Jackson County, C. S. A.

Defeat ruined the county's planters and did little for the people they had held. Enslaved people had been nearly half the county's taxable property; farm values fell from $1,137,864 in 1860 to $152,613 in 1870. Most freedpeople stayed, many leaving their former owners' farms, and most ended up working land on shares for a third or half of the crop. Lawlessness ruled the range country for a decade, and the town of Morales sheltered fugitives. By around 1900 a white primary had shut Black voters out of county politics.

What the plaque says

Jackson County, C. S. A. In 1861, voted for secession 147 to 77. With its beef and cotton, helped supply South. Furnished salt from beds near Cox's Creek; hides and tallow from a plant between Port Lavaca and Texana; lead from Navidad mine (now a "lost mine"). Homefolk molded bullets and sent to fighting men, along with clothes woven, sewed or knitted by the family. Couriers operated along a line that skirted blockade coast from mouth of Caney Creek to Brownsville. Home guard kept enemy ships off the shores. A Confederate gunboat, chased from Lavaca Bay, sank in the Navidad. (1965)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Confederates of Jackson County — steps away
• Jackson County — steps away
• Early Jackson County — steps away
• Hernandez v. State of Texas — steps away