Of the 174 delegates to the Texas convention on secession in 1861, 
only 8 voted against the motion to secede. James Webb 
Throckmorton of McKinney was one of them. Yet upon the outbreak 
of the Civil War, he joined the Confederate Army and fought in a 
number of campaigns. At war's end, his centrist position as a 
conservative Unionist ultimately won him election as governor. 
Still, his refusal to support the Fourteenth Amendment or to protect 
aggressively the rights and physical welfare of the freed slaves led 
to clashes with military officials and his removal from office in 1867.

    Throckmorton's experiences reveal much about southern society 
and highlight the complexities of politics in Texas during the latter 
half of the nineteenth century. Because his life spans one of the 
most turbulent periods in Texas politics, Texas Confederate, 
Reconstruction Governor, the first book on Throckmorton in 
nearly seventy years, will provide new insights for anyone interested 
in the Antebellum era, the Civil War, and the troubled years of 
Reconstruction.

_________________________________________________________

KENNETH WAYNE HOWELL received his Ph.D. in history from 
Texas A&M University and now serves as assistant professor at 
Prairie View A&M University. He is author of Henderson County, 
Texas and coauthor of The Devil's Triangle.


Number Seventeen: Sam Rayburn Series on Rural Life, sponsored
by Texas A&M University–Commerce


What people are saying about this book

"It is high time for such a well-written study. The last biography of 
Throckmorton came out more than sixty-nine years ago, and 
Howell's effort exceeds it on all counts . . . "—James M. 
Smallwood, author, The Feud That Wasn't