
“We won’t stand it.”
A cursory glance at the photograph of the author, T.C. Neel, offers little insight into the fire-breathing secessionist we know him to be. Neel came to Texas in the mid-1850s from Georgia with his wife, Willia (whom I’ll highlight later), a daughter, and eighty enslaved persons, who worked Neel’s burgeoning plantation located near Waxahachie in Ellis County. College educated, Neel quickly became a member of both the Texas House and Senate and eventually was elected to represent Ellis county at the Texas Secessionist Convention, convening in Austin, in January, 1861, where its members voted overwhelmingly to secede from the United