Texas Involvment In Slavery Essay

After the emancipation of slaves, many things changed throughout the south. The slaves had the title of freed people, but these freed people didn't have the same rights and privileges as their white counterparts. Even though the freed slaves were suppose to be able to live an equal life with the whites, the whites still found ways to keep the African-Americans from being equal with them on all levels. The whites imposed all kinds of hidden rules towards the blacks and the consequence of breaking those laws was death. The whites did not want the ex slaves to be equal and even after the white men's mistress failed at assuming the jobs of their ex slaves, the slave masters still didn't give blacks credit for being able to do the work that

There was much division among Americans regarding what should be done with Texas. Some argued that it should join the other states so that there could be peace between them and Texas (Document F) and that it would make the slaves more comfortable by providing them with more land and support (Document C.) However, others argued that annexing Texas would create a dangerous imbalance of slave and free states. In Document B, Reverend William Ellery Channing claimed that “By annexing Texas, we shall not only create [slavery] where it does not exist, but breathe new life into it, where its end seemed to be near.” In other words, by including Texas as a free state, slavery would only continue to spread for a longer amount of time than it would have originally. This would, of course, extend the entire conflict of whether or not slavery was just. This controversy over Texas greatly divided the states amongst themselves.

Texas fought to protect slavery. (Doc A) Growth of the slave population in Texas raised very high throughout the years. “1836: 5,000 1850: 58,161 1860: 182,566.” This shows that Texas wanted slavery, so through the years the number of slaves raised over thousands.(Doc A) A lot of families owned slaves in Texas, 29% of families owned slaves in Texas in 1860. (Doc D) In the letter John Rabb sent to his mother showed how much he loved his slaves and how he wanted to keep them… “If the Yanks come, maybe you had better send the Negroes up in the mountains.” John Rabb wanted his slaves so he told his mother to send them up to the mountains

(Doc D) Texas valued slaves, in fact the price of a slave was 200 times the price of one acre of land. Slavery being crucial to Texas’s economy made It one of the main reasons Texas fought the civil war.

Throughout Texas history, especially in the 1920s, the state had many impediments barring a normal life from anyone who was not anglo-american. From politics to churches to even bars, life was purposely made hard for anyone who was different from this standard of purity or whiteness. However, despite the overwhelming culture of white supremacy in Texas that impeded any opposing cultural differences, there remained pockets of differing ideological backgrounds and attitudes. Consequently, clusters of progressive communities became normal in Texan society, exemplifying the deepening trends of discrimination into Texas history and the lack of control anglos held on the southern portion of Texas.

The Civil War was by far the bloodiest wars in the United States. The first part of America’s peace started to crumble when Abraham Lincoln became President. Abraham Lincoln was a man that was strongly against slavery, he wanted to stop slavery. On the other hand, Texas’s economy relied on slavery, Texans thought that without slaves their economy would fail. They did not like that Abraham Lincoln was making all the decisions, and wanted to make the decisions themselves.

After joining the US in 1845, Texas quickly adapted as a democratic state. Many people who came to live in Texas migrated from other Southern states, where democratic idealism had already been strongly established. As a quintessential Southern state, Texas would adhere to the Southern way of doing things. Campbell goes on to write, “Leadership by slaveholders meant that politics during the early statehood years operated within what should be called a southern consensus. No one could criticize slavery or slave-based agriculture and expect to receive support at the polls; indeed, to be accused of holding anti-slavery views was a political death sentence … The southern consensus in Texas played a key role in creating the state’s tradition

Slavery caused many disputes before and during the war with Mexico.“ Mexico on achieving her independence of the Spanish Crown… decreed the abolition of human slavery.” [Doc.D] Although Mexico abolished slavery it did not stop slavery from spreading in Texas. Slavery was the primary reason Texas wanted to join the U.S. to become a slave state so the Texans could make money off of the plantations. Certain Texans wanted to have slaves so greatly they immigrated from Texas with their slaves by crossing into the U.S. border. There was one setback in order to become a slave state,which was, a free state had to be added which was why it took a little longer for Texas to be

Did you know more than 180,000 African Americans were slaves in Texas during the 1860’s.In 1787,13 states from america pledged to join together to create a more perfect union.At this time the U.S. was split into to parts the slave states and the free states.The north was the free or non-slavery state area and the south was the slave area were white families could have colored slaves without it being illegal.But why did Texans fight in the civil war?They wanted to protect slavery, there states rights and for the love of Texas.

Most people that lived in eastern and southeastern Texas, the slaveholding region, had moved to the state from the lower South. The population of the rest of the state came from more diverse places. On the frontier were nonslaveholders from the upper South or from Germany. North central Texas had wheat growers from the upper South. In the southwest and Rio Grande were Mexican people, Germans, and British Americans. San Antonio, Houston, and Galveston, all of which had populations reaching just under 10,000, had many German or Mexican populations. The population and economic characteristics of Texas influenced secession greatly. The diversity made the secession process

The political factors that tied into Texas being a Southern state before the Civil War relied heavily on who owned slaves. When the people went out to vote for who they wanted to run the state and local governments, it was generally those who owned slaves that won the elections. This meant that the leadership positions, and the overall ideals of the state, functioned under a “southern consensus” (230). The elected officials in Texas were all Democrats with pro-slavery positions, and these Democrats were able to win every “presidential and gubernatiorial election from 1845-1860” (231). These slaveholders held Texas in their hands and there was no one any of the politicians would sacrifice their careers to oppose the topic of slavery.

In the North, many people didn’t want Texas to become a state, therefore were against Annexation. Benjamin Lundy Argued against the Annexation of Texas in his 1836 piece The War in Texas. Lundy argued that the Southern states simply wanted to Annex Texas to “reestablish the system of slavery”. Lundy said that this would be accomplished by making the interest of slave owners “paramount in the Executive branch of our national government.” The concept that worried the North, was adding another slave state to the country, increasing slavery’s representation in the Senate and House of Representatives. Slavery gaining stronger representation in government went against the North’s goal of preventing the system of slavery from growing.

When American settlers started migrating into Texas in the early 1820’s they brought with them the same culture and political agendas that would be similar to the Confederates in the Civil War. Mexico had recently abolished slavery but the new settlers were committed to defy slavery and producing tension with the Mexican government over land claim and political rights (McPherson and Hogue, 2010). After the loss at the Alamo and eventual win at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, Texas won their independence from Mexico (McPherson and Hogue, 2010). Much like the bickering of the Confederate south, the Polk administration was bent on acquiring land and expanding after the Mexican-American War. Congress, in 1847, eventually saw this acquiring of states as unconstitutional and that the Mexican-American

Furthermore, Baptist explains the financial matters that were occurring. He talks about the Southern banks in the 1830s, and how they developed new financial instruments and bonds with slaves as collateral. This it self made it possible for planters to borrow large amounts of money to acquire new land. Lawmakers backed all of these bonds with the state’s credit. As a result of it later collapsing, taxpayers were left to take care of everything. But rather than bailing out Northern and European bondholders, a few states just defaulted on their debts. Now, planters were fleeing with their slaves to Texas, until 1845 an independent republic, to maintain a strategic distance from

“You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas” (www.brainyquote.com). Words spoken by the famous American folk hero Davy Crockett. Oddly enough Texas would bring about many “Hellish” debates, and conflicts throughout most of the middle nineteenth century. For Texas the debate about statehood was at hand, and the country was a split about its status as a slave or free state. While at the same time the country wanted to avoid an all-out war with Mexico. Events like the Missouri Compromise and the Mexican Independence from Spain would impact future events leading up to the independence of Texas in 1836. Leaders like Colonels Gregorio Gomez and William Travis who viewed Texas as their peoples land, would act on their ambitions to claim Texas for their respective countries. While back in the states people such as abolitionist Benjamin Lundy and the Charleston Mercury newspaper would voice their opinions of slavery in Texas. Through these events and sources the reader can find evidence about the unique challenges the country faced regarding Texas statehood.