Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Fredonian Rebellion/archive1


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by SandyGeorgia 22:53, 6 September 2009.

Fredonian Rebellion

 * Nominator(s): Karanacs (talk) 22:25, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Have you ever been tempted to personally secede from your country? Probably. Most of us don't actually do this, because the end result would be anarchy (imagine having to show a passport to go visit your next-door neighbor!). In 1826, one Texas man did declare his land to be a new republic, and he convinced 30 other settlers to join him. He even signed a treaty with the Cherokee and designed his own flag. It was a pretty half-hearted rebellion, but it had some amazingly long-term consequences&mdash;it was the precursor to the Texas Revolution a decade later. I hope you enjoy this latest installation of crazy Texas antics (seriously, HOW did these people win a revolution?), and I hope you find no problems with the article; if you do, I will be happy to take a look. Karanacs (talk) 22:25, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Comment I have no knowledge of the subject matter, but after a lit search am wondering why none of the following sources are cited in the article: Sasata (talk) 00:01, 30 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Jack Jackson (2005). Indian Agent: Peter Ellis Bean in Mexican Texas. ISBN=978-1585444441. Chapter 5 = "The Fredonian Rebellion". pp. 61–76.
 * Eugene C. Barker (1925). The Life of Stephen F. Austin, Founder of Texas, 1793–1836. Dallas: Cokesbury Press. 551 pp.
 * Carlos E. Castaneda. (1950). The Fight for Freedom, 1810–1836. Austin, Texas: Von Boeckmann-Jones Co. 384 pp.
 * Richard Drinnon (1972). White Savage; the case of John Dunn Hunter. New York: Schocken Books. 282 pp.
 * Richard Drinnon (1975). "The Metaphysics of Empire-Building: American Imperialism in the Age of Jefferson and Monroe". The Massachusetts Review 16(4):666–688
 * Edmund Morris Parsons. (1967). "The Fredonian Rebellion". Texana 5(1):11–52
 * Hodding Carter. (1971). Doomed road of empire: The Spanish trail of conquest (The American trails series). McGraw-Hill. 407 pp.
 * The abstract of one source I see claims this about Humphrey Jackson (1784-1833): "As militia officer he helped to put down the Fredonian Rebellion." However, his name isn't mentioned in the article. Source: Andrew Forest Muir. (1965). Humphrey Jackson, alcalde of San Jacinto." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 68(3):361–365.


 * Thanks for checking out the sources! From a quick review, the following sources are not appropriate:
 * Life of Stephen F. Austin - that is a very old biography (there are more recent, better ones), and this incident was extremely minor in Austin's life. It would rate a mention, yes, but not enough discussion to add anything to the article.
 * The Castaneda book is an overview of Mexican Texas; the Davis book I cite is a more recent (and better received) analysis of the same period.
 * The Carter book is primarily concerned with Spanish rule, which ended before the events of this article took place.
 * The Jackson source would be too specific - he was one of 250 in Austin's colony who volunteered to help, and none of them actually fought. (see also )
 * I'll check out the others tomorrow and see if they would be useful.

Karanacs (talk) 02:25, 30 August 2009 (UTC)
 * My library had a copy of the Peter Ellis bean book, and I've added a few details from it. The book added nothing new to the analysis of the impact of the event. I have not been able to track down the other sources, but I am fairly confident that they would not have more to add.   Karanacs (talk) 15:42, 30 August 2009 (UTC)
 * To be thorough, I consulted Gregg Cantrell's recent biography of Stephen F. Austin. One page was devoted to the Fredonian Rebellion, and all applicable information was already covered by other sources cited in this article. Karanacs (talk) 17:16, 1 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Support I made some corrections, hope I didn't mess anything up. Article looks good, expect for the following sentence: "After Chaplin's victory, many settlers alleging vote-stacking in an appeal to Juan Antonio Saucedo, the political chief of the Department of Bexar." Wasn't 100% sure if "alleged" was to be substituted in there. Also one small question about "...in April 1827 the Towakoni and Waco sued for peace." Could you clarify "sued"... did the Indians take them to court? Sasata (talk) 18:03, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Your corrections look great, thanks very much! I changed "alleging" to "alleged", and wikilinked sued for peace to provide more clarity.  (It's not a court action but is instead a diplomatic process.) Karanacs (talk) 18:53, 1 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Support This is a terrific article on a very interesting piece of US History. It is thoroughly researched using the most scholarly sources on the subject matter. I do not see the need to cite less scholarly sources or sources of equal scholarship when they say the same thing anyway.  Nancy Heise    talk  16:54, 30 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you Nancy, and thank you also for your detailed peer review of the article. Karanacs (talk) 22:00, 30 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Support - with regard to Criterion 1a. I found a few typos, which I took the liberty of fixing. An engaging article, which was a pleasure to read, thank you. Graham Colm Talk 15:30, 31 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you, Graham, for fixing my mistakes! Karanacs (talk) 17:17, 31 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Support - Looks great.  ceran  thor 15:36, 1 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Comments -
 * http://texashistory.unt.edu/widgets/pager.php/ deadlinks
 * Otherwise, sources look okay, links checked out with the link checker tool. Ealdgyth - Talk 00:20, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I've removed that. Karanacs (talk) 00:59, 2 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Comment. "Anglo" (in the first sentence) isn't a word, it's a prefix. It should be replaced with "English", "English-speaking", "Anglo-Saxon", or some similar term. Kaldari (talk) 21:26, 3 September 2009 (UTC)
 * "Anglo" is actually commonly used as a noun among historians of this period in Texas history (1821-1836). It refers to anyone who was not born in Mexico/Spanish territory.  Karanacs (talk) 16:37, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
 * While it may be easy for people familiar with Texas history to know what "Anglo" means, it is by no means a well-known or well-used term (by itself). Why wouldn't you want to replace it will a term anyone could understand? Kaldari (talk) 20:27, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't mean to but in - but - I'm butting : ) - why not just wikilink Anglo which is properly and commonly used alone, not simply as a prefix. See definition in Merriam Webster dictionary.    Nancy Heise    talk  03:05, 5 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Image review File:TXMap-doton-Nacogdoches.PNG has dubious sourcing and copyright status. It is marked PD with no reason. The article is also generally low on images, having only two. Stifle (talk) 21:17, 5 September 2009 (UTC)
 * I've removed the map, leaving only one image for now. For this time period and era, there are few images available. Karanacs (talk) 15:57, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.