On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed

The author of this memoir is a historian who most famously wrote about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his wife's half-sister, Sally Hemmings, a slave that he owned. In this she is grappling with her inetensely felt mixed emotions about Texas. Austin, the blue capital of the red state, is named for a Southern slaveholder, the who brought 300 families and their human chattel with him to extend slavery to the American Southwest. And the Texans who fought at the Alamo died not to free themselves from despotic Mexican rule, but to make their newly occupied land forever unfree for slaves. Texaa is a place that once subjugated, segregated, and lynched Black people (including in her home county) and remains ruled by politicians determined to suppress the hard-won votes of minorities and maintain their own power even as demographics inevitably shift. This is a thoughtful and affectionate meditation on the state in which, despite its dualities, she still feels most at home. Where others might see a simple picture of unreconstructed racism, the author unpacks the complexities that largely defy stereotypes. Along the way, she dispels such foundational myths as those that equate Jamestown with Plymouth Rock: The former was strictly a mercantile venture, while the latter related to a quest for religious freedom. And throughout, she seeks to communicate a simple truth: Our history — whether in Texas specifically or in America at large — is complicated.