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Texas was the last frontier of slavery in the United States. In less than fifty years, between 1821 and 1865, what southerners call “special institutions” spread over the eastern two-fifths of the state, an area nearly the size of Alabama and Mississippi. Slavery thus inextricably links Texas to the Old South.
How Many Slaves In Us In 1860
Texas was a Spanish province and had some slaves, but slavery did not become a significant institution in the region until the arrival of Anglo-American settlers. The original empresario commission granted to Moses Austin by the Spanish authorities in 1821 did not mention slaves, but when Stephen F. Austin was confirmed later that year as heir to his father’s contract, it was agreed that the settlers could pay for each enslaved Acquiring 80 acres of land they brought to colony. The motivation for bringing slaves to Texas was primarily economic—to use their labor to grow cotton, which by 1820 was the most valuable commodity in the Atlantic world. For Anglo-American slave owners, slavery in Texas was a practical necessity—it was the only way to profitably grow cotton on its vast, fertile land. Stephen F. Austin made it clear in 1824: “The chief product that has lifted us out of poverty is cotton,” he wrote, “and we cannot do it without the help of slaves.” (
How Slavery Became The Economic Engine Of The South
Most early slave owners owned only a handful of slaves, but a few brought enough to immediately establish plantations. For example, Jared Groce arrived from Alabama in 1822 with 90 slaves and established a cotton plantation on the Brazos River. The first census of the Austin colony in 1825 showed 443 slaves out of a total population of 1,800.
Even as Austin’s colonists began to establish slavery on the lower Brazos and Colorado rivers, Mexican independence cast doubt on the system’s future in Texas. The leaders of the Mexican nation were inclined to oppose slavery, partly out of revolutionary idealism and partly because slavery was not essential to the economy of the new nation, so they often threatened to limit or abolish the institution. The federal constitution of 1824 did not mention slavery, but the constitutions of Coahuila and Texas of 1827 prohibited the further introduction of slaves and declared that all children of slaves already born in the state were free. The Anglo-American settlers were horrified, but within a year the legislatures of Coahuila and Texas passed legislation in which some Tejano leaders, impressed by Austin colonists’ pleas regarding labor needs, while others, distracted by debate on another issue, passed the law using the known practice of indentured servitude, allowing the importation of slaves under different names. Before being brought to Texas, enslaved people signed a contract with their masters, technically freeing them, but in return for their “freedom” they agreed that they and their children would actually live for life Sign a contract with the owner. In 1829, President Vicente Guerrero issued a statute abolishing slavery throughout Mexico, but within months he exempted Texas from the statute. In short, from 1821 to 1836, the national government in Mexico City and state governments in Coahuila and Texas frequently threatened to limit or destroy African American slavery, but always gave loopholes or waivers to Texas settlers.
Although the Mexican government did not have a consistent or effective policy to prevent slavery in Texas, their threat worried slave owners and may have deterred the immigration of plantation owners from the Old South. In 1836, there were about 5,000 slaves in Texas, and the total population was estimated at 38,470. That number would have been higher if not for the attitude of the federal and state governments of Mexico.
The debate over slavery was not the direct cause of the Texas Revolution, but the institution remained in the background, as noted Texas historian Eugene C. Barker called it “a dull organic pain.” In other words, it was the root cause of the struggle in 1835-1836. Furthermore, once the revolution came, slavery was on the minds of the participants. The Texans were worried that the Mexicans would free their slaves or at least cause a slave revolt. When they declared independence and drafted a constitution for their new republic, they did everything in their power, in the words of a later Texas Supreme Court justice, to “remove all doubt and uneasiness among the citizens of Texas as to their possession” of their slaves. “Section 9 of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas reads in part as follows:
The Business Of Slavery
All persons of color who have been slaves for life before the immigration to Texas, and are now enslaved, shall remain in the same slavery…Congress shall pass no law prohibiting immigrants from bringing their slaves into the republic with them, and at the same time such slaves are imprisoned in the United States for the same term that holds them; Congress has no power to free slaves; nor shall any slaveholder free his slaves without the consent of Congress, unless he or she takes one or more of his or her Restrictions on sending slaves out of the Republic.
So slavery wasn’t the immediate cause of the revolution, but the system was always a problem, and the revolution made Texas safer than ever.
Slavery expanded rapidly during the Republican period. By the end of 1845, when Texas joined the United States, there were at least 30,000 slaves in the state. After statehood, slavery grew faster in antebellum Texas. The 1850 census reported 58 slaves, 161 slaves, or 27.4 percent of Texas’ 212, 592 people, while the 1860 census listed 182 slaves, 566 slaves, or 30.2 percent of the population. Slaves grew faster than the total population.
The vast majority of slaves in Texas came with their masters from the old slave states. However, a significant number of slaves came from the domestic slave trade. New Orleans was the center of this Deep South trade, but Galveston and Houston also had slave traders. A relatively small number of slaves, possibly as many as 2,000 between 1835 and 1865, came from the illegal trade in Africa.
Slavery In The United States
As the institution spread in Texas, slave prices rose rapidly. The average price of a commodity, regardless of age, sex, or condition, rose from about $400 in 1850 to nearly $800 in 1860. In the late 1850s, the average price for a primary male field laborer between the ages of 18 and 30 was $1,200 and 200 dollars. Skilled slaves such as blacksmiths were often valued at more than $2,000. By comparison, a prime cotton field in Texas can be purchased for as little as $6 an acre. By 1860, slavery was widespread in the eastern two-fifths of Texas, but most along the rivers, which offered fertile soil and relatively cheap transportation. The largest concentrations of large slave plantations were along the lower Brazos and Colorado rivers in Brazoria, Matagorda, Fort Bend, and Wharton counties. The really big slave owners, like Robert and D. G. Mills, who owned more than 300 slaves in 1860 (the largest in Texas), had plantations in an area with a population similar to that of the famous Black Belt region of the Old South. For example, Brazoria County had 72 percent of the slaves in 1860, while north central Texas, from Hunter County west to Jack and Palo Pinto counties and south to McLennan County, had more slaves than any other. There are few other populated areas, except for Hispanic areas such as Cameron County. But there were many fine cotton fields in the north-central area, where slavery was likely to flourish once the railroads were established. The last frontier of slavery did not close on the eve of the Civil War.
American slavery was an overwhelming economic institution – a system of unfree labor used to produce cash crops for profit. Questions about its profitability are complex and always disputed. However, there is strong evidence that slaves were often lucrative business ventures for individual slave owners in Texas. Slave labor produced cotton (and sugar in the lower Brazos River) for income and also grew the food needed for self-sufficiency. The influence of the agency on the overall economic development of the country is less clear. Slavery stimulated an agricultural economy; it provided the labor for a 600 percent increase in cotton production in the 1850s. On the other hand, the agency probably contributed to hindering commercialization and industrialization in several ways. For example, planters were generally content with their lives as slaveholders and were generally reluctant to engage in trade and industry, even with the potential for higher earnings. Therefore, slavery may have prevented the economic modernization of Texas. Once established as
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