History senior publishes article on Germans in East Teaxs

Tuesday, Sep 05, 2017

The Department of History is pleased to congratulate Eddie Oliver on the publication of his first article. Mr. Oliver, a senior majoring in History with a minor in German, recently published his original piece “Transitions from Germans to Americans” in the Fall 2017 issue of the Journal of the German-Texan Heritage Society Vol. 39, No. 3.

The article describes the origins and arrival in Texas of the German “Forty-Eighters,” liberal activists  and “Freethinkers” (Freidenker) who emigrated from the German-speaking lands of Central Europe in the wake of the failed Revolution of 1848. Staunch opponents of nativism and slavery, after settling in Texas they organized secret societies to advance the cause of abolition – activities that earned them enemies among slave-owning Texas natives and made at least three-dozen victims of the “Nueces Massacre” following the outbreak of the Civil War.

Oliver’s article was based on research he conducted during a UTA Critical Cultures Summer Institute under the direction of Dr. Barbara Berthold.

Wir gratulieren Eddie!