What Role Did Barbecues Play In Southern Politics And Culture

The secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860, by a vote of 169-0 was a response to the election of Abraham Lincoln of 1860. Lincoln perceived as an abolitionist wanted to contain slavery rather than ending it. The majority party above the Mason-Dixon line were Republicans and below were primarily Democrats and Republicans were viewed as abolitionists. The election of a Republican threatened the South’s status quo. The primary catalyst for secession was based on slavery. Different social cultures and political beliefs developed due to the South’s intimate and reliant relationship on slavery. Southern whites feared the end of slavery and this paranoia was shared among plantation slave owners and white Yeoman farmers. Southern whites felt that the North were threatening the supposed tranquility of the South. The South’s agrarian economy, honor, and independence were believed to be in danger. Slavery was intertwined with the South’s social, cultural, and economic makeup. As a result of slavery, the South developed a paternalistic culture and racial ideology of white supremacy. The perceived notion that the North was influencing it’s political and social beliefs on the South lead them to believe that secession was the only act of self-preservation. The growing differences between the South and North made it difficult to negotiate. This fear was exaggerated and accelerated the South’s eventual implosion. The South believed that without slavery it would self-destruct and

Sam Houston played a monumental role in sparking the Texas revolution. He believed that independence from Mexico was necessary saying that “war inevitable” and “urging volunteers to come to the aid of their Anglo brethren” (p. 60). Also, Houston’s role as commander-in-chief of the army was very important in winning the war for Texas Independence. After the capture of Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, many of the soldiers in the Texas Army wanted to execute him on the spot. But because of Sam Houston’s level head, he knew that “his prisoner was the key to removing all Mexicans soldiers from Texas without further bloodshed”, and “Jacinto became his password to Texas heroism forever” (p. 85-87). Furthermore, Houston’s leadership as the president of the Republic of Texas “kept the republic alive until it became a part of his mother country” (p. 198).

Throughout the Civil War period, Texas existed as a state in the Confederate States of America, its status confirmed by the elected representatives of the Texas citizens. (Sam Houston, although accepting the decision of the electorate to secede, protested the Convention's decision to join the Confederacy since the matter was not submitted to popular vote. His opposition was insufficient to cause either the voters or the members of the state legislature to put aside the actions of the Convention.) John H. Reagan, a Texan, was the Postmaster General of the C.S.A., and other Texans held prominent government posts throughout

The people of Texas fought in the Civil War to preserve slavery. “African race … is mutually beneficial to both bond (slave) and free, and is … justified by the experience of mankind…” (Doc B) Texans believed that slavery was right, and that Africans benefited from slavery. I think that this is the most important reason that Texans fought because it’s literally what divided the nation. If everyone agreed on things regarding slavery, the country wouldn’t have split and the American Civil War would be non-existent.

In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President. He won the presidential votes of the Republican Party. Lincoln ran against Stephen Douglas. In one of their campaigns in Hartford, Connecticut, Lincoln spoke on the Democratic bushwhacking (Doc F). Part of their campaign were to talk about the slavery. Though Lincoln, a republican, and Douglas, a democratic, their views on slavery were entirely different. Lincoln argued against the spread of slavery while Douglas argued that each territory should have the right

The battle for Texas’ independence was a hard battle. Many lives were taken, home destroyed, and families were torn apart. Texas residents wanted to break away from Mexico and become a self-governing republic inside of Mexico because they did not like Santa Anna’s laws. Mexico did not allow slave immigration, so Texas wanted to be a part of the United States that allowed slavery. But the main reason was that Mexico would not change or consider any government ideas that the Anglos and Mexicans had for Texas, and resulted in Santa Anna ruling and making all the laws and decisions. Santa Anna also overthrew the Mexican government and made himself the Mexican dictator. Stephen Austin came to try and settle the trouble caused by the suggestion of Texas’ constitution, but instead Santa Anna imprisoned him for a year.

In August 1859, the citizens of Texas elected Sam Houston as their governor. The result of this election placed the Unionists in control of the state, but in just eighteen months’ individual events or circumstances allowed the secessionists to regain power. Following the 1859 Gubernatorial election, the secessionists sought to restore political and social power in Texas over the Unionists. Texas’ one party system continued to support the other Southern states ideologically in dealing with slavery despite cultural and economic differences between the Upper and Lower South. Sam Houston’s continued popularity among Texas citizens temporarily outweighed his support for Unionist views, but the Southern Democratic propaganda machine eventually led to his defeat. Texas became the only state to bring a vote of secession to the people of the state and historians continue to debate the voting returns from the referendum on the Ordinance of Secession, 1861. The secession movement in Texas became a hotly debated topic as past, and present historians determined how the secessionists obtained enough power to overcome the Unionist-controlled government.

One reason that Texas fought in the civil war was to protect state rights. Abraham lincoln did not want any states to secede saying “ I hold that...the union of these states is perpetual….(N)o state upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the union”(Document c). But the state disagreed saying that the state was taking their rights away which

The recent study of these Northern counties, John R. Lundberg’s article, disputes the prominent narrative for why the North Texas counties voted against secession during the secession referendum. Most historians, for example, Buenger, cite the reasons for voting for or against secession stems from the growing Indian raids on the exposed frontier. Also, Houston’s failure to protect the settlers from those

Many books have been written about the famous Texan Samuel Houston, better known as just Sam Houston. He was born on March 2nd 1793, just outside of Lexington, Virginia to his father, Samuel Houston, who was a veteran of the Revolutionary war, and his mother, Elizabeth Paxton. Sam had four older brothers and when he was three his brother William was born, James (1929). A year after that the first girl in his family was born named Mary. Mary was Sam’s favorite. Sam’s father, then Major Sam Houston, died when he was thirteen years old and less than a year later his mother moved the family to Tennessee. When Sam was fifteen years old in 1809 he ran away from home because his older brothers were forcing him to work in the family owned store in Maryville, James (1929), and spent three years living amongst the Cherokee Indians who adopted him and dubbed him Colonneh, which translates to “the Raven”. After his experience with the Indians Houston retained a consistent empathetic view toward Indians. After war erupted between the Americans and the British, Houston joined the United States Army in 1813 as a twenty year old private. His mother’s response according to DeBruhl, (1993), “There, my son, take this musket and never disgrace it: for remember, I had rather all my sons should fill one honorable grave, than that one of them should turn his back to save his life. Go, and remember, too, that while the door of my cottage is open to brave

The main question that had been asked was whether Texas should stay apart of the union or leave to be their individual “territory”. Sam Houston’s inauguration in December of 1859 made him “the only man to this day who served as governor of two states” (Gone to Texas, page. 236). He was the governor of Tennessee as well as Texas, which aroused expressions of anger from “ultra-southerners”. According to Sam Houston’s “Demagogical Union Saving Doctrines” (Gone to Texas, pg. 236) Runnels explained how it will evidently cause mass controversy and irreparable blow upon Southerners and their interests at the time. According to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, “Texas was not far behind”. Sam Houston refused to call the legislature into a special session to consider secession. Many

Texas joined the Confederate States of America on March 2, and afterward supplanted its representative, Sam Houston, when he declined to take an oath to the Confederate States of America. These seven states withdrew from the United States and took control of military/maritime establishments, ports, and custom houses inside their limits, setting off the American Civil War.

The South claimed that they had the right to secede, but Lincoln believed otherwise and insisted that no such right existed. Antithetical to the South, the North argued that the South threatened their liberty. Lincoln argued that the only way liberty could be preserved was by a republican government that represented the people’s will, and if the southern states left the Union, self-government would have completely failed and liberty would be denied to everyone. The North also relied on prominent Southern figures to speak against slavery. For example, Texas Governor Sam Houston strongly opposed secession; however, despite his aspirations, Texas delegates voted 166 to 8 for secession. Similarly, Alexander H. Stephens advocated for Georgia to stay in the Union, but much like Texas, Georgia would soon secede from the Union anyways. Another form of resistance was through attempted compromise. It had occurred many times in the past when the country was on the brink of civil war; however, this time, all attempts were

Texas Chicken is all started in San Antonio, Texas in 1952. George W. Church Sr., a retired incubator salesman with more than 20 years in the poultry industry, conceived the idea of offering freshly cooked, quality fried chicken at a time when only hot dogs and ice cream were marketed fast-food

Barbecue is probably the world's oldest cooking method and that is the only thing about it that is beyond dispute. Contrary to mythology, barbecue was not an American invention. Barbecue is older than homo sapiens and anthropologists even think that it was mastery of fire that permanently altered our evolutionary path and it is this primeval link that makes us still love cooking over flame. The Spanish explorer Gonzalo Fernàndez De Oviedo y ValdZÿs was the first to use the word "barbecoa" or anything like it in print in Spain in 1526 in Diccionario de la Lengua Espanola of the Real Academia Espanola. Oviedo, as historians refer to him, traveled extensively in the Caribbean and what is now Florida in the 1500s, and he was the first to describe