Keywords Alamo, Anglo, Austin Colony, Battle of Gonzales, Brazos River, cholera, Coahuila y Tejas, Comanche, Come and Take It, DeWitt Colony, Empresario, family, Gonzales, Green DeWitt, Guadelupe River, Guadelupe Victoria, History, John W. Smith, Karankawa, Martin De Leon, Mexicano, Mexico, Monclova, Native Americans, Ojos de Agua, romance, Runaway Scrape, Sam Houston, San Antonio, San Antonio de Bejar, San Jacinto, Santa Anna, Sarah DeWitt, Slavery, St. Louis, Stephen F. Austin, Tejano, Texas, Texas Revolution, War, Western, women, Yellow Fever

Barbara H. Seeber, a native of South Texas, is a graduate of the University of Texas, Austin, and Columbia University. A National Geographic editor and award-winning feature writer and novelist, she is a 30-year veteran of the publishing world.

The Empresario’s Wife is published by Bold Story Press, whose mission is to empower women to create narratives, beak barriers, and shape the world through their voices. When women’s voices are heard, the world is a better place.

TESTIMONIALS

“Barbara Seeber has written women into Texas history—it’s about time!” – Francine Edson, a Texas reader

“Seeber’s novel is prodigiously researched and richly detailed (the narrative contains a wealth of historical nuggets), a textured and atmospheric recreation of time and place with a vividly drawn female lead. Through Sarah’s personal struggles and development, readers are viscerally brought into a piece of history that is traditionally dominated by accounts of the military battles. This is a story of female grit and determination in the face of overwhelming challenges.” – Kirkus Reviews

“In this epic family tale, part history, part legend, gifted storyteller Barbara Seeber ventures into the Texas of the 1820s and 30s, a wild sometimes brutal land, but a land of freedom and opportunity. Feisty Sarah Seeley DeWitt, Seeber’s fourth-great grandmother, meets it head on.

She is wife of Green DeWitt, one of the state’s founding fathers, or empresarios, along with fabled Stephen F. Austin. With heart and guts she guides her family through a tenuous settlement, cholera, attack, loss, and deep loves—of her children, her new nation, and a longtime childhood friend with whom she might have shared her life. Determined, committed, Sarah’s character is real, timeless, and page-turning.

Seeber’s insightful research takes us into places and events little known but vital to the Texas and American story. Among other acts of courage and dedication Sarah and her children fashion the Texas “Come and Take It Flag” that flies in the first battle of the Texas Revolution in 1835—and she witnesses the fight. For Seeber to have re-discovered Sarah and brought her to life through dynamic, uplifting prose, is a gift to her family, to Texas, to all who revere the story of America, and especially to women. Here is a hero.” – Barbara Brownell Grogan, Former Editor-in-Chief, National Geographic Books