Not so Sweet around Sugarland
The Texas Lowcountry: Slavery and Freedom on the Gulf Coast 1822-1895
by John R. Lundberg.
College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2024.
325pp. $24.95 digital, $45.00 Hardcover.
Reviewed by
Jay Key
The Texas counties of Wharton, Matagorda, Brazoria, and Fort Bend are now separated by the urban sprawl of Houston in the northern areas, and the agrarian plains in the southern parts, yet at one time, they shared a unique identity. It was a region that resembled the Louisiana sugar parishes in many ways, but also had notes of South Carolina’s lowcountry. It was neither Southern nor Western yet both at the same time. A palace that was a borderland and a Deep South society. A place where the enslaved were the cornerstone of the economy, but when they were free, became the dominant political force in the region. It was a place that ebbed and flowed in its identity across time. Despite the limited geography of the area, the Texas lowcountry played an oversized part in shaping Texas through the nineteenth century and deserves to be studied and understood. In his book, The Texas Lowcountry: Slavery and Freedom on the Gulf Coast 1822-1895, John R. Lundberg describes the transforming identities of the region from a predominant slave holding area in Texas during the early years of anglo Texan settlement, to one of the bastions of radical Republicanism politics during the era of Reconstruction after the Civil War. By narrowing the scope of his investigation to just the region he calls the lowcountry, Lundberg is able to expertly examine the nature of the industry of slavery in that area, as well as explore the daily lives and the ways that the enslaved and the enslavers existences informed and shaped each other.
The main thesis questions driving the book can be divided into two subjects. The first being examining regional identity within the lowcountry and how it was distinct or similar to other regions. The second asks what were the tipping points that altered the characteristics and relationships within that region’s population. The inquiries that followed those main questions include topics like, what events caused the region to transition from a borderlands to a traditional Deep South plantation society and eventually into Reconstruction? What was the impact of slavery on Austin’s original colony? How did the institution of slavery complicate class and gender in the region? How did slavery impact the Texas economy? How did freed slaves go about land ownership and political involvement in the region given they were often the majority of the population in the lowcountry? And how did white society react and diminish African American land ownership and politics to limit the freedom of people of color and challenge Reconstruction? These questions, along with many more, are answered in depth by Lundberg in the three sections that make up Texas Lowcountry.
The book is organized in a loosely chronological order. Section one consists of three chapters spanning from 1822 to 1840. Beginning with American enslavers entering into Texas alongside Stephen F. Austin where they established their slaving society, and ends in the aftermath of the Texas Revolution and international trade where Lundberg argues the shift from borderlands to Deep South society occurred in the lowcountry. Lundberg’s work builds upon a growing body of research that seeks to display the ways in which the Texas Revolution can be seen as the enslavers' revolt to protect the Peculiar Institution in the face of an abolitionist central Mexican government. The question of slavery was not the only cause for the Revolution, but for those in the lowcountry, where many of the leaders of the insurrection lived, it was the most pressing reason for the Revolution.
Section two covers the region during the time period between 1840 and 1865 across five chapters and in many ways is the core of the arguments Lundberg makes. This section is organized topically rather than chronologically. The first chapter in this section describes the ways slaves were brought to Texas, through illegal and legal means, across land and sea, from interstate and international origins, creating what Lundberg calls a second Middle Passage. Chapters five and six details the plantation neighborhoods that were established during this period and the intensification of Texas capitalism through slavery. Chapter five provides detailed accounts of all of the slave camps, plantations, and houses that existed in the lowcountry. Lundberg describes the architecture of the regions, the size of the plots of land, who owned or inhabited what areas and when, and so much more. It is as much a work of analytical history as it is a work of historical preservation to keep the reality of the lowcountry’s previous identity as a slave society and later as a hub of radical Republicanism from being erased. Lundberg describes the importance of his efforts stating, “Climate change and urbanization threaten many, if not all, of the sites described, and unless historians, archaeologists, and preservationists work quickly, they will disappear completely.” As the physical spaces of the region are changed over time, the historical memory of the area becomes harder to trace and preserve. In addition to the physical forces of change in the region, an ideological war is being waged against an honest retelling of the importance and cruelty of slavery in Texas history. Lundberg’s work pushes back against the two pronged attack that is being levied against understanding the role and importance of slavery in Texas history, as well as the lives of the enslaved, preserving both the memory of the physical space, as well as, the histories and identities of those that lived within the boundaries of the lowcountry. Chapter six goes through the production and economic value that slaves provided not only as “valuables” to be leveraged or traded, but also as the laborers that built the infrastructure that allowed Texas to grow, and produced the goods that would be traded for economic prosperity in the region.
The last two chapters of section two deal with slavery on a much more personal level and represent the best qualities of researching a narrowly defined region. Chapter seven examines how slavery complicated family structures, focusing on the experiences of Rachel Patton, or Bartlett, and Sobrina Clark who were treated as wives by their enslavers and in many ways viewed as such by the white community around them. Rachel was legally owned by Columbus Patton, but her relationship to Columbus was much more akin to a wife. She would sit in the pews reserved for whites at church, ride her own horse into town to buy dresses, she would even administer whippings to other slaves on occasion. According to one of her neighbors, Charles Grimm, “Rachel occupied the position of a white woman as much as any I ever knew… I should say she was the mistress of the plantation. I thought they lived more like man and wife and that she had more control over him than I ever saw a lady have over her husband…” Sobrina Clark was purchased by John Clark in 1833 or 1834 but was quickly moved into his home, where he would treat her as his wife, and she would treat him as her husband. Sobrina and John had children together. John clearly loved Sobrina and his children but acted in a typical white supremacist way towards the kind of men he wanted his daughters to marry. Despite his own children being of mixed race, he was appalled and moved to threats of violence when a black enslaved man asked for one of his daughter’s hands in marriage.
The Clarks’ relationship differs from the Pattons’ in that they isolated themselves from much of white society, where the Pattons continued to participate in their social environment. They were also unique in that Sobrina and her children were sold back into slavery following the death of John, where Rachel was afforded some degree of freedom in comparison. Lundberg notes that the experiences of these women are exceptional compared to the average slave experience and their inclusion in the historical record is largely due to the legal battles that ensued following the death of their husbands. But their existence and experiences give insight into the intimate spaces, laws, and power structures of slave society in the lowcountry. Chapter eight continues to look at the ways that the enslaved people of the lowcountry resisted their status as slaves. The enslaved created families, practiced their own forms of religion, and carved out spaces in the margins of the plantations that created the groundwork for political organizing in the years following emancipation.
The third and final section is divided into three chronological chapters covering 1865 to 1895 and is mostly concerned with the actions and experience of freed people during Reconstruction. Lundberg also that Reconstruction lasted longer in the Lowcountry than in other parts of the state, “for the simple reason that three quarters of the voters in the region were African American in 1867, ensuring that a biracial Republican coalition could thrive there for two decades following the conclusion of Reconstruction in the rest of Texas.” The African Americans voting population in the lowcountry had massive implications on state and local politics given the importance of the region to the larger economy of Texas. The large African American voting bloc, empowered by institutions like the Freedmen’s Bureau were able to establish the Republican party of Texas to have representation in government. Freed families were able to purchase land following the Panic of 1873 and further cement their position in the region. One of the most interesting instances of freed families acquiring land and wealth comes from the descendants of Sobrina and John Clark. Because Sobrina was eventually seen to be the common law wife of John Clark, her children were considered heirs to his fortune and were granted over $400,000 after the death of their former master, making them some of the wealthiest people in Texas! While there was growth and power amassing in the African American population of the lowcountry during early Reconstruction, the white supremacist society in the region took action to take away that growth and the new freedoms African Americans enjoyed. Texas began using convict leasing which has been aptly described as “slavery by another name,” white supremacists used violence to intimidate black voters, and organized to limit freed peoples from taking a role in politics. The actions of the white supremacists in Texas resulted in the last African American to hold office in Texas leaving office in 1895, signaling the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of the Jim Crow era.
For those seeking to understand Texas slavery, or even Texas history in a general sense, the incredible work done by Lundberg should serve as a cornerstone in their path to understanding. While the book mostly focuses on four counties in the state, the impact and importance of those areas cannot be overstated and provide an interesting perspective into the role slavery played in creating Texas, as well as the ways in which freed peoples resisted the systems that sought to put them back in chains following emancipation. This is the kind of historical work that should be present in every honest retelling of Texas history.
Jay Key grew up in San Antonio before moving to San Marcos for his undergraduate and master’s degrees in history. He recently graduated from Texas State University’s Masters program, publishing his thesis on Lebanese immigration to San Antonio, Texas. The majority of his graduate studies focused on the Southwest borderlands as well as Texas and Mexican American history.