The Counter Revolution of 1836: Texas Slavery & Jim Crow and the Roots of American Fascism

by Gerald Horne

"One lesson from Texas history is that repression was so severe because resistance was so daunting-a lesson to keep in mind as this century unfolds"--

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, American History, Race, The United States Of America, Theory

622 pages, Paperback

Published May 11, 2022

About the author

Dr. Gerald Horne is an eminent historian who is Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. An author of more than thirty books and one hundred scholarly articles and reviews, his research has addressed issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, international relations, war and the film industry.

Reviews

[Zach Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

In many ways, this feels like Gerald Horne's magnum opus. In his "Apocalypse" trilogy - The Dawning of the Apocalypse, The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism, and The Counter-Revolution of 1776, he sets out to identify the forces, national and global, that shaped the slave republic amid the rise of an incipient "whiteness". In The Counterrevolution of 1836 he explores not only the roots of American fascism as a natural outgrowth of indigenous genocide and racial slavery, but also the rich history of resistance in both indigenous and African populations. The story is really centered around Mexico and the relationship between the slave republic, the often ill-defined entity of "Texas," and its southern neighbor Mexico: conquered by France in the chaos of the U.S. Civil War under Emperor Maximilian, and ultimately turned into a puppet government of the U.S.

Abundant in detail and testimony, Horne moves with dialectical precision across more than a century of history. Among the many central themes presented is the desire of U.S. slaveholders to defeat the rise of abolitionism coming from Mexico. Following the counter-revolution of 1836, annexation was sought by the settlers for fear of Texas becoming a new Haiti - with large Black and indigenous populations supported by Mexico and Haiti, and not opposed by Britain and France. Texans had three goals during the 1850s: (1) annex Cuba (2) reinstate the African slave trade and (3) enter and extradition treaty with Mexico to return slaves who fled Texas for abolitionist Mexico. Horne doesn't shy away from the at times unsavory actions of African Americans and indigenous tribes, who often committed heinous crimes against each other in service of the colonial state or in yearning for citizenship credentials.

Ultimately, Horne asserts, Texas in the 1860s was much like North Carolina in the 1580s, in that poorer and richer European migrants across class lines joined forces, and poor Europeans were loath to join hands with Africans or oppose depredations against indigenes, crucial to the rise of fascism in the Lone Star State.

After fully documenting the counter-revolution, annexation, and the U.S. civil war, he turns his attention to the rise of Jim Crow in Texas and Oklahoma, taking U.S. history right into the Civil Rights movement and the fascistic turn of the Republican Party, with Texas as the hub. There's an ongoing attack against "Critical Race Theory," the most recent example being FL Governor Ron DeSantis blocking FL teachers from teaching African American history. This book contains all the history reactionary settlers do not want you to know.

[Brumaire Bodbyl-Mast · Rating 5 out of 5]

The counterrevolution of 1836 once again demonstrates Horne’s capability to harness dialectical thinking and substantiated historical evidence to demystify and clean up the polluted modern historiographies of the settler project. Similar to his other work, the Counterrevolution of 1776, Horne looks at the (geo)political/racial/material dynamics of a fetal polity, i.e. Texas in the early 19th century, to show its linger effects today on both consciousness and material issues. Texas has since its separation from Mexico served as a hotbed for reactionary thought and action, in its early days serving as the grounds for innumerable scalphunting imbeciles and in latter days being the home state of the most deranged Republican donors. It has always been a hotbed for murders too! What makes Texas unique in part is its nature as a border state- next to a polity that had abolished slavery in 1829 under the presidency of a man of African descent, and never quite had the same dependency on chattel African slavery as its northern neighbor, even in days of Spanish dominance. Combined as well with substantial, often mobile and hostile Indigenous groups, which only made settlers more bloodthristy, and in turn attracted settlers who wished to combat this self inflicted threat. Despite both the Indigenous and African American holding the potential to offer a substantial joint effort to oust or overthrow the settlers, one never really surfaced, something which Horne addresses throughout, by pointing to many contradictions between and within the two groups (I.e, Tribes partaking in chattel slavery, participation of African Americans in genocidal campaigns, lack of a cohesive Indigenous identity beyond tribe, intertribal rivalries etc.) Though the resistance offered often served to justify settler paranoia- who in turn responded by creating various paramilitary organizations focused on extermination of the Indigenous on one hand, and subjugation of African Americans on the other. (Texas Rangers & the Klan, respectively.) Unique among Southern states as well is Texas’ identity as for one brief period, its own entity, which though unstable, massively expanded the almost extinct African Slave trade. When time came for annexation (a virtual necessity for the morons of the lone star state, who had created an absolutely untenable situation for their satanic project) many of those in the union against annexation warned that rather than the US swallowing Texas, Texas would swallow the US. Which has, more or less been fulfilled in many ways, as Horne points out in his epilogue. Texan conservatism is the conservatism of the nation, Texan politics merely represent the right wing of an already reactionary whole. Saying that the US merely has been given the traits of the genocidal state it absorbed is reductive (a reduction Horne does address and criticizes rightfully) as the project of an independent Texas can only emerge in the context of an independent Anglo America. Despite this umbilical tie, Horne notes that Texan ambitions for an empire (the size of which fluctuated) were often at the expense of American interests, mainly focusing on Texan succession from the Union (or even the confederacy, as Texas holdouts saw fighting well beyond Appomattox, and during reconstruction saw some of the most brutal fighting.) Foremost in those desiring a Texan empire were the Knights of the Golden Circle, though the membership of which spanned Dixie, it was mostly a Texan venture. Texan and Southern ambitions for empire ironically resulted (to some extent) in their cozying up to Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, who though had an official ban on slavery, looked the other way when it came to Dixie friends. The constant paramilitary violence, combined with a menagerie of enemies to focus ire on, and dreams of separation made Texas the perfect breeding ground for a sort of protofascism exemplified by the Klan as well as the post reconstruction Texan project as whole. There is far too much rich things to summarize and dynamics to be discussed in this review, and I cannot recommend this book enough. Horne’s prose may come off as difficult or even confusing at points, but for me at least it often makes it a better vehicle for the digestion of information, and its repetitive nature is very intentional (though this is not nearly as extensive in this regard as 1776).

[Marcelo Brasil · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, Gerald Horne changes the narrative of US History, and even Global/World History as much of this tale is as much about Mexico, Indigenous Peoples of North America and France/England/Europe.

While not required, reading his whole saga (The Dawning of the Apocalypse, The Counter Revolution of 1776, and The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism) definitely gives you some context into this book. His thesis being about how the American Revolution was in fact not a revolution (revolutions usually consist of something POSITIVE, or an overthrow for something better) in which he argues that the so called "American Revolution" was actually fought for to keep the institution of slavery (as the British were talking about abolishing slavery, which the American colonialists could NOT let happen) which one can argue is not exactly progressive or positive. Moreover, the colonialists also had fears (rightfully so) of slave rebellions which were constantly happening, and would come to true fruition in Haiti in the 1790s.

This book is about that continuation of the Counter Revolution that was conceived in 1776, this time by Texas, who did the same thing, but with Mexico (Tejas was a state in Mexico from 1821-1831). Mexico abolished slavery in 1829 (WAY before the United States), with Vicente Guerrero (who was an Afro-Mexican) at the helms. So, Texas did the same thing in that these mostly white and US settlers in the Mexican state of Texas decided to do the same thing their forefathers did, and secede from their "overseers" (this time it being Mexico) to be able to continue the odious institution of slavery and not adhere to Mexico's abolition law and creed.

More than half of the book continues well after 1836 and gets into the 1920s....all in all, this book gives you a good understanding and context into why Texas has developed into the state in which Greg Abbot is Governor as well as WHY most of the January 6th insurrectionists came from Texas....Moreover, It also helps us understand why Texas developed into the biggest "Southern" state, and one could argue the heart of the south/confederate mentality, which Horne argues also develops into a sort of proto-fascism with the advent of Jim Crow. Incredibly important book! It is long, and sometimes Horne can write in a disfigured or obtuse way, but it is well worth it.

[Barry Smirnoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very provocative narrative of the impact of slavery on the settler colonial project in the Southwest. The counter-revolution was the slavers reaction to emancipation of 1865, and the continued use of white violence against Africans, Native Americans and Mexicans. Not an easy read, but worth the effort because of the marvelous elements he adds to the history.

[ez · Rating 4 out of 5]

in depth and very important but also kinda like reading the dictionary

[Rexton Tegwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the books the reactionary right wants to ban from existence.

It details the multi-cultural nature of America that’s has been present since Europeans began colonizing the continent.

It also reveals evidence of the rapacity of early Americans. Who proudly recorded their savagery. Now that some Americans have become aware of behavior of their destructive forefathers.

Modern reactionaries seek to erase these accounts from existence. These books need to be taught to our youth so they can understand the exploitive behavior that is on the cusp of destroying the American experiment.

The frontier has closed. There is no more land to seize and transfer to the underclasses. To delay the recognition that most Americans are hereditary wage slaves who have no hope of prosperity or even economic stability.

I resent Marxism, but American la have always had an intellectual blind spot. Believing that we could never be doomed to the lower stratum of society. Because of the vastness of the country. This ignorance likely will live on, but maybe more people will realize the futility of attempting to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps”.