Abstract
This is the English translation of a letters published in Houzeau, J.-C. (1862). La Terreur Blanche au Texas et mon Évasion. Bruxelles: Ve Parent & Fils.
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Notes
- 1.
Van Bemmel: Only the first of these letters reached its destination. It appeared in the Revue trimestrielle of July 1, 1861.
- 2.
The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861 with the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina.
- 3.
i.e., the apologists for the Confederacy.
- 4.
The source text writes “tendre la corde”, i.e., death by hanging.
- 5.
Bulletin des Lois.
- 6.
With only 5% of the nation’s paper mills in 1860, the South could not produce nearly enough paper to meet even the section’s peacetime needs [2, p. 42]. At their meeting of August 28, 1861, the Vestry of the Austin Christ Church Parish learned that there was no more “lamp oil” in town, and they feared that Reverend Charles Gillette would have to discontinue his Sunday evening service [3, p. 16].
- 7.
William Wilberforce (1759–1833) and Henry Peter Brougham (1778–1868) were British politicians who fought against the slave trade.
- 8.
Mammon is a term from the Bible, and is used to describe material wealth or greed [4, p. 374].
- 9.
Part of this phrase appears in Harry S. Truman [5].
- 10.
Houzeau: Edge of Indian country.
- 11.
The Brazos River.
- 12.
As is the case on the Upper Brazos.
- 13.
make money is the expression used by Houzeau.
- 14.
New Braunfels, about 30 miles northeast of San Antonio.
- 15.
The source text expression is sainte colère, i.e., a red hot anger. The expression refers to biblical passages that approve of justified indignation – for example John 2:13-17 (King James Version).
- 16.
The literal translation of the original sentence does not yield a grammatically correct phrase.
- 17.
i.e., all those present.
- 18.
Houzeau: This name is a pseudonym or nom de guerre. I will reveal this courageous missionary’s name later as he is still in Texas, exposed to the wrath and vengeance of the planters.
- 19.
Houzeau: Owner.
- 20.
Houzeau explains this law in [6, p. 301]: “le droit légal du seigneur sur la chair noire”, i.e., the master’s right to coerced sex.
- 21.
Houzeau: Seignorial rights are transferred with the chattel.
- 22.
Houzeau uses outrager which, in the historical context of the 19th century, means rape.
- 23.
Houzeau: Tamper with negroes is an offense punishable by law.
- 24.
Fruit brandy or, more generally, any strong liquor.
- 25.
The old English league was about 3 statute miles, or 4.830 km, but the French league was longer: 5.850 km [7, p. 70]. Houzeau does not explicitly say which one he refers to.
- 26.
Houzeau: Deserters.
- 27.
During the February 20, 1858, session of the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican Galusha Grow of Pennsylvania crossed the aisle to the Democratic side to confer with some Northern Democrats. Democrat Lawrence Keitt of South Carolina yelled at Grow to “go back to your side of the House, you Black Republican puppy!” [8]. In a letter to his parents, Houzeau translates this in exactly the same way as “un chien damné de républicain noir” [9, letter 22, March 7, 1858].
- 28.
The source text text stipulates “traduit, au coin d’un bois”, and probably refers to the expression “au coin du bois”, i.e., a remote place.
- 29.
The source text says “juge et partie”, i.e., judge and jury in their own case.
- 30.
À la lanterne! or hang them!, literally, refers to the French Revolution, when lamp posts were used to hang aristocrats. In a broader sense the slogan refers to street justice. The expression was also frequently used during the Belgian revolution of 1830, i.e. “Les ministres et la majorité à la lanterne!” (The ministers and the majority to the lamp post) [10, p. 300] and “van Maanen à la lanterne” ([Dutch minister] van Maanen to the lamp post) [11, p. 79].
- 31.
The Bourbon Restoration was the period following the fall of Napoleon in 1814 and his subsequent defeat at Waterloo in 1815, until the July Revolution of 1830. The “Bande des Trestaillons” refers to armed bands designed for murdering and plundering the Protestants in 1815 [12, p. 281].
- 32.
Houzeau: Ravine.
- 33.
Jacob de Cordova [13, p. 77] identified Black Creek as a tributary of the north fork of the Colorado.
- 34.
Houzeau: A single star, distinctive sign of the secessionists.
- 35.
Houzeau: Young boys.
- 36.
The Blanco River originates in Kendall county and flows southeast through Blanco and Hays counties [14].
- 37.
i.e., living inside the master’s mansion, not in the slave quarters.
- 38.
Houzeau: The cruel masters take pleasure in rubbing salt, pepper or burning cinders into the wounds made by the lash.
- 39.
Houzeau: “Father and me [sic] could not get her with child”.
- 40.
Monomania is a pathological obsession with one idea or thought.
- 41.
The blockading of southern seaports during the Civil War [15].
- 42.
Ambroise Zimmermann, according to a letter of June 16, 1861 from François Guilbeau (1813–1879), Vice Consul of France at San Antonio, to Edward Clark, Governor of the State of Texas in Austin, see transcription in Chapter 5.7 (courtesy Texas Governor Edward Clark Records, Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission).
- 43.
Fort Clark in Kinney County, near Brackettville, Texas.
- 44.
Trevanion Theodore Teel (1824–1899), Edward Braden (1829–1904), [16].
- 45.
Houzeau: Ultimately, Teel was promoted.
- 46.
i.e., a posse: a group of men assembled to pursue someone, typically a lawbreaker.
- 47.
The source text says “C’était conscience" – a sentence that is utterly untranslatable.
- 48.
Constellation Grande Ourse, Big Dipper, Ursa Major.
- 49.
Houzeau: The Indian has a special wife whom he takes with him on war parties, and who is not frightened by the smell of gunpowder.
- 50.
Thomas Robert Bugeaud (1784–1849) was a Marshal of France.
- 51.
A smala is a group of tents. The statement refers to the battle fought in 1843 between France and Algerian resistance fighters.
- 52.
The source text uses “Bataille en équerre”, a military term referring to a configuration at right angles that either occurs by premeditation, or by chance [17, Chapter VI, Art. I].
- 53.
Rocinante refers to the name of Don Quixote’s horse, in the novel by Miguel de Cervantes [18].
- 54.
i.e., Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow in 1812.
- 55.
The Secondary or Mesozoic Era is an interval of geological time from about 250,000,000 years ago to about 65,000,000 years ago. The Tertiary is the geologic period from 65,000,000 to 2,600,000 years ago.
- 56.
The term “hors d’oeuvre" is explained in the Petit Littré 1959 edition [19]: a group of figures in a painting that do not belong to the core of the image. Houzeau also uses the term in [20, letter 10, January 21, 1859]: “C’est comme hors d’oeuvre, non comme but principal, – que j’écris la correspondance de la Revue.” – explaining that his writings for the Revue trimestrielle are only a side course to a bigger undertaking that he envisages.
- 57.
Also known as the Tabernacle of Moses: the sanctuary as described in Exodus 25:26.
- 58.
The moving panorama was a mass medium of the 19th Century [21].
- 59.
i.e., the local residents.
- 60.
The Confederacy.
- 61.
Houzeau was not appointed by a Royal decree, hence he was not a public officer in the service of the Belgian government, but was paid as a regular worker, with a daily fee [22, p. 18]. Gore [23] erroneously states that in 1854 Houzeau “...was appointed astronomer to the Belgian War Department to assist in the topographic survey of the country”.
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Sterken, C., King, A.A. (2020). The White Terror in Texas—Letter I. In: Jean-Charles Houzeau's Escape from Texas. Springer Biographies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46538-4_8
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