Many scholars of the Reconstruction era have examined
James Webb Throckmorton??s political career between 1860 and
1867 and have revealed that his racist views helped hasten
the end of Radical Reconstruction in Texas. However, these
scholars have not explained the motivations behind
Throckmorton??s political ideology, nor have they explained
adequately the origins of the North Texan??s racism. This
dissertation focuses on these critical issues by examining
the development of Throckmorton??s personal and political
beliefs between 1850 and 1874. It shows that
Throckmorton??s political ideology was influenced by four
primary factors: his early experiences on the North Texas
frontier, his desire to create a community on the frontier
that was primarily designed to be a haven for white
settlers, his commitment to political conservatism which
evolved from his early affiliation with Whig political
ideology, and his quest to bring economic improvement to
the North Texas region. In contrast to other scholarly
works on Throckmorton which claim that the North Texan??s
political views were contradictory and inconsistent, this
study demonstrates that Throckmorton??s ideological beliefs
remained constant and changed little over time. His
commitment to preserving the whiteness of the frontier, to
protecting the settlers of his home region, to conservative
political ideology, and to internal improvements,
especially railroads, never wavered during one of the most
turbulent periods in Texas politics. This study also
reinforces several important conclusions about the South in
the nineteenth century: The region was never a homogeneous
society; southern racism was multifaceted; and southern
settlers migrating westward, especially those from the
Upper South, viewed the frontier as a potential escape from
the political and social dominance of large slaveholders.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/2350 |
| Date | 29 August 2005 |
| Creators | Howell, Kenneth Wayne |
| Contributors | Buenger, Walter L. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 680572 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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