The Son

The Son uses the history of Texas as a larger commentary on the history of the United States, illustrated by the fact that one of the novel’s key characters, Eli McCullough, is born on the same day that the Republic of Texas was founded in 1836. This makes it necessary to read Meyer’s text against the major historical events that defined Texas throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

The end of the 18th century was marked by power struggles between warring Indigenous nations and the provincial colonies of New Spain. These struggles would be interrupted by the entry of the newly formed United States as a colonial power. In 1803, US President Thomas Jefferson purchased territory west of the Mississippi River from the French Republic. This acquisition—the Louisiana Purchase, which included sections of modern-day Texas—signaled the formal start of Jefferson’s campaign of westward expansion. By 1821, Mexico was waging a war of independence from Spain, which played into Jefferson’s ambitions.

European American settlers, incentivized by the promise of new land, entered Texas in an attempt to minimize raids led by the Comanche nation. Despite moves to limit immigration, Mexican Texas saw a continued influx of white settlers, which disadvantaged Tejano citizens. By 1835, unrest within the Mexican government prompted the Texas Revolution, which formalized the territory as a breakaway republic the following year. The Republic of Texas would exist until 1846 when it was formally annexed by the United States. This prompted a war between Mexico and the United States, which would last two years.

In the 1860s, Texas joined the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. Despite its significant contribution to the Confederacy, Texas became one of the final battlegrounds that ensured the Union’s overall victory. The Texan economy struggled through the Reconstruction Era, making it a prominent hub for lawless activity. This was eventually tamped down by businessmen who wanted to take advantage of the state’s vast acreage to develop cattle and cotton products.

The start of the 20th century was defined by the establishment of the state’s first oil well, Spindletop. With the discovery of oil in the territory, businessmen quickly pivoted away from traditional industries to seize a position in the resulting oil boom. The boom would last nearly the entire century, peaking in the 1970s before being overtaken by oil reserves in Middle Eastern countries.