Introduction

“One of the 50 best books of all time on the American West.” True West

In 1856 Frederick Law Olmsted began a journey into the heart of Texas.

His account of the Lone Star State just a few years before the beginning of the Civil War is one of the most remarkable books ever to have been published about the American West.

He travelled on horseback through small towns, across plains and down canyons in his quest to speak, listen and record what early Texans thought, saw and said.

Olmstead spent over a year speaking to everyone he met, from runaway slaves to housewives, from Native American chiefs to German emigrants going to Texas to begin their new lives.

“Olmstead’s appeal was attributable to his readable and unvarnished reportage of places and events to which few Easterners had direct access. . . . [It] provides a credible glimpse of life in Texas in the mid-1850s, as well as insights into the contemporary debate over the institution of slavery. . . . it remains a basic source for historians of the region and the period.” Southwest Book Views

"intelligent, lively, readable book, packed with keen observation and lightened by a delicate strain of humor." Larry McMurty

“The peculiar institution was more peculiar in Texas than in other states, and Olmsted’s eye for the weirdness makes Journey, a page turner. So does his use of sprightly travelogue to make the serious argument that slavery was ruining Texas. . . . Olmsted’s word portraits of mid-19th-century Texas are as good as the best modern travelogues.” Debbie Nathan, Texas Observer

“Some of the most interesting works that have been written on America … are the production of a native, Mr. F. L. Olmsted.” The British Quarterly Review

“Praise for this book has been almost universal (in the North at least) since its publication in 1857 and continues to this day.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly

The works of Frederick Law Olmsted have been hailed as some of the most convincing and influential anti-slavery arguments, his work was widely praised with London’s Westminster Review declaring, “it is impossible to resist his accumulated evidence.”

Frederick Law Olmsted was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He was particularly famous for assisting in the design of many of America’s most loved parks, including Central Park in New York City, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and Elm Park in Worcester, Massachusetts. He wrote three different accounts of his travels across America. A Journey through Texas: Or a Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier was first published in 1857 and he passed away in 1903.

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