The Rise of Literacy and the Common School in the United States: A Socioeconomic Analysis to 1870

mysterious disappearance of Williams' original document granting McQueen power of attorney. And, finally, having authored the "Report on the Barbarous Indians of the Province of Texas," Padilla possessed knowledge of the local Indians which might have allowed him to arrange McQueen's murder. Why was this account included? McLean's objective was to prove that Sterling C. Robertson, also standing to gain from McQueen's death, was not the murderer. Too, according to Robertson family tradition, Robertson, while traveling to Monclova to present his case, survived a murder attempt. Robertson overpowered his assailant, forcing him to confess. The would-be killer, fearing for his life, implicated Austin. Here, in an uncommon vein of nonpartisanship, McLean must doubt Austin's guilt, because Austin was on his way to a Mexico City prison. The calendar includes, among other things, personal correspondence, biographical data, land grant summaries, maps, autobiographies, proclamations, petitions, Indian campaign accounts, diary excerpts, minutes of the Coahuila and Texas congress, ayuntamiento reports, immigrant lists, the Eleven League controversy documents, newspaper article reproductions, and immigrant admission forms. Volume 8, particularly the calendar items, gives a vivid account of Mexican legal and bureaucratic practices in Texas. As with Volumes 1-7, Volume 8 is a valuable addition to early Texas historiography. Some readers will react negatively to the partisan narrative, begun in earlier volumes, continued here. And why does the word "negro" appear repeatedly in Robertson's biographical sketch (55-87) with no capitalization?