Simon the Fiddler

Most of the novel takes place during Reconstruction-era Texas. After the American Civil War ended, the Union army occupied Texas for some time; it was readmitted as a state in 1870, five years after the war’s end, despite not meeting the necessary qualifications. The Reconstruction was a turbulent time in Texas, particularly for former enslaved people and other people of color. On June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger took possession of Texas through the city of Galveston for the Union and ordered that the Emancipation Proclamation be officially enforced. This day became the federal holiday Juneteenth; Galveston, an important city in the novel, is considered the origin of the holiday, and it became the center of Black celebrations and jubilees into the present day. However, since the Union armies were largely isolated on the Texas coast, many Black people were still enslaved throughout Texas for some time after the war’s end. It took many years to uproot the most violent legacies of the Confederacy in Texas, and many people were harmed and killed in the effort of many Texans to enforce white supremacy in the years after the war’s end.

The novel takes place during this time period, but it largely avoids discussing issues of race and ethnicity. While Galveston is a central location, the lives of the Black population in Texas rarely enter Simon’s narrative; instead, the text focuses on the difficulties that Confederate soldiers faced post-war. While many Confederate soldiers were furious at their loss of the war and took that anger out on Reconstruction-era society, many, like Simon and his friends, were pressed into service and had no personal interest in the war. They suffered under the military rule of Texas in their own ways; as the novel discusses, the lack of real law and order led to crime, violence, and unfair rulings. Still, the novel, through Simon and Doris, overall takes an attitude of neutrality towards a politically turbulent time, since Simon has little interest in things beyond his sphere of influence and Doris is an Irish immigrant. While Doris is one of many Irish immigrants stranded far from her homeland and culture, even her Irish upbringing contributes to this air of neutrality, as little is said about her culture substantially beyond a few songs. Simon the Fiddler focuses more on showing what it might have been like for a white individual like Simon during Reconstruction in Texas rather than deliberating on the broader ethical and racial societal concerns of the time.