Reconstructed Rebel
Captain
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2021
In one of the books I'm reading this weekend, the author mentions the Texas Troubles, which many other writers seem to feel helped to catapult Texas into secession. Since I hadn't heard of that before, I had to look it up. Who knew white phosphorus matches could be so dangerous in a volatile political climate?
Basically in July of 1860 - which was a period of extreme heat and drought in Texas - fires started to break out in various towns and communities. Initially these fires were blamed on white phosphorus "prairie matches." These type matches, which are no longer legally sold for obvious reasons, were extremely combustible and unstable in high temperatures.
But soon some conspiracy theorists began to suggest a more sinister reason. After a slave was "forced" to confess to setting one of the fires, more slaves were similarly interrogated until they confessed, and a plot for a slave uprising was concocted that implicated Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist ministers, Unionists of any type, Germans, and well, it sounds like just about anyone else who wasn't appropriately pro-slavery.
As many as 100 people were killed before cooler heads prevailed. Given the hyper political climate of the day, the panic caused by these rumors - which were published in the newspapers, giving them a validity they didn't deserve - is seen by more than a few historians to be why Texas joined the Confederacy in 1861. Texans were Southerners, but many were opposed to secession because they felt their personal wealth and property rights were secure under the US laws that currently existed. They saw no reason to rock the boat - until the fires started breaking out, and the confessions of the slaves under duress apparently exposed the true diabolical evilness of the North.
On the one hand, it is hard to understand how such wild rumors could be believed - and on the other hand it is easy to believe that frightened people can believe anything if it is repeated often enough. Great events in history have often hinged on such things. I don't see the Confederacy lasting long at all without Texas. What if Texas had not joined the Confederacy?
Sources:
wedentondoit.com
www.tshaonline.org
www.tsl.texas.gov
Basically in July of 1860 - which was a period of extreme heat and drought in Texas - fires started to break out in various towns and communities. Initially these fires were blamed on white phosphorus "prairie matches." These type matches, which are no longer legally sold for obvious reasons, were extremely combustible and unstable in high temperatures.
But soon some conspiracy theorists began to suggest a more sinister reason. After a slave was "forced" to confess to setting one of the fires, more slaves were similarly interrogated until they confessed, and a plot for a slave uprising was concocted that implicated Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist ministers, Unionists of any type, Germans, and well, it sounds like just about anyone else who wasn't appropriately pro-slavery.
As many as 100 people were killed before cooler heads prevailed. Given the hyper political climate of the day, the panic caused by these rumors - which were published in the newspapers, giving them a validity they didn't deserve - is seen by more than a few historians to be why Texas joined the Confederacy in 1861. Texans were Southerners, but many were opposed to secession because they felt their personal wealth and property rights were secure under the US laws that currently existed. They saw no reason to rock the boat - until the fires started breaking out, and the confessions of the slaves under duress apparently exposed the true diabolical evilness of the North.
On the one hand, it is hard to understand how such wild rumors could be believed - and on the other hand it is easy to believe that frightened people can believe anything if it is repeated often enough. Great events in history have often hinged on such things. I don't see the Confederacy lasting long at all without Texas. What if Texas had not joined the Confederacy?
Sources:
BACK IN THE DAY: THE PRAIRIE MATCH MYSTERY — We Denton Do It
wedentondoit.com
The Texas Slave Panic of 1860: Causes and Consequences
Explore the Texas slave panic of 1860, known as the Texas Troubles, its origins in a series of fires, and its impact on secessionist sentiments in the South.
www.tshaonline.org
1860: Big Trouble | Texas State Library
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