Lorenzo Sherwood [Carte de Visite]
Name/Title
Lorenzo Sherwood [Carte de Visite]Description
1860s carte de visite by Gurney & Sons in New York of Lorenzo Sherwood.Context
Lorenzo Sherwood was elected to represent District 35 (Galveston County) in the House of the Sixth Texas Legislature, where he took office on November 5, 1855. His political career in Texas was cut short, however, and came to an end because he criticized slavery on moral and practical grounds and argued that Congress had the right to decide the slavery question in the territories. Sherwood’s opponents attacked him as an “abolitionist” and used that charge to force his resignation from the legislature in 1856. When he sought to defend himself in a public speech, he was threatened with death. He left politics, but remained in Texas until 1861 and was in New York when the Civil War began and remained with his family in New York rather than returning to Texas. This carte de visite was taken during his time in New York.Category
Government & Politics, Texas in Focus: Early Photographs from the Lew Anvil Texas Collection
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