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414Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJanuary morton's rise to power and his eventual removal from the governor's office as an "impediment to Reconstruction." (105) Through his exploration of Throckmorton and nineteenth-century Texas, Howell uncovers a slew of intra-southern cultural divisions that strike directly at the idea of a monolithic southern regional identity. Particularly interesting, Howell thoroughly dissects Throckmorton's racial agenda, dealing with both African Americans and Native Americans. The book oudines Throckmorton's obsession with defending the white frontier from Indian attacks. He sought to manipulate the federal government into military assistance as he fought to preserve Whig conservatism and a non-autocratic military audiority in Texas. Clearly a white supremacist, Throckmorton also despised African-American slaves because they represented the affluence and mobility of an elite planter class that threatened to confiscate premium frontier land from his constituency, a district of small farmers. In short, Howell maintains that Throckmorton "developed an irrational hatred of them [slaves]," because "he did not have a problem with the institution ofslavery as a legitimate labor system," but "he harbored animosity toward the planters who used slave labor to amass wealth and dominance in die southern states" (43). By grouping together the physical attacks levied by displaced Indians and the economic advances ofaspiring planters, Howell cleverly illustrates how the frontier represented a socio-economic hideout for Throckmorton and his constituents. Finally, Throckmorton's symbolic disdain for slaves, his anti-elite rhetoric, and his abundance of local support in North Texas as displayed by Howell correcdy indicate that die frontier served as a safe nexus of anti-planter sentiment within a region dominated by planter politicians. Howell lucidly identifies the formative elements of Throckmorton's life and career, how they influenced his policies, and how those policies fit within and shaped the courses ofTexas and southern history. With that in mind, Texas Confederate , Reconstruction Governor:fames Webb Throckmorton is appropriate for and highly recommended to historians in either field. North Carolina State UniversityMatthew C. Hulbert TL· Sutton-TaylorFeud: TL·Deadliest BloodFeud in Texas. By Chuck Parsons. (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2009. Pp. 368. Illustrations, map, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 9781574412574, $24.95 cloth). InJames Smallwood's recent revisionist account ofthe Sutton-Taylor feud, entitled TL·Feud That Wasn't (Texas A&M, 2008), the author argues that an ongoing struggle between law enforcement officials and criminals in Reconstruction Texas has been misinterpreted as a blood feud. With that context in mind, Texas scholar Chuck Parsons, in TL· Sutton-TaylorFeud, attempts to reestablish a traditional reading of the conflict. Differing in numerous ways from Smallwood's interpretation, Parsons contends that the feudists were neither criminals nor nostalgic former Confederates, "but men who believed that they had been wronged and that the legal system was inadequate to providejustice" (6). Parsons begins by describing the important and admirable qualities of the individual members of die Sutton and Taylor families who first arrived in early 2010Book Reviews415 Texas. These pioneers helped found communities and served proudly during the Texas Revolution and Civil War. However, by the late 1 860s the two families were clearly organized in opposition to one another. Parsons remains uncertain as to what exact incident spawned the feud. It could have been the killing of Daniel Chisholm by the Taylors or the deadi ofa Taylor relative at the hands ofa posse led by Bill Sutton. Moving on from those incidents, Parsons proceeds chronologically and presents an image of bloody and lawless Reconstruction Texas. The Taylors, often categorized as cattle thieves, come off as oppressed citizens within Parsons's work. Creed Taylor, the generally recognized leader of the Taylor family, is described by Parsons as a "Texas hero" (81). The Suttons do not appear quite as favorably as it is clear throughout the text that Parsons believes they were generally corrupt officials bent on personal retribution. Instead of curbing the violence, Parsons argues that Sutton affiliates Captain Charles S. Bell and John Jackson Marshall "Jack" Helm initiated a "reign of terror" (62) across Texas characterized by large numbers of fugitives—often Taylor men—being killed during supposed escape attempts. In the end, it is difficult to entirely agree with Parsons's attempts to rehabilitate...

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