The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 90, July 1986 - April, 1987 Page: 38
492 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Whether they came alone or with their families, their departures
were often difficult. Mary Maverick, who came to Texas with her hus-
band and family in 1837, remembered,
With heavy hearts we said goodbye to Mother, and my brothers, and sister.
Mother ran after us for one more embrace. She held me in her arms and wept
aloud, and said, "Oh, Mary, I will never see you again on Earth." I felt heart-
broken and often recalled that thrilling cry; and I have never beheld my dear
Mother again.'
Similarly, Millie Gray, wife of William Fairfax Gray, experienced grief
at departing from her friends and family in Fredericksburg, Virginia,
in 1838. She recorded that in the days before leaving, she visited friends,
which was "a melancholy pleasure." The night before they left, many
family members and friends gathered, and "it was a heart rending
scene when the hour came for us to go down to the Boat-too painfull
for any attempt at description."" Even after her arrival in Houston,
Millie had difficulty conquering her sadness,
although every thing looks better than I had expected, my heart feels op-
pressed [etc.] and it requires an effort to wear the apearance of cheerfulness-I
could (if I were a weeping character) sit down & fairly weep-and if asked for
what, I could not tell-merely because all is strange [etc.] and I fear to look
forward-. ..'
Not all departures were this gloomy: Angelina Peyton (later Eberly)
noted that
Just then [in 1822] Stephen Austin & Joe Hawkins were crying up Texas-
beautiful country. land for nothing &c. -Texas fever rose then, as it has often
since, there we must go. -there, without much reflection we did go. I was full
of it, went to buy whatever was necessary for housekeeping-dishes & - &c 10
In sharp contrast to the experiences of free women immigrants to
Texas, black slave women moved to Texas involuntarily and often ex-
perienced brutal conditions of travel. Silvia King recalled that she was
taken from Africa to New Orleans, where she was sold.
We were all chained, and they stripped all our clothes off, and the folks who
were going to buy us came around and felt us all over.... [T]hey chained us
7Rena Maverick Green, Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick, arranged by Mary A. Maverick and
George Madison Maverick (San Antonio, 1921), 12.
8Millie Richards Gray, The Diary of Millie Gray, x832-184o (Houston, 1967), 121.
9Ibid., 52.
'0Mary Austin Holley, "Notes Made by Mrs. Holley in Interviews with Prominent Texans of
Early Days," 8, Mary Austin Holley Papers (BTHC).
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 90, July 1986 - April, 1987, periodical, 1986/1987; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117152/m1/64/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.