Date
12-16-2025
Department
College of Arts and Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)
Chair
Logan Thomas
Keywords
Sarah Landrum Devereux Garrison, Monte Verdi Plantation, Texas history, Civil War, Reconstruction, women’s roles, plantation management, Southern history
Disciplines
History
Recommended Citation
Austin, Tanya Estes, "A Southern Widow’s War: Sarah Landrum Devereux Garrison and the Struggles of Survival in Nineteenth-Century Texas" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7775.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7775
Abstract
This study examines the life and legacy of Sarah Landrum Devereux Garrison (1827–1900) and her management of Monte Verdi Plantation in Rusk County, Texas, tracing its transformation before, during, and after the American Civil War. Drawing from the Devereux Family Papers at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, along with county records, agricultural schedules, and personal correspondence, this research reconstructs the economic, social, and domestic systems that sustained plantation life under her direction. As a widow and female plantation manager, Sarah navigated the profound upheavals of war, emancipation, and Reconstruction with exceptional resilience and adaptability. Her leadership offers an illuminating case study of women’s roles in maintaining plantation operations and social order amid the collapse of slavery and the restructuring of Southern society. Through comparative analysis of antebellum management, wartime endurance, and postwar adjustment, this study explores how Sarah balanced moral, maternal, and managerial responsibilities while redefining female authority within the domestic and agricultural spheres. Her actions demonstrate both the persistence and transformation of plantation culture in nineteenth-century Texas, revealing how one woman’s determination preserved a way of life while adapting to a new social and economic reality.
