All ages were represented, however, from 5months to 60years. By 1840 there were 11,323 enslaved people in Texas. A group of enslaved people killed the sheriff of Gonzales when he attempted to stop their going to Matamoros. The number likely would have been larger but for the attitude of the Mexican federal and state governments. Due to the state laws, he would receive half of the price he had paid. 389-412)Page Count: 24, Texas Runaway Slave Project. [38] Unlike most southern states, Texas did not explicitly ban education of enslaved people, but most slaveholders did not allow the practice. Medical care in antebellum Texas was woefully inadequate for Whites and Blacks alike, but slaves had a harder daily life and were therefore more likely to be injured or develop diseases that doctors could not treat (see HEALTH AND MEDICINE). [10], In 1823, Mexico forbade the sale or purchase of people, and required that the children of the enslaved be freed when they reached age fourteen. [54] The drop in proportion of population reflected greatly-increased European immigration to the state in the 19th century, as well as population growth. [45][i][ii][iii], Texas seceded from the United States in 1861 and joined the Confederate States of America on the eve of the American Civil War. WebAfrican American Resources for Texas. Slavery thus linked Texas inextricably with the Old South. Most escapees joined friendly American Indian tribes, but others settled in the East Texas forests. Like Georgia, the Texas Democratic Party adopted a whites-only primary. The payrolls for that slave WebUnited States Census (Slave Schedule), 1850 Name index and images of slave schedules listing slave owners and only age, gender and color data of the slaves in cesus states or Gleaning Information about Enslaved Ancestors from Probate Files NGS Magazine 48 #2 (April-June 2022): 2327. 509 0 obj <> endobj On the other hand, the institution may well have contributed in several ways to retarding commercialization and industrialization. It gives the county and location, a description of the house, the number of acres owned, and the number of cabins of former slaves. FS Library 973 D25ngs. [34] Unlike in most southern cities, the number of urban enslaved people in Texas grew throughout the 1850s. Berry says McConnells refusal to acknowledge his history was interesting. She says the senators family history may have come to light because of his opposition to legislation related to reparations for descendants of enslaved people. I look at this and many of these opportunities as a place to teach and educate our country on our history because this is a part of our history that weve often sort of tucked under the rug or didnt give the details of that history, Berry says. [9] When some French and Spanish slaveholders moved to Texas, they were allowed to retain their enslaved people. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. Planters had hundreds of enslaved people arrested and questioned forcefully. Favorable conditions for free blacks continued into the 1830s. It replaced the pro-Union governor, Sam Houston, in the process. Austin County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 0, 1) B. Bandera African-, Afro-Americans throughout the Americas / Black History - Master Project, Black Washingtons of Pope's Creek Plantation, Virginia, Somerset Place Plantation, North Carolina, 9 of the Biggest Slave Owners in American History, Standing in Way of Alabama Walmart: Slave Graves. There is at least one positive outcome that could come from reckoning with slave-owning family members of the past. [1] For 1865 and 1866, the section on abandoned and confiscated lands includes the names of the owners of the plantations or homes that were abandoned, confiscated, or leased. It was a decision that increased tensions with slave-holders among the Anglo-Americans. Slavery in Early Texas. WebTexas's enslaved population grew rapidly: while there were 30,000 enslaved people in Texas in 1845, the census lists 58,161 enslaved African Americans in 1850. [24], Exportation in the slave-owning areas of the state surpassed that of the non-slave-owning areas. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Politically, slaveholders dominated public office holding at all levels. Over 30 of the fugitives made it safely to freedom in Mexico. [51], The long-term effects of slavery can be seen to this day in the state's demographics. Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke holds a rally at Scholz Garten in Austin. [49] Throughout the summer, many East Texas newspapers continued to recommend that slaveholders oppose ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, in the hopes that emancipation could be gradually implemented. In 1792 there were 34 blacks and 414 mulattos in Spanish Texas, some of whom were free men and women. Slavery was also vital socially because it reflected basic racial views. I think [the conversation] happens in a number of spaces, Berry says. On the other hand, western parts of Texas were still a frontier during the American Civil War. Sam Houston made illegal importation from Mexico a crime in 1836. Many owners wished to appear as benevolent fathers, and yet most knew that there would be times when they would treat members of their families as property pure and simple. In 1860, the Methodists claimed 7,541enslaved people among their members in Texas. Andrew Lyda 3 8. A survey of Texas in 1834 found that the department of Bexar, which was mostly made up of Tejanos, had exported no goods. A large supply of cheap Mexican labor in the area made the purchase and care of a slave too expensive. We need your support because we are a non-profit organization that relies upon contributions from our community in order to record and preserve the history of our state. Between 1816 and 1821, Louis-Michel Aury and Jean Lafitte smuggled enslaved people into the United States through Galveston Island. In other words, it was an underlying cause of the struggle in 18351836. They could be bought and sold, mortgaged, and hired out. [37] Urban enslaved people often had greater freedoms and opportunity. Through wills and census reports found during family research, I have discovered a couple sets of ancestors who owned slaves. [2] Estevanico, Dorantes, and Alonso Castillo Maldonado, the only survivors, spent several months living on a barrier island (now believed to be Galveston Island) before making their way in April 1529 to the mainland. [33], Although most enslaved people lived in rural areas, more than 1000 resided in both Galveston and Houston by 1860, with several hundred in other large towns. Texas was a colonial territory, then part of Mexico, later Republic in 1836, and U.S. state in 1845. Daina Ramey Berry is a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, and says addressing ones lineage of slavery is difficult, but ORourkes response helped bring the issue out into the open. The slaveholder hired William Barret Travis, a local lawyer, in an attempt to retrieve the men. Instead, place individual profiles into the category corresponding to the county of Texas where they held enslaved persons. The effect of the institution on the state's general economic development is less clear. The majority of adult slaves were field hands, but a sizable minority worked as skilled craftsmen, house servants, and livestock handlers. I think thats what was interesting about his response, is that he didnt acknowledge that there was a history there, and that was brought out, and we know a lot more about his family history and about the enslaved people his family owned, Berry says. J. C. Jenkins of Wilkinson, Mississippi: 523 slaves. Many owners encouraged worship, primarily on the grounds that it would teach proper subjection and good behavior. Sugar. The son of Capt. William Mills 20 2. https://www.tshaonline.org, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/slavery. Abraham Kuykendall 5 5. Slavery spread over the eastern two-fifths of Texas by 1860 but flourished most vigorously along the rivers that provided rich soil and relatively inexpensive transportation. WebAmerican Slave Narratives - An Online Anthology. The promise of ultimate deliverance helped many to resist the psychological assault of slavery. East Texas Research Center. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/slavery. Brazoria County, for example, was 72 percent slave in 1860, while north central Texas, the area from Hunt County west to Jack and Palo Pinto counties and south to McLennan County, had fewer slaves than any other settled part of the state, except for Hispanic areas such as Cameron County. They had no property rights themselves and no legal rights of marriage and family. Farmers. WebThe 1860 slave schedule was used in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah Territory and Virginia. Some slaveowners did not free their enslaved people until late in 1865. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) J. Harleston Read of Georgetown, South Carolina: 511 slaves. On June 19, 1865 word of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached enslaved African But how would they make their way in the world after 1865? Music and song served to set a pace for work and to express sorrow and hope (see AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHURCHES). Andrew J. Torget, Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800-1850 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015). And a rich woman with slaves of her own to boot. Some enslaved people became ministers, but their masters often tried to instruct them in what they were supposed to preach. Slave owners had broad powers of discipline subject only to constitutional provisions that slaves be treated "with humanity" and that punishment not extend to the taking of life and limb. [36], Many local communities adopted laws forbidding enslaved people from having liquor or weapons, from selling agricultural products, hiring their own time, or being hired by free blacks. [3] Five years later, in September 1534, they escaped to the interior. 553 0 obj <>stream Slaves in general did not lash out constantly against all the limits placed on them that would have brought intolerable punishment but they did not surrender totally to the system, either. [47] The last battle of the war was fought at Palmito Ranch near Brownsville, in 1865. He and his wife Mary moved there themselves and he died Update 12/7/2016(CLM): I have found various references of military rank from Captain to Brigadier General. Anderson County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Austin County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 0, 1), Bastrop County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 0, 1), Bell County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 3, 0), Bexar County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Bosque County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Brazos County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Burleson County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0), Caldwell County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 12, 2), Cass County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 3, 0), Chambers County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Cherokee County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 3, 0), Collin County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Cooke County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Dallas County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), DeWitt County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Ellis County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Falls County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Fannin County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0), Fayette County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 0, 1), Fort Bend County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Freestone County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Galveston County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Gonzales County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 1), Grayson County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 3, 0), Guadalupe County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 3, 1), Harris County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 4, 0), Harrison County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 6, 1), Hays County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 0, 1), Hill County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0), Hopkins County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0), Houston County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Johnson County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 1), Kaufman County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Lavaca County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0), Leon County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0), Madison County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Marion County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Matagorda County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0), McLennan County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Milam County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 3, 0), Montgomery County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 5, 0), Nacogdoches County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Navarro County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Nueces County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Panola County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 12, 2), Polk County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Red River County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 4, 0), Rusk County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0), Sabine County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0), San Augustine County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Shelby County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 9, 3), Smith County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 3, 0), Tarrant County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Titus County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0), Travis County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0), Tyler County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 3, 0), Upshur County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 0), Walker County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0), Washington County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 1, 1), Wharton County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 2, 0). The eastern quarter of the state, where cotton production depended on thousands of slaves, is considered the westernmost extension of the Deep South. See the Heritage Exchange Portal for more information on how to document slaves and slave owners. Slaveowners may not free their enslaved servants without Congressional approval unless the freed people leave Texas. Sugar and cotton plantations. Join Geni to explore your genealogy and family history in the World's Largest Family Tree. The Bureau created a wide variety of records extremely valuable to genealogists. Although slave marriages and families had no legal protections, the majority of slaves were reared and lived day to day in a family setting. [18] Slaveholders trying to enter Mexico would force the people they enslaved to sign contracts claiming that they owed money and would work to pay the debt. Randolph B. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 18211865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989). Questions concerning its profitability are complex and always open to debate. Wood was born into slavery in the early 19th century on a Kentucky farm owned by a man named Moses Tousey, McDaniel writes. Slavery formally ended in Texas after June 19, 1865 (Juneteenth), when Gen. Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston with occupying federal forces and announced emancipation. [24] Fifty percent of the enslaved people worked either alone or in groups of fewer than 20 on small farms ranging from the Nueces River to the Red River, and from the Louisiana border to the edge of the western settlements of San Antonio, Austin, Waco, and Fort Worth. West Feliciana: 127 slaves. Instead, slaves exercised a degree of agency in their lives by maximizing the time available within the system to maintain physical, psychological and spiritual strength. Online collections of Freedman's Bank records: The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was created by the US government in 1865 until 1872 to assist former slaves in the southern United States. Many former enslaved people fought with the Cherokee against the Texan army that drove the tribe from East Texas in 1838. Negro Legislators of Texas and Their Descendants: a history of the Negro in Texas Politics from Reconstruction to Disfanchisement. The Federal Constitution of 1824 did not mention slavery, but the 1827 Constitution of the State of Coahuila and Texas prohibited the further introduction of slaves and declared all children born thereafter to slaves already in the state to be free at birth. You can also look up Charleston Manifests by Slave Owner [table striped="true" FS Library 976.4 D3sl, Garrett-Nelson, LaBrenda. African Americans immediately started raising legal challenges to disfranchisement, but early Supreme Court cases, such as Giles v. Harris (1903), upheld the states. [8] There was intermarriage among blacks, Indians and Europeans. Blacks, however, could not testify against Whites in court, a prohibition that largely negated their constitutional protection. Settlements grew and developed more land under cultivation in cotton and other commodities. They were not, and even the best-treated slaves dreamed of freedom. The slave population of Texas from 1850 to 1860 increased from 58,161 to 182,566, bringing the slave population from 27 percent to 30 percent of the state total.