Faith, Frauen, and the formation of an ethnic identity: German Lutheran women in south and central Texas, 1831-1890

Abstract

This dissertation argues that German Lutheran women living in south and central Texas from 1831 to 1890 involved themselves in family, church, and community to reconstruct their conservative notions of society in a frontier setting. Going beyond the traditional interpretations of kinder, kuche, und kirche, I show that the women's Lutheran faith informed how they reacted to the immigration process. Frontier conditions allowed these frauen to assume more active and often public roles than they would have done in Germany. However, the women undertook these duties to establish conservative notions of family, church, and gender in their new land. Moreover, even as their faith helped assuage much of the dislocation of immigration for first-generation frauen, they emphasized Lutheran values to descendants whom the women feared were becoming Americanized. Ultimately, Lutheranism informed how these women constructed understandings of family and community while providing a template for what it meant to be a German-Texan.