Texas Secedes

When Texas left the Union in early 1861, it did so swiftly and with fewer formal justifications than many of its Southern counterparts. In Texas Secedes: A Documentary History, editor Dwight T. Pitcaithley brings together essential primary sources that illuminate how and why leaders of the Lone Star State chose disunion at one of the most consequential moments in American history.

Texas Secedes compiles speeches, ordinances, and official papers produced by Texas politicians, public officials, and Governor Sam Houston in the months leading up to secession. Although Texas was among the first seven states to secede—before Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration—its surviving documents have remained the subject of intense debate. Pitcaithley’s careful introductions and contextual annotations guide readers through these texts, clarifying their political aims, assumptions, and historical significance.

Presented with the same authority as Pitcaithley’s documentary histories of the secession crises in Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri, Texas Secedes deepens our understanding of both Texas’s unique path to secession and the broader circumstances that culminated in the American Civil War. By letting historical actors speak in their own words, this volume offers students, scholars, and general readers an indispensable resource for examining the ideas, divisions, and decisions that shaped a nation on the brink of war.