IN DEFENSE OF SLAVERY: DILEMMA OF A GERMAN-AMERICAN CONFEDERATE IN ANTEBELLUM TEXAS

Abstract

This thesis challenges previous historians’ characterizations of Ferdinand Lindheimer as simply the “Father of Texas Botany” and defender of freedom. Instead, Lindheimer acted out of his own self-interest to preserve his German-American ethnic identity, and by extension the community he helped to build. Only when Anglo-American political and social issues endangered his community in the 1850s, did Lindheimer actively engage in the Anglo-American political sphere. Lindheimer expressed minimal concern for those oppressed by the dominant culture. Lindheimer used his publication, the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung, as a shield to protect himself and New Braunfels, the physical manifestation of this ethnic identity, from Anglo-American intrusion. In so doing, Lindheimer became the most visible German-American supporter of slavery, secession and the Confederacy in antebellum Texas.