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Informationen zum Autor By Walter Struve Klappentext During the brief history of the Republic of Texas (1836-1845), over 10,000 Germans emigrated to Texas. Perhaps best remembered today are the farmers who settled the Texas Hill Country, yet many of the German immigrants were merchants and businesspeople who helped make Galveston a thriving international port and Houston an early Texas business center. This book tells their story.Drawing on extensive research on both sides of the Atlantic, Walter Struve explores the conditions that led nineteenth-century Europeans to establish themselves on the North American frontier. In particular, he traces the similarity in social, economic, and cultural conditions in Germany and the Republic of Texas and shows how these similarities encouraged German emigration and allowed some immigrants to prosper in their new home. Particularly interesting is the translation of a collection of letters from Charles Giesecke to his brother in Germany which provide insight into the business and familial concerns of a German merchant and farmer.This wealth of information illuminates previously neglected aspects of intercontinental migration in the nineteenth century. The book will be important reading for a wide public and scholarly audience. Zusammenfassung The story of the German immigrant merchants and businesspeople who helped make Galveston a thriving international port and Houston an early Texas business center. Inhaltsverzeichnis Tables and IllustrationsAbbreviationsThe Lure of an Heirloom: In Place of a PrefaceIntroductionPart One. World of Origin: North Germany in the Biedermeier Era 1. German Patricians and Merchants in Crisis2. The Homeland of the Gieseckes3. Bremen and Its HinterlandPart Two. Enmeshment: North Germany and the Americas 4. The Lure of Mexico, Texas, and the United States5. Galveston and Its HinterlandPart Three. World of Destination: Merchants and Immigrants in the Republic of Texas 6. North German Arrivals7. Brazoria Rise and Fall of a TownAgriculture and Slavery in Brazoria County8. The Many Worlds of the Gieseckes in Texas Export, Import, Agriculture, and Retail BusinessCotton and Bremen“Plantation,” Slavery, and the Tobacco TradeDistilling in TexasCraftsmen and EmigrationEpilogue: Reflections on MigrationAppendix 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 HannoverAppendix 2. Chart of the Giesecke Family: Some Relationships among the Giesecke, Sander, Basse, and Struve FamiliesNotesGlossary of Weights, Measures, and Monetary UnitsBibliographical Essay and BibliographyIndex...
