Texas Terror: The Slave Insurrection Panic of 1860 and the Secession of the Lower South

The fires were probably caused by the spontaneous ignition of a new type of phosphorous match, but within a week reports circulated, primarily through Texas newspapers, that the fires were set by slaves as part of a massive plot engineered by northern abolitionists active in Texas. In Texas Terror-which is based on prodigious research in manuscripts, published documents, memoirs, and southern newspapers-Reynolds carefully traces the events of that summer in 1860, showing that in many ways the affair had more influence in the lower South than did the better known John Brown raid of the previous year.