Madams     xi
Introduction   Larry Madaras     xiii
Historiography     1
"Unmanacling" Texas Reconstruction: A Twenty-Year Perspective     3
Postscript to Part I     36
Freedom     37
Reconstructing Black families: Perspectives from the Texas Freedmen's Bureau Records     39
Black Dreams and White Justice     54
Seeking Equality: Houston Black Women during Reconstruction     69
Postscript to Part II     90
Reaction     93
A Spirit of Lawlessness: White Violence, Texas Blacks, 1865-1868     95
Crisis in Color: Racial Separation in Texas during Reconstruction     118
"All the Vile Passions": The Texas Black Code of 1866     134
The Fetters of Justice: Black Texans and the Penitentiary during Reconstruction     159
Postscript to Part III     181
Freedmen's Bureau Agents and African American Politicians     183
Guardian of the Freedpeople: Texas Freedmen's Bureau Agents and the Black Community     185
Hesitant Recognition: Texas Black Politicians, 1865-1900     203
Self-Determination and Local Black Leaders in Texas     227
A Political Education: George T. Ruby and the Texas Freedmen's Bureau     241
Postscript to Part IV     255
Bibliography of Works   Barry A. Crouch     257
Index     261

What People are Saying About This

Smallwood Oklahoma State University (emeritus)

"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"

James Smallwood

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