Texas after the Civil War: The Struggle of Reconstruction, and: The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916 (review)

One could wonder why reviews of either of these books would appear in a publication entitled Civil War History since neither is devoted specifically to that conflict. If one regards the middle of the nineteenth century, say 1850 through 1877—dates familiar to all Civil War scholars as inclusive of prologue and epilogue of the war itself—then the connection is obvious. For Moneyhon, the war is the starting point of a story that offered Texas an opportunity for dramatic positive change in social and economic interactions between the races and that white Texans succeeded in preventing through "Redemption." For Carrigan, the war is but part of the accumulation of violence as a solution for settling differences that led to tolerance of lynchings and other extralegal activities.

Moneyhon's study questions previous assumptions about a specific period in Texas history, but it is cast in a narrative form similar to studies of the state's Spanish era or its revolution from Mexico. Carrigan's work addresses a specific topic—lynching and violence in a seven-county area of central Texas. Despite such differences, they have much in common. Both authors acknowledge roles played by historians such as the late Barry Crouch and Randolph Campbell and archivist Donaly Brice in encouraging their work. Both authors criticize the outcome of their studies, that is, the continued dominance of Texas society with whites who ruled their state by violations of human and civil rights of African American Texans. The viewpoints and attitudes of each author on the subjects covered are obvious from their texts, though Moneyhon is more traditional in his presentation and Carrigan more transparently judgmental—with justification. I might add that I largely agree with the conclusions of both.

Considered separately, Carrigan begins where he ends, dramatically recounting the lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco immediately following Washington's trial for murdering Lucy Fryer by a mob unwilling to await the execution of Washington decreed by the jury. The lynching's brutal aspects shock and remind the reader that the facts and details that follow may seem dry and detached but are as immediate and personal as life and death. Carrigan's book is about much more than the death of Washington; it is, he says, about the development of violence as an immediate response to threats to public order by a dominant majority.

Carrigan's seven chapters are crafted, he says, around four historical developments to show why violence seemed acceptable in the seven-county study area, and, I assume, in other areas as well. The factors are the frontier experience; slavery based on race; resistance to white dominance by Indians, Mexicans, slaves, and eventually freedmen; and the degree to which legal institutions tolerated such violence. Carrigan's purpose is to contribute to the literature on lynching by going beyond a study of an individual case to consider the causes of lynching itself, and then to focus attention on collective memory as a causative factor in the occurrence and acceptance of lynching. I believe Carrigan is saying through his evidence that the lynching of Washington in 1916 was deeply rooted in humanity's willingness to resort to violence in defense of one's self and property—and sometimes just to get one's way. So European Americans moving into Carrigan's seven-county study area meant inevitable conflict with Indians and Mexicans, and retelling the story made the Indians and Mexicans villains who deserved the violence visited upon them...