The Southern Exodus to Mexico
Migration across the Borderlands after the American Civil War
Todd W. Wahlstrom
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Imprint: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 03/2015
Pages: 256
Subject: History
eBook ISBN: 9780803274228
DESCRIPTION
After the Civil War, a handful of former Confederate leaders joined
forces with the Mexican emperor Maximilian von Hapsburg to colonize
Mexico with former American slaveholders. Their plan was to develop
commercial agriculture in the Mexican state of Coahuila under the
guidance of former slaveholders with former slaves providing the
bulk of the labor force. By developing these new centers of
agricultural production and commercial exchange, the Mexican
government hoped to open up new markets and, by extending the few
already-existing railroads in the region, also spur further
development. The Southern Exodus to Mexico considers the
experiences of both white southern elites and common white and
black southern farmers and laborers who moved to Mexico during this
period. Todd W. Wahlstrom examines in particular how the endemic
warfare, raids, and violence along the borderlands of Texas and
Coahuila affected the colonization effort. Ultimately, Native
groups such as the Comanches, Kiowas, Apaches, and Kickapoos, along
with local Mexicans, prevented southern colonies from taking hold
in the region, where local tradition and careful balances of power
negotiated over centuries held more sway than large nationalistic
or economic forces. This study of the transcultural tensions and
conflicts in this region provides new perspectives for the
historical assessment of this period of Mexican and American
history.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Todd W. Wahlstrom is a visiting assistant professor of history in Seaver College at Pepperdine University.
REVIEWS
“The Southern Exodus to Mexico is an intervention in borderlands history, in black-white-Indian history, in migration history, in economic history, and in the history of national, class, and racial identities. It is also that rare and wonderful kind of historical writing: a tale of roads not taken, of dreams not quite fulfilled. Even though most of the migrants did not achieve all that they had hoped, there is much for us to learn from their ventures. Wahlstrom shows us a dynamic borderland and the peoples who traversed it.”—Paul Spickard, author of Almost All Aliens: Immigration, Race, and Colonialism in American History and Identity
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