Dance of Freedom

Barry A. Crouch (1941-2002) was a professor of history at Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C., for twenty-one years. During his distinguished scholarly career, he published three dozen journal articles, almost as many book reviews, and three books.Larry Madaras is Professor Emeritus of History at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland. He lives in Lake Worth, Florida.

• Foreword by Arnoldo De LeÓnAcknowledgments by Larry MadarasIntroduction by Larry MadarasPart I. Historiography 1. "Unmanacling" Texas Reconstruction: A Twenty-Year PerspectivePostscript to Part IPart II. Freedom 2. Reconstructing Black Families: Perspectives from the Texas Freedmen's Bureau Records3. Black Dreams and White Justice4. Seeking Equality: Houston Black Women during ReconstructionPostscript to Part IIPart III. Reaction 5. A Spirit of Lawlessness: White Violence, Texas Blacks, 1865-18686. Crisis in Color: Racial Separation in Texas during Reconstruction7. "All the Vile Passions": The Texas Black Code of 18668. The Fetters of Justice: Black Texans and the Penitentiary during ReconstructionPostscript to Part IIIPart IV. Freedmen's Bureau Agents and African American Politicians 9. Guardian of the Freedpeople: Texas Freedmen's Bureau Agents and the Black Community10. Hesitant Recognition: Texas Black Politicians, 1865-190011. Self-Determination and Local Black Leaders in Texas12. A Political Education: George T. Ruby and the Texas Freedmen's BureauPostscript to Part IVBibliography of Works by Barry A. CrouchIndex

"Barry Crouch was a pioneer revisionist whose work greatly influenced a new generation of Texas historians... This anthology will appeal to many audiences, both academic and general. It will be an ideal reader for courses on Southern history, Texas history, and the history of African Americans... This volume will also be controversial among laypeople and some scholars, especially among white Texans and other white Southerners. Many of them believe the Civil War is still raging and that old Dixie still has a chance to win. Their sacred cows, such as their view of 'scalawags' and 'carpetbaggers,' are confronted head on. Crouch might become the man they love to hate." James Smallwood, Oklahoma State University (emeritus), author of Murder and Mayhem: The War of Reconstruction in Texas (coauthored with Barry Crouch and Larry Peacock), Time of Hope, Time of Despair: Black Texans during Reconstruction, and The Struggle Upward: Blacks in Texas