| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Texas Terror: The Slave Insurrection Panic of 1860 and the Secession of the Lower South. By Donald E. Reynolds. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. xiv, 237 pp. $45.00, ISBN 978-0-8071-3283-8.)

In the summer of 1860 a series of mysterious fires in Dallas and other north Texas towns destroyed dozens of buildings. The fires were probably caused by the spontaneous ignition of a new type of phosphorous match, but within a week reports circulated, primarily through Texas newspapers, that the fires were set by slaves as part of a massive plot engineered by northern abolitionists active in Texas. Texas newspaper editors, especially Charles Pryor of the Dallas Herald, fanned fears of mass murder and a slave insurrection. Suspicion was immediately focused on all northerners in Texas, especially recent arrivals. Vigilante groups were organized throughout the state to ferret out those suspected of abolitionist activity. Vigilante justice was swift. The execution of at least thirty alleged conspirators can be documented; the author, Donald E. Reynolds, believes the total number of executions is probably higher.

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