Slavery was a complex institution that varied according to time and place. This was 15 percent of the total 2,992 people living in Spanish Texas. The number 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). Slaves, however, tended to hear the message of individual equality before God and salvation for all. The motivation for bringing slaves to Texas was primarily economic using their labor to grow cotton, which was by 1820 the most valuable commodity in the Atlantic world. [17] At the same time, however, Mexico offered full citizenship to free blacks, including land ownership and other privileges. Joseph Henry 8 3. Voters' Registrations of 1867 are available on microfilm at the Texas State Archives. This fact is not a tribute to the benevolence of slavery, but a testimony to the human spirit of the enslaved African Americans. House servants and craftsmen worked long hours, too, but their labor was not so burdensome physically. For a time, many enslaved ran away to Texas. 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. WebSince there were no major battles during the war in Texas, slave life in the state continued relatively unaffected, other than the influx of refugee slaves. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry. Lambert Clayton 1 15. 25 percent. These films do not appear to contain the names of former slaves. [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. The Gregory School Historical collections at The Gregory School include: Access to Houston Public Library databases and indexes Books Pamphlets Periodicals Photographs Oral history recordings Manuscripts Newspapers and clippings Personal family archives and Ephemera documenting Houstons African American History and culture. The governors feared the growth in the Anglo-American population in Texas, and for various reasons, by the early 19th century, they and their superiors in Mexico City disapproved of expanding slavery. 1 Introduction. In 1854, citizens in Austin and other towns drove many poor Mexicans from the area in fear that they might assist in revolts. 535 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<511162D97422004CA0FA8843222F25B6>]/Index[509 45]/Info 508 0 R/Length 121/Prev 271316/Root 510 0 R/Size 554/Type/XRef/W[1 3 1]>>stream And when they declared independence and wrote a constitution for their new republic, they made every effort, in the words of a later Texas Supreme Court justice, to "remove all doubt and uneasiness among the citizens of Texas in regard to the tenure by which they held dominion over their slaves." Most slaves, however, supplemented their basic diet with sweet potatoes, garden vegetables, wild game, and fish and were thus adequately fed. 3 Research Strategy. Every dollar helps. Slaves freed in America before the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. American slave owners or slaveholders were owners of slaves in the United States which typically worked either as agriculture laborers or house servants. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. [42] Two years later, Colorado County hanged several enslaved people and drove one white man and several Mexicans from the area after uncovering a plot to equip 200enslaved people with pistols and knives to escape into Mexico. Most runaways attempted to go to Mexico. 3536 Grand Avenue Planters, for example, being generally satisfied with their lives as slaveholders, were largely unwilling to involve themselves in commerce and industry, even if there was a chance for greater profits. Before The Guardian interviewed him for the story, he said neither he nor Amy knew that side of their heritage. Randolph B. There was an auction block next to the Menger Hotel and near the Alamo. In part this limited autonomy was given by the masters, and was taken by slaves in the slave quarters which provided them resilience to assert self-determination within the confine of bondage. [47] The last battle of the war was fought at Palmito Ranch near Brownsville, in 1865. In 1792 there were 34 blacks and 414 mulattos in Spanish Texas, some of whom were free men and women. It could happen in public spaces with town halls and forums, it could happen in our own homes at our dining room tables and have a conversation about what does it mean to be part of this lineage?. John Burneside of Ascension, Louisiana: 753 slaves; Saint James: 187 slaves. 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). [46], Unlike in other Southern states, only a small number of enslaved Texans, estimated at 47, joined the Union Army. Slave owners and male They were not, and even the best-treated slaves dreamed of freedom. Yet, they did not live every day in helpless rage. The first census in Austin's colony in 1825 showed 443 slaves in a total population of 1,800. After Jos Mara Jess Carvajal promised to return all escapees, more than 400Texans joined his revolt of 1851. R. R. Barrow, Lafourche, Louisiana: 74 slaves; Terrebonne: 399 slaves. Slavery had been theoretically abolished by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation which proclaimed, in 1863, that only those enslaved in territories that were in rebellion from the United States were free. 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. Married Margaret French Strother 1778. On the other hand, the institution may well have contributed in several ways to retarding commercialization and industrialization. One way or another they had to endure. Some slaveowners did not free their enslaved people until late in 1865. A relatively few slaves, perhaps as many as 2,000 between 1835 and 1865, came through the illegal African trade. The supposed "poison" found in enslaved quarters was baby powder. D. F. Kenner, Ascension, Louisiana: 473 slaves. Angelina County, Texas, Slave Owners. [11], In 1829, Mexico abolished slavery, but it granted an exception until 1830 to Texas. Currently, there are only plantations listed for Chicot County, Jefferson County, Ouachita County, and Phillips County. FS Library 973 D25ngs. Texas, Special Voter Registration, 1867-1869. [13], The United States outlawed the importation of enslaved people in 1808, but domestic trade flourished, especially in New Orleans during the antebellum decades. The 1867 Voter Registration includes names of voters who registered in the period between 1867 and 1869. FS Library976.4 D2rte Vol 1-3. WebThe British newspaper The Guardian reported this week that Democratic presidential candidate, and former Texas Congressman Beto ORourke, and his wife Amy, are WebI believe it to be written in the late 19th to early 20th century and I provide it here as a historical article on slavery. John Marshall (17551835), 4th [3] American Indians captured and enslaved the party, putting them to work as laborers. FS Library 976.4 D3sl, Garrett-Nelson, LaBrenda. Plantations' Past | THC.Texas.gov - Texas Historical Commission Samuel King 3 7. To find Freedmen's Bureau records: Visit the African American Freedmen's Bureau Records page to learn more about utilizing these records. DAR# A105070 1. Dallas, TX Economically, slave owners had a disproportionately large share of the state's wealth and produced virtually all of the cash crops. 0 East Texas Research Center. accessed March 05, 2023, Ninety percent of the runaways were men, most between ages 20 and 40, because they were best equipped to deal with the long, difficult journey. Like Georgia, the Texas Democratic Party adopted a whites-only primary. The effect of the institution on the state's general economic development is less clear. Amid talk of reparations, political figures contend with their slave-owning ancestors. 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. The census in Neal Family Papers, 1816-1916 Slaves increased their minimal self-determination by taking what they could get from their owners and then pressing for additional latitude. Brewer, John Mason. The central part of the state was dominated by subsistence farmers. The list below is compiled from the 1860 United States Slave Census Schedule. Alfred V. Davis, Concordia, Louisiana: 500+ slaves. And a rich woman with slaves of her own to boot. Many enslaved people ran away. Blacks, however, could not testify against Whites in court, a prohibition that largely negated their constitutional protection. We'll send you a couple of emails per month, filled with fascinating history facts that you can share with your friends. Salas. endstream endobj startxref 3 Vol. These tensions came to a head in the Anahuac Disturbances. American Slave Owners - geni family tree The material conditions of slave life in Texas could probably best be described as subsistence, in that most slaves had the food, shelter, and clothing necessary to live and work effectively. Instead, place individual profiles into the category corresponding to the county of Texas where they held enslaved persons. Over 30 of the fugitives made it safely to freedom in Mexico. In other words, it was an underlying cause of the struggle in 18351836. Slaves adjusted their behavior to the conditions of servitude in a variety of ways. [48], On some plantations, many enslaved people left immediately after hearing of the emancipation, even if their former owners offered to pay them wages. You can also look up Charleston Manifests by Slave Owner [table striped="true" TSHA | Slavery - Handbook of Texas [citation needed], June 19, the day of the Emancipation announcement, has been celebrated annually in Texas and other states as Juneteenth. In 1876 Texas adopted a new constitution requiring segregated schools and imposing a poll tax, which decreased the number of poor voters both black and white. There they were raised to be servants. Negro Legislators of Texas and Their Descendants: a history of the Negro in Texas Politics from Reconstruction to Disfanchisement. 4 Cotton plantations. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), Constitution of the State of Coahuila and Texas, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. As a free lady, she was an astute entrepreneur as well as a social climber. As Texas was much more distant from the Union Army lines for much of the war, enslaved people were unable to reach them. In the 1830s, the British consul estimated that approximately 500enslaved people had been illegally imported into Texas. In 1865, 95% of the enslaved were illiterate.[39]. Leaders of the Mexican nation tended to oppose slavery, in part from revolutionary idealism and in part because slavery was not essential to the new nations economy, and therefore regularly threatened to limit or abolish the institution. After statehood, in antebellum Texas, slavery grew even more rapidly. The General Provisions of the Constitution forbade any owner of enslaved people from freeing them without the consent of Congress and forbade Congress from making any law that restricted the slave trade or emancipated slaves. John Butler of McIntosh, Georgia: 505 slaves. Slavery in Texas | blackwallstreet.org But how would they make their way in the world after 1865? These records often include full names, former masters and plantations, and current residences. A slave had a right to trial by jury and a court-appointed attorney when charged with a crime greater than petty larceny. WebLand Records Names & Surnames Slavery & Servitude Claim Listing Sankofagen Wiki run by Karmella Haynes has a list of Arkansas Plantations and Slave Names listed by county, for counties formed prior to 1865. William Brittain 1 14. [34] Unlike in most southern cities, the number of urban enslaved people in Texas grew throughout the 1850s. The following information is included: The records are categorized by county. American slavery was preeminently an economic institutiona system of unfree labor used to produce cash crops for profit. [43] Later newspaper accounts revealed that most of what was confessed under torture appeared to be false. Since the U.S. government was not in effective control of many of these territories until later in the war, many of these people proclaimed to be free by the Emancipation Proclamation were still held in servitude until those areas came back under Union control. Later he was given leadership of a Spanish expedition. WebReturn to Slave Manifests main page Click on each Slave name to view information on that voyage. The promise of ultimate deliverance helped many to resist the psychological assault of slavery. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The men sold enslaved people to James Bowie and others, who brought them directly to a customhouse and informed on themselves. African American Museum, Dallas Col. Joshua John Ward of Georgetown, South Carolina: Austin County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 0, 1) B. Bandera On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act as unconstitutional,[55] a ruling which was shortly followed the implementation of Voter i.d. [28], The Section 9 of the General Provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas, ratified in 1836, made slavery legal again in Texas and defined the status of the enslaved and people of color in the Republic of Texas. Free persons of African descent were required to petition the. In 1860, the Methodists claimed 7,541enslaved people among their members in Texas. By Laura RiceJuly 17, 20191:49 pmArts & Culture, History, Race & Identity. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger and over 2,000 federal troops arrived at Galveston Island to take possession of the state and enforce the two-year-old Emancipation Proclamation. [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. [9] When some French and Spanish slaveholders moved to Texas, they were allowed to retain their enslaved people. Slave labor produced cotton (and sugar on the lower Brazos River) for profit and also cultivated the foodstuffs necessary for self-sufficiency. [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. 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. Family ties were a source of strength for people enduring bondage and a mark of their humanity, too. Almost certainly, however, many came to believe that they would be free if the South lost. The slaveholder hired William Barret Travis, a local lawyer, in an attempt to retrieve the men. On the other hand, western parts of Texas were still a frontier during the American Civil War. Legally slaves were categorized as chattel (moveable property), but they were men, women and children who clearly despised their condition of servitude. If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe. They listened as best they could for any war news and passed it around among themselves, and no doubt many heard of Abraham Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that all slaves behind Confederate lines on January 1, 1863, would be freed. Slavery was present in Spanish America and Mexico prior to the arrival of American settlers, but it was not highly developed, and the Spanish did not rely on it for labor during their years in Spanish Texas. Slavery in Texas - Texas Institute for the Preservation of History Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke holds a rally at Scholz Garten in Austin. [3] Five years later, in September 1534, they escaped to the interior. Slaves were increasing faster than the population as a whole. [22], By the 1800s, most enslaved people in Texas had been brought by slaveholders from the United States. There is at least one positive outcome that could come from reckoning with slave-owning family members of the past. [19] In 1832, the state passed legislation prohibiting worker contracts from lasting more than tenyears. 5.5 Emancipation Records. By 1865 there were an estimated 250,000enslaved people in Texas. 509 0 obj <> endobj Between 1816 and 1821, Louis-Michel Aury and Jean Lafitte smuggled enslaved people into the United States through Galveston Island. As in other southern states, however, the enslaved people made Christianity their own and they developed strong religious faith. Box 12446 Slavery Days in Marion County 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. [31], By 1850, the enslaved population in Texas had increased to 58,161; in 1860 there were 182,566 enslaved, 30 percent of the total population. Monte Verdi Plantation family slaves honored in Profiles are placed in this category with this text [[Category:Texas, Slave Owners]] . After the Texas Revolution ended in 1836, the Constitution of the Republic of Texas made slavery legal. Every penny counts! During the war, slavery in Texas was little affected, and prices for enslaved people remained high until the last few months of the war. But Texas was once the site of an illegal racket led by pirates who brought slaves into the state and sold them throughout the United West Feliciana: 127 slaves. Although slave marriages and families had no legal protections, the majority of slaves were reared and lived day to day in a family setting. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/slavery. [27] Other enslaved people joined the Texan forces, with some killed while fighting Mexican soldiers. Section 9 of Constitution of the Republic of Texas read in part as follows: All persons of color who were slaves for life previous to their emigration to Texas, and who are now held in bondage, shall remain in the like state of servitude Congress shall pass no laws to prohibit emigrants from bringing their slaves into the republic with them, and holding them by the same tenure by which such slaves were held in the United States; nor shall congress have the power to emancipate slaves; nor shall any slave holder be allowed to emancipate his or her slave without the consent of congress, unless he or she shall send his or her slave or slaves without the limits of the republic. This page has been viewed 87,667 times (5,509 via redirect). WebSouth Carolina's slave population in 1790 was 107,094, around 43 percent of the state population; by 1860 it was 402,406, around 57 percent of the total population. AAGIG@dallasgenealogy.org, "African American Records: Freedmen's Bureau," "African American Heritage,", African American Online Genealogy Records, George Washington Carver Museum and Genealogy Center, Texas State Historical Association: African Americans, The McGowan Funeral Home Records, 1956-1995, The Southern Migration of the Keeton and Chafer Family, Slavery Statutes - Texas: ca. Dirt floors were common, and beds attached to the walls were the only standard furnishings. 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. Was Section 1325 Of The US Immigration Code Sponsored By A Segregationist Lawmaker? They survived with the help of Castillo's faith healing among the Indians. 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. It contains a very significant number of Texas' African-American population. Slavery formally ended in Texas after June 19, 1865 (Juneteenth), when Gen. Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston with occupying federal forces and announced emancipation. Some felt well-treated by their owners and generally behaved as loyal servants. A list of resources for African American research of ancestors who lived in Texas. [6] Beginning in the 1740s in the Southwest, when Spanish settlers captured American Indian children, they often had them baptized and "adopted" into the homes of townspeople. For example, Jared Groce arrived from Alabama in 1822 with ninety slaves and set up a cotton plantation on the Brazos River. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was confronted with similar information about his ancestors this month, but had a different reaction. Few battles took place in Texas, which acted as a supply state to the Confederacy. This page was last modified 06:24, 6 May 2021. [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. FS Library976.4F2bjm 1970 WIKITREE HOME | ABOUT | G2G FORUM | HELP | SEARCH. The number likely would have been larger but for the attitude of the Mexican federal and state governments. [35] Enslaved people often lived similarly to poor whites in Texas, especially those new to the territory and just getting started. Many slaves may have escaped such punishment, but every slave lived with the knowledge that he or she could be whipped at his owner's discretion. P Denwood was a Quaker and in early days often was in trouble with the court as he was suspected of harboring Quakers on their way up to Maryland. [33] Enslaved people were not held between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. 5 Resources. In 1850 the number was 2,852. Sam Houston made illegal importation from Mexico a crime in 1836. [9] Of these, only 15 were enslaved, 4males and 11females. At the start of the Civil War, _____ was the commander of Union troops in Texas. [11] By 1825, however, a census of Austin's Colony showed 1,347 Anglo-Americans and 443people of African descent, including a small number of free blacks. They had no legally prescribed way to gain freedom. Slavery guaranteed that. Meredith Calhoun of Rapides, Louisiana: 709 slaves. The Bureau created a wide variety of records extremely valuable to genealogists. If I can figure out where an earlier County Coordinator found this I will properly reference it. Texas did not, however, employ techniques common in other Southern states such as complex voter registration rules and literacy tests; even the "white primary" was not implemented statewide until 1923.[53]. In August 1831, Juan Davis Bradburn, the military commander of the custom station on Upper Galveston Bay, gave asylum to two men who had escaped from slavery in Louisiana. Most worked as house servants or on farms on the edges of towns, but others served as cooks and waiters in hotels, as teamsters or boatmen, or as coachmen and skilled artisans, such as blacksmiths, carpenters, and barbers. The slaves themselves, however, also insisted on family ties. University of Virginia. %%EOF [11] Anglo-American immigration to the province slowed at this point, with settlers angry about the changing rules. The slaves were owned by Julien Devereux and used to work an almost 11,000-acre plantation. After, ORourke shared his reaction on the blog site Medium. Arthur Blake of Charleston, South Carolina: 538 slaves. Cannibalism, Interspecies War: A Novel About Neanderthals And Early Modern Humans, In a Central Texas county, high schoolers are jailed on felony charges for vaping what could be legal hemp, As Texas STAAR test goes fully online, teachers feel defeated, Texas Education Agency projects confidence. Trying to get around the Gulf Coast, they built five barges, but in November 1528 these went aground off the coast of Texas. slavery Africans and the descendants of Africans and Indians were excluded from the class of 'persons' having rights. Planters had hundreds of enslaved people arrested and questioned forcefully. "[citation needed], As the Texas Revolution began in 1835, some enslaved people sided with Mexico, which provided for freedom.
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