The American Revolutions That Are Really Counterrevolutions | Gerald Horne | TMR

Sam and Emma host Gerald Horne, Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, to discuss his recent book The Counter-Revolution of 1836: Texas Slavery & Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism. Professor Gerald Horne then joins as he dives right into his work taking on the pre-foundational, foundational, and developmental myths of the United States, focusing on his analysis of the Texas revolution as a “counter-revolution,” seeking to expand institutions that promote a dearth of progress (indigenous dispossession, the transatlantic slave trade) rather than reinventing their institutions in favor of progress. Continuing his analysis of the Texas revolution, Professor Horne walks through the Texan elite and their push against the “Mexican Tyranny” of emancipation, then capitalizing on the success of their revolution by launching a period of mass bloodshed as they violently dispossessed the Comanches to expand their territories and plantations. Shifting away from Texas, Horne, Sam, and Emma explore the role of America and Mexico in challenging and supporting, respectively, Texas’ role in the transatlantic slave trade, with Andrew Jackson using the Trail of Tears to force indigenous people into Texas’ surrounding areas while Texas attempted to ally with now French-Occupied Mexico to stay off pressure from the US, lasting through to the Juneteenth arrival of Black Soldiers in Galveston to not only implement Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation but to put an end to the France-Texas alliance. Continuing forward through the turn of the century, Gerald walks through the lasting impact of this era of Texas history in the rebirth of the Klu Klux Klan, before stepping back to analyze the importance of the greater historical context behind this revolution, and how to unite macro and micro lenses of history.

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Check out more from the MR crew:

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Emma Vigeland ESVN

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I want to Welcome to the program Professor Gerald Horn. He is a Professor of history and African American studies at the University of Houston, the author of his most recent counter-revolution of 1836 Texas Slavery and Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S Fascism. Professor Horn, I know you're on the road. I really appreciate your taking the time today to join us. Always a pleasure to have you on the program. I'm here with Emma Vigeland. Thank you for inviting me. So you're and and and I have talked on multiple occasions over the years about a couple of your books. And you have been like it seems to me systematically going back and in some ways taking on the myths of the founding of this country and the development of this country and the pre-founding of this country. And sort of like allowing us to see it through a different lens when we talk about the counter to the Texas Revolution let's start there. What is the prevailing notion of what the Texas Revolution was all about? The prevailing notion is that settlers who had roots in the United States rebelled against what they considered to be Mexican tyranny. and that it was not unlike 1776. Now part of that narrative is the actor. What I mean is that the settlers led by Sam Houston and Stephen l Austin and others who have been bequeathed their names through leading cities in what is now a U.S. state wanted to continue slavery. Mexico had moved to abolish slavery in the eight late 1820s under a president of African descent speaking of Vincent de Guerrero. And Rather than a seat to that particular decision, they rebelled. And then they went on to unleash what was one of the bloodiest episodes in the history of North America. I'm speaking of the dispossession of the indigenous population.