John Hoyt Williams

This is a fascinating and easy to read biography of a complex pioneer who was an alcoholic adventurer pioneer. It is interesting to read of his early life among Native Americans and how this fed into his later negotiations. He rose as governor of Tennessee to get basically run out of the state for mysterious treatment of his wife. Similarly, he forged an independent republic out of Mexico's Texas to see him similarly cast aside (maybe more accurate to say he cast his success aside) by show more finding himself on the wrong side (in the South) as a slavery-accepting unionist. show less

Very interesting book, but could have used some fact checking. A few obvious mistakes, such as the dates Confederate states seceded from the Union. Mistakes such as that lower one's confidence in other facts.

All in all, though, interesting book. The author seemed to be a bit more proslavery than I would have liked. Thus, four stars.

I decided I am done with this one. Some stuff in here I didn't know - like that he was friends with my Cherokee ancestors. Cool! And some interesting stuff about the Republic of Texas and the whole process to get Texas admitted to the Union. But it was getting a little tedious to read.