Nassau Plantation

If only NASSAU PLANTATION - THE EVOLUTION OF A TEXAS-GERMAN SLAVE PLANTATION had a map or two of south central Texas in the mid-late 1840s, this historical essay by Dr James C. Kearney would be close to perfect in its genre. *** As it is, the book is blessed by 14 fast moving chapters and a postscript, six appendices, a note on sources, a close to exhaustive set of end notes, a select bibliography, and index and very few typos or fuzzily expressed ideas. *** In two waves before the Civil War and World War I, millions of German-speaking immigrants came to the USA -- including first to the Republic of Texas and mainly then to the State of Texas. A handful of German nobles, including relatives of Queen VIctoria of England and Prince Consort Albert, conceived and financed a scheme which sent far more than 3,000 German families and single men to towns like La Vaca, Victoria New Braunfels and Friedrichsburg (today's Fredericksburg) and others in the mid 1840s. If they could meet the terms of million acre land grants, especially in Comanche lands just north of the Llano Rive, those German immigrants would own more property than they could dream of back in Germany or Austria. *** Texan historian and linguist James C. Kearney not only details the month by month saga of high hopes, near starvation and all too soon financial bankruptcy of the dream of the German nobles, but he also lays out the larger framework of Texas relations with the USA and Mexico, agricultural contributions and innovations of German settlers in south central Texas and much much more. Heroes like Meusebach, Schubbert and others are lovingly sketched. The colossal importance of slavery to Southern prosperity is also convincingly displayed. *** On balance NASSAU PLANTATION is a keeper, clearly conceived and expressed and lays out an important chapter in general German-speaking history. -OOO-