Description
Book SynopsisThe story of the German immigrant merchants and businesspeople who helped make Galveston a thriving international port and Houston an early Texas business center.
Trade Review"A painstaking, unique, and interpretatively astute case study of a generally overlooked immigrant group, i.e. small business- and tradespeople... Genealogists are well served by the meticulous attention to genealogical detail." --Leo Schelbert, Professor of History, University of Illinois at Chicago
Table of Contents
- Tables and Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- The Lure of an Heirloom: In Place of a Preface
- Introduction
- Part One. World of Origin: North Germany in the Biedermeier Era
- 1. German Patricians and Merchants in Crisis
- 2. The Homeland of the Gieseckes
- 3. Bremen and Its Hinterland
- Part Two. Enmeshment: North Germany and the Americas
- 4. The Lure of Mexico, Texas, and the United States
- 5. Galveston and Its Hinterland
- Part Three. World of Destination: Merchants and Immigrants in the Republic of Texas
- 6. North German Arrivals
- 7. Brazoria
- Rise and Fall of a Town
- Agriculture and Slavery in Brazoria County
- 8. The Many Worlds of the Gieseckes in Texas
- Export, Import, Agriculture, and Retail Business
- Cotton and Bremen
- “Plantation,” Slavery, and the Tobacco Trade
- Distilling in Texas
- Craftsmen and Emigration
- Epilogue: Reflections on Migration
- Appendix 1. Letters from Texas, 1844–1845:The Merchant and Farmer Charles A. Giesecke in Brazoria, Republic of Texas, to His Brother, the Merchant Friedrich Giesecke in Elze, AMT (Subdistrict) Gronau-Poppenburg, Kingdom of Hannover
- Appendix 2. Chart of the Giesecke Family: Some Relationships among the Giesecke, Sander, Basse, and Struve Families
- Notes
- Glossary of Weights, Measures, and Monetary Units
- Bibliographical Essay and Bibliography
- Index
