An Empire for Slavery

Library Journal

In the popular mind, Texas conjures up images of the Old West and freedom of the range. Campbell reminds us that Texas grew from Southern roots entangled in human bondage. By the Civil War, Texas had a slave area equal to Alabama and Mississippi and a slave population comparable to Virginia. In the first comprehensive study of slavery in Texas, Campbell offers useful chapters on the law, the domestic slave trade, Indian relations, labor, family, religion, and more, but his book is especially welcome because it pulls the focus on bondage away from the Chesapeake and the Carolinas to show slavery's expansive and adaptive power in the developing West. Slavery knew no bounds, as Lincoln always understood. Recommended for college and university libraries.-- Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia

Booknews

Campbell (history, U. of North Texas) examines slavery in the antebellum South's newest state and reveals how central slavery was to Texas history. He points out that although the area of slaveholding covered only two-fifths of the state by 1860, the proportion of slaveholders and slaves in Texas was comparable to that of Virginia, the oldest slaveholding state in the Union. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)