WHEAT FARMERS IN THE SECESSION CRISIS: THE IMPRINT OF THE UPPER SOUTH ON NORTHEAST TEXAS POLITICS.

The article presents an examination into the issues that divided northern and southern Texas over the 1861 decision over whether or not to secede from the United States and join the Confederacy. Northern wheat farmers expressed concern over the issue of secession which, politically, pitted them against the majority of the state that was in favor of secession. The article discusses how many northern Texas farmers came from states in the Upper South who were less dependent on slave labor or raising and harvesting their crops while southern Texas farmers typically had roots to the Deep South and raised cotton. The author explores how these economic issues were tied to politics and influenced the secession debate.