Texas Documents, Part 3: John H. Reagan and The Future Texas Refused

As we continue our look at important documents in Texas' past, John H. Reagan's letter of 1865: the Civil War was lost, secession was finished, slavery was over, and survival meant embracing a new order. We unpack John H. Reagan’s prison letter—its stark realism, its calls for legal protections for freedpeople, and its blueprint for rebuilding Texas through reconciliation, immigration, and industry—and place it against the charged backdrop of early Reconstruction. If you value history ground...