Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country. By Fay A. Yarbrough

Abstract

This is the second major book publication by Rice University history professor Fay Yarbrough. Building upon her earlier work on Cherokee gender, race, and legal history, Yarbrough here explores how Choctaws enslaved African Americans and built a legal framework that denied Black rights and contributed to Choctaw support of the Confederate States during the U.S. Civil War. Yarbrough provides insightful analysis of Choctaw government legislation and constitution writing from before Removal through the Civil War and into the Reconstruction era. This legal history aspect exposes the hardening racial dynamics of the Choctaw Nation leading up to the Civil War (especially against unrelated free Blacks and non-married, unrelated White men), gendered discourses, and efforts to support and strengthen tribal sovereignty. Intermixing of Choctaw and Cherokee sources to illustrate slave life among the Indian nations and to explain the problems with trying to remain neutral during the secession crisis causes some confusion but direct sources on the Choctaws are limited.