Aristocrats and Annexation: A Reexamination of the Adelsverein in Texas, 1842-1847

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2020-11-23

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Southern New Hampshire University

Abstract

German influence upon the culture and physical landscape of central Texas is both well documented and much celebrated. However, despite the multiple studies which explore the social and cultural contributions of the thousands of German immigrants who populated the region during the mid-nineteenth century the political and economic aspirations of the German aristocrats who facilitated their passage remains largely unexamined. Public history of this movement and the founding of the Texas Hill Country towns of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg likewise focuses on celebrating European colonialism from a decidedly Eurocentric point of view. This study and digital exhibition expand the narrative, drawing attention to the political machinations of the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas, bringing issues of chattel slavery and colonial appropriation of Indigenous lands to the fore. The project rests upon a substantial body of primary source evidence drawn from relatively unexplored archival collections found in the Solms-Braunfels Archives at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and the Archiv des Vereins zum Schutz deutscher Einwanderer in Texas at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Through these efforts the public history of the Adelsverein becomes broader and more inclusive providing representation of the diverse people and cultures which contributed to the development of the region.

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