By Keagan LeJeune
Louisiana’s impartial Strip, a space of pine forests, squats among the Calcasieu and Sabine Rivers at the border of East Texas. Early in its background, the area built a name as a harsh frontier the place grit and tenacity turned crucial instruments of survival. in the course of the Louisiana buy, bureaucrats from either Spain and the U.S. squabbled over the precise boundary line among the 2 rival powers. either governments got rid of military from the contested land to prevent struggle. Intensifying its attractiveness, the sector served as an reliable buffer area. with no the protection of an army presence, citizens speedy learned they'd have to defend and govern themselves. quickly, tight-knit groups shaped, and citizens built a reliance on self, relatives, and neighbor.In the early 1900s, the bushes increase sliced during the forests of East Texas and the previous impartial Strip, disrupting those dense groups. Mill cities sprang up, and the promise of cash lured land speculators, bushes staff, unionists, and a bunch of different characters, equivalent to the outlaw leather-based Britches Smith. The entrenched neighborhood citizens quickly faced not just those new group participants but in addition a dynamic cultural second that struck a defining blow within the making of the zone. That second keeps to form the place’s cultural attention, and other people style a lore attached to this time.In a desirable exploration of the zone, Keagan LeJeune unveils the legend of leather-based Britches, paralleling the levels of the outlaw’s existence to the impartial Strip’s formation. LeJeune retells every one level of Smith’s lifestyles: his infamous prior, his audacious deeds of theft or even generosity, his rumored connection to a neighborhood union strike—the Grabow War—significant within the annals of work historical past, and his eventual demise. because the outlaw’s lifestyles vividly unfolds, the publication additionally unearths the area’s background and cultural panorama. frequently utilizing the details of 1 small city as a consultant instance, the ebook explores how the zone recalls and reinterprets the previous with a purpose to navigate a global altering rapidly.Drawing from newspapers, court docket documents, and a decade of interviews and commentary, LeJeune bargains a penetrating exam of the interaction among legend and position, exploring Smith’s personal existence, this distinct old second, and the place’s mysterious panorama. The e-book additionally considers how modern fairs and other kinds of cultural background hire the legend as a cultural recourse. to stick shiny and significant, tradition continuously re-makes itself; right here, the outlaw occupies an important function within the re-creation.Texas Folklore Society additional e-book quantity 23“LeJeune makes use of a really strange method mixing historic files and money owed, oral histories, historiography, and folkloric how you can inform the tale of the Sabine Strip among Louisiana and Texas, and the legend of an outlaw named ‘Leather Britches Smith.’ He monitors a wealth of knowledge approximately western valuable Louisiana and the historiography of the region.”—Gary D. Joiner, writer of throughout the Howling barren region: The 1864 pink River crusade and Union Failure within the West“This e-book reminds us that Louisiana west of the Mississippi used to be a part of the western frontier. Few comprehend that Pat Garrett grew up in Louisiana and that Jim Bowie used to be from there. leather-based Britches Smith is destined to take a spot within the pantheon of western characters. continually for the Underdog might be of curiosity to all people who are fascinated by the yankee outlaw-hero.”—Barry Ancelet, writer of Cajun and Creole Folktales“Based on my event educating introductory folklore collage classes, i do know that scholars have hassle figuring out what a legend is. LeJeune’s ebook might make a good textual content simply because he is taking the reader step-by-step during the evolution of the leather-based Britches legend, in a transparent and easy means that starting scholars may simply grasp.”—Lee Winniford, writer of Following outdated Fencelines
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Extra info for Always for the Underdog: Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War (Texas Folklore Society Extra Book)
Sample text
Outlaws, gunfighters . . just some rough people,” an uncle added. Melanie’s brother, Marshall, jumped in. ” The folklore of the region, including the legend of Leather Britches and the cycles of stories Goob told, emerge from this reputation of the region. Many residents know this reputation, and some of their self-perceptions derive from this awareness. In the talk over holiday meals, after church services, or during other occasions when people have the time to visit, like a Christmas gathering, I hear bits and pieces of this rich folk tradition—a part of the region’s identity.
Forces made camp. Military officers arrived in frontier areas claiming towns and placing residents under the dominion of Spain. In Nacogdoches, Rodríguez himself issued a proclamation that criticized the “greed and pride” of America, claimed that America had declared war, and called every settler to his duty as defender of the Spanish kingdom. This act proved to be quite costly for Rodríguez, especially after suffering a few military defeats. As one might expect, in response to these boasts American forces grew anxious, and open conflict grew dangerously close.
We crossed the Sabine to head over to Newton. Even at night, we could feel ourselves crossing and could see the thickets of growth teeming off its banks. 2 These special sections of woods close to the river remain, and in them, growth has somehow held on to the past or convinced the people around them to preserve the past there. The Sabine River, especially because it still holds parts like these, may be even more important to the region’s cultural landscape than the timber or the pinewoods. The river basin runs about three hundred miles.
