Secession in Texas Public Memory: An Analysis of Texas Newspapers from 1870-2020

Abstract

Although attempts to justify secession date back to 1861, Texan's desire to secede again is a modern phenomenon. The alteration of secession's place in Texas historical memory is responsible for secession becoming a part of today's Texans' cultural identity. This paper aims to uncover how Texans' conceptualization of secession has changed over time to clarify past historical inaccuracies and prevent future ones. A deeper look into secession's place in Texas public memory reveals many examples of how memory, time, and the desire of Texans to distance themselves from slavery and its legacies have distorted historical narrative. This paper examines secession in the Lone Star State by looking into how Texans discuss secession during three periods: 1870-1900, 1900-1980, 1980-2020. After the Civil War and Reconstruction, conversations surrounding secession in Texas feature an overwhelming feeling that secession was a mistake. In the twentieth century, however, events outside of the United States sparked new defenses of secession. Texans' efforts to write a version of secession absent of slavery marks a new place for secession in Texas's historical memory. In the last period, secession emerged as an aspect of Texas cultural identity because of the alteration of secession in Texan's memories and minds. This paper draws heavily from contemporary Texas historians and analyzes keyword search results for "secession" in online newspaper databases.