[33], Many churches in Texas accepted enslaved people as members. In the 1830s, the British consul estimated that approximately 500enslaved people had been illegally imported into Texas. But his response to me opens up a door for families generations of descendants of slaveholders and descendants of slave people to have open dialogue of this institution.. [24], Forty percent of Texas enslaved people lived on plantations along the Gulf Coast and in the East Texas river valleys, where they cultivated cotton, corn, and some sugar. Section 107 related to Copyright and Fair Use for Non-Profit educational institutions, which permits the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), to utilize copyrighted materials to further scholarship, education, and inform the public. On the other hand, the institution may well have contributed in several ways to retarding commercialization and industrialization. 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. Millions of Texans have rare diseases. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/slavery. Profiles are placed in this category with this text [[Category:Texas, Slave Owners]] . Meals often consisted of bread, molasses, sweet potatoes, hominy, and beef, chicken, and pork. Although Estevanico was still enslaved, after these events the Spaniards treated him more as an equal. After Jos Mara Jess Carvajal promised to return all escapees, more than 400Texans joined his revolt of 1851. Over 30 of the fugitives made it safely to freedom in Mexico. In rural areas, counties often set up patrols to enforce restrictions on enslaved people traveling without passes from planter owners. In Texas, like other southern states, the treatment of slaves varied from plantation to plantation, from master to master. Farmers. The first non-Native slave in Texas was Estevanico, a Moor from North Africa who had been captured and enslaved by the Spanish when he was a child. 4 Cotton plantations. D. F. Kenner, Ascension, Louisiana: 473 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. [17] In 1827, the legislature of Coahuila y Tejas outlawed the introduction of additional enslaved people and granted freedom at birth to all children born to an enslaved person. [9] When some French and Spanish slaveholders moved to Texas, they were allowed to retain their enslaved people. Negro Legislators of Texas and Their Descendants: a history of the Negro in Texas Politics from Reconstruction to Disfanchisement. On the other hand, the legislature created political segregation; it classified free residents with at least 1/8 African heritage (the equivalent to one great-grandparent) as a separate category, and abrogated their citizens' rights, prohibiting them from voting, owning property, testifying against whites in court, or intermarrying with whites. In 1860, the biggest slaveholders were Robert and D.G. John Butler of McIntosh, Georgia: 505 slaves. The census for 1840 in Henderson County included 4,662 whites, 466 slaves, 35 free blacks. 0 The son of Capt. In 1860, the Methodists claimed 7,541enslaved people among their members in Texas. [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. Slaves increased their minimal self-determination by taking what they could get from their owners and then pressing for additional latitude. Slave clothing was made of cheap, coarse materials; shoes were stiff and rarely fitted. In fact, at the turn of the 18 th century, Marie Therese was one of the richest ladies in Louisiana. You can also look up Charleston Manifests by Slave Owner [table striped="true" Institute of Texas Cultures. 2008 - 2023 INTERESTING.COM, INC. 13, No. Texas slaves had a family-centered social life and culture that flourished in the slave quarters, where slaves were largely on their own, at least from sundown to sunup. 5.4 Church Records. This was in the slave owners' self-interest, for marriage encouraged reproduction under socially acceptable conditions, and slave children were valuable. Slaves were increasing faster than the population as a whole. [58][failed verification]. Sizable numbers, however, came through the domestic slave trade. [34] Unlike in most southern cities, the number of urban enslaved people in Texas grew throughout the 1850s. [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. 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. A project of the University of Virginia, this database includes a sampling of some of the 2,300+ interviews Rarely, an enslaved person also broke horses, but generally only white men were used for that dangerous task. The original empresario commission given Moses Austin by Spanish authorities in 1821 did not mention slaves, but when Stephen F. Austin was recognized as heir to his father's contract later that year, it was agreed that settlers could receive eighty acres of land for each enslaved person they brought to the colony. The evidence is strong, however, that in Texas slaves were generally profitable as a business investment for individual slaveholders. The TSHA makes every effort to conform to the principles of fair use and to comply with copyright law. Some hid in the bayous for a time, while others lived among the Indians, and a few managed to board ships bound for northern or foreign ports. Dennis. [11] Anglo-American immigration to the province slowed at this point, with settlers angry about the changing rules. In short, from 1821 to 1836, the national government in Mexico City and the state government of Coahuila and Texas often threatened to restrict or destroy African American servitude, but always allowed settlers in Texas a loophole or an exemption. Sean M. Kelley, Los Brazos de Dios: A Plantation Society in the Texas Borderlands, 1821- 1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010). Nevertheless, slavery was a curse to Texans, Black and White alike, until 1865 and beyond. [11] In 1809, the Commandant General of the Interior Provinces, Nemesio Salcedo, ordered the Texas-Louisiana border to be closed to everyone, regardless of ethnic background. 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. [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. This company was created to assist African American soldiers of the Civil War and freed slaves. WebThe Confederate gov ernment required many slave holders to provide slaves to work at military fortifications and other facilities throughout the South. accessed March 05, 2023, Many of the fires had coincided with a summer drought, and new matches were susceptible to spontaneous combustion. Mario Marcel, "Foundation Myth in Political Thought: The Racial Moorings of Foundation Myth", Dubugue:Kendal Hunt Publishers,2011, This page was last edited on 8 January 2023, at 01:53. Sam Houston made illegal importation from Mexico a crime in 1836. They had no property rights themselves and no legal rights of marriage and family. This was 15 percent of the total 2,992 people living in Spanish Texas. During the war, slavery in Texas was little affected, and prices for enslaved people remained high until the last few months of the war. Moreover, once the revolution came, slavery was very much on the minds of those involved. The slaves were owned by Julien Devereux and used to work an almost 11,000-acre plantation. 5.3 Census Records. Texan forces executed one runaway taken prisoner and resold another into slavery. [47] The last battle of the war was fought at Palmito Ranch near Brownsville, in 1865. Madison (1), 236 slaves. If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe. Brewer, John Mason. The progress of the Civil War did not drastically affect slavery in Texas because no major slaveholding area was invaded. It was a decision that increased tensions with slave-holders among the Anglo-Americans. [34], Plantation enslaved people generally lived in one or two-room log cabins. Some enslaved people became ministers, but their masters often tried to instruct them in what they were supposed to preach. Slavery formally ended in Texas after June 19, 1865 (Juneteenth), when Gen. Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston with occupying federal forces and announced emancipation. [citation needed], June 19, the day of the Emancipation announcement, has been celebrated annually in Texas and other states as Juneteenth. The supposed "poison" found in enslaved quarters was baby powder. But how would they make their way in the world after 1865? The men sold enslaved people to James Bowie and others, who brought them directly to a customhouse and informed on themselves. Phone: (214) 565-9026, African American Community Archives Program, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc.Willie Lee Gay - H-Town Chapter11100 Braesridge, Suite 2202Houston, Texas 77071aahgshtown@yahoo.com, Houston Museum of African American Culture Married Margaret French Strother 1778. As is apparent from the attached list of slave owners on this web site, many people in the county who owned slaves only had one or two. In 1865, 95% of the enslaved were illiterate.[39]. WebOne in four families owned slaves. In 1751, after three Frenchmen were found to have settled along the Trinity River to trade with the American Indians, the Spanish arrested and expelled them from the colony. House servants and craftsmen worked long hours, too, but their labor was not so burdensome physically. Few battles took place in Texas, which acted as a supply state to the Confederacy. When Bradburn arrested Travis on suspicion of plotting an insurrection, settlers rebelled. Was Section 1325 Of The US Immigration Code Sponsored By A Segregationist Lawmaker? 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. 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. The census of 1850 reported 58,161 slaves, 27.4 percent of the 212,592 people in Texas, and the census of 1860 enumerated 182,566 slaves, 30.2 percent of the total population. Many worked in other parts of the state as cowboys herding cattle or migrated for better opportunities in the Midwest, California, or southward to Mexico. John J. Middleton of Beaufort, South Carolina: 530 slaves. A large supply of cheap Mexican labor in the area made the purchase and care of a slave too expensive. Field hands generally labored "from sun to sun" five days a week and half a day on Saturday. (re: Insurrection Scare in East Texas) "Smith County and Its Neighgors During the Slave Insurrection Panic of 1860," by Donald Eugene Reynolds, PhD (born 1931), Slavery in the Spanish New World colonies, outlawed the importation of enslaved people, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Supreme Court struck down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act, History of African Americans in Dallas-Ft. Worth, History of African Americans in San Antonio, "Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals By Race, 1790 to 1990, and By Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, For The United States, Regions, Divisions, and States", "U.S. appeals court allows Texas to implement voter ID law", "Updated: Texas voter ID law allows gun licenses, not Student ID's", "Someone did not do their due diligence: How an attempt to review Texas' voter rolls turned into a debacle", Texas Terror: the Slave Insurrection Panic of 1860 and the Secession of the Lower South, San Antonio de Bexar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier, Lester G. Bugbee, "Slavery in early Texas", Foreign relations of the Republic of Texas, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_slavery_in_Texas&oldid=1132265581, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2011, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2020, Articles with failed verification from June 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. %%EOF Categories: Texas, Slavery | United States of America, Slave Owners. Copies of death certificates were sometimes attached to the entries. There, he proclaimed his "General Order No. During the late 1850s, prime male field hands aged eighteen to thirty cost on the average $1,200, and skilled slaves such as blacksmiths often were valued at more than $2,000. All ages were represented, however, from 5months to 60years. Whites in the area defeated and severely punished them. 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. [43] Later newspaper accounts revealed that most of what was confessed under torture appeared to be false. This entry belongs to the following Handbook Special Projects: We are a community-supported, non-profit organization and we humbly ask for your support because the careful and accurate recording of our history has never been more important. [35] Enslaved people often lived similarly to poor whites in Texas, especially those new to the territory and just getting started. In some cases, whites with the same name may be members of the former slave holding family. [38] Unlike most southern states, Texas did not explicitly ban education of enslaved people, but most slaveholders did not allow the practice. The payrolls for that slave Houston, Texas 77004, African American Genealogical Interest Group [24], In 1845 the state legislature passed legislation further restricting the rights of free blacks. [7], Importation of enslaved Africans was not widespread in Spanish Texas. A relatively few slaves, perhaps as many as 2,000 between 1835 and 1865, came through the illegal African trade. 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. endstream endobj 510 0 obj <. In general, Texas slaves continued to work and live as they had before the war. Other FamilySearch collections not included: More collections are available in the FamilySearch Catalog. Residents of Texas, 1782-1836. There is at least one positive outcome that could come from reckoning with slave-owning family members of the past. The Mexican government was opposed to slavery, but even so, there Socially, slaveholders, at least the large planters, embodied an ideal to most Texans. In 1900, African Americans comprised 20% of the state's population of 3,048,710. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. He tried to create a Republic of Sierra Madre in Northern Mexico but was defeated by the Mexican Army.[41]. WebJoseph Marryat (17571824), owned slaves in Grenada, Trinidad, St. Lucia, and Jamaica. Texas was a colonial territory, then part of Mexico, later Republic in 1836, and U.S. state in 1845. Arthur Blake of Charleston, South Carolina: 538 slaves. Slave owners and male Slavery expanded rapidly during the period of the republic. 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). WebThe slaves who remained on properties in South Carolina are counted on the South Carolina reports. Samuel King 3 7. Economically, slave owners had a disproportionately large share of the state's wealth and produced virtually all of the cash crops. Sources Taken from Szucs, Loretto Dennis, "Research in Census Records." Free and runaway blacks had great difficulty finding jobs in Texas. WebThe 1783 census for all of Texas listed a total of 36 enslaved people. Several confessed to a plot by white abolitionists to avenge John Brown's execution by burning food supplies and poisoning slaveowners. [8] There was intermarriage among blacks, Indians and Europeans. By 1860, that number had increased to 182,566. The list below is compiled from the 1860 United States Slave Census Schedule. Married Elizabeth Towles 1803. The eastern quarter of the state, where cotton production depended on thousands of slaves, is considered the westernmost extension of the Deep South. Theirs was apparently a favored position, at least in this regard. The emancipated slaves celebrated joyously (if Whites allowed it), but then they had to find out just what freedom meant. [40] As early as 1836, Texas slaveholders sent representatives to Matamoros to try to reclaim their runaways, but Mexico refused. Tyler, Ronnie C. and Lawrence R. Murphy. After the Texas Revolution ended in 1836, the Constitution of the Republic of Texas made slavery legal. John Robinson of Madison, Mississippi: 550 slaves. 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. The majority of adult slaves were field hands, but a sizable minority worked as skilled craftsmen, house servants, and livestock handlers. [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. The African American Library at the Gregory SchoolHouston's first colored public school, located in historic Freedmen's Town, serves as a resource and repository to preserve, promote and celebrate the rich history and culture of African Americans in Houston, the surrounding region and the African Diaspora. [27] Other enslaved people joined the Texan forces, with some killed while fighting Mexican soldiers. When searching, pay close attention to other individuals with the same surname. The last frontier of slavery was by no means closed on the eve of the Civil War. Almost certainly, however, many came to believe that they would be free if the South lost. Dallas, TX [54] The drop in proportion of population reflected greatly-increased European immigration to the state in the 19th century, as well as population growth. [18] A small number of enslaved were imported illegally from the West Indies or Africa. Handbook of Texas Online, [23] By 1836, there were approximately 5,000 enslaved people in Texas. 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. Slavery was thus a constant source of tension in the lives of slaveholders. . [29], The following year all those who had been living in Texas at the time of independence were allowed to remain. Samuel Murray 3 9. Slaves, however, tended to hear the message of individual equality before God and salvation for all. Several enslaved people ran away to serve with Mexican forces. Disputes over slavery did not constitute an immediate cause of the Texas Revolution, but the institution was always in the background as what the noted Texas historian Eugene C. Barker called a "dull, organic ache." [1] Estevanico accompanied his enslaver Captain Andrs Dorantes de Carranza on the Narvez expedition, which landed at present-day Tampa. Slavery may have thus hindered economic modernization in Texas. [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. Most Whites thought that Blacks were inferior and wanted to be sure that they remained in an inferior social position. Wood was born into slavery in the early 19th century on a Kentucky farm owned by a man named Moses Tousey, McDaniel writes. [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. Slave prices inflated rapidly as the institution expanded in Texas. One of the resolutions challenged Bradburn for "advising and procuring servants to quit the service of their masters, and offering them protection; causing them to labor for his benefits, and refusing to compensate them for the same. 3 Research Strategy. Officials and Employees Most field hands received two sets of clothing twice each year, with a hat and coat for winter. Meredith Calhoun of Rapides, Louisiana: 709 slaves. They could be bought and sold, mortgaged, and hired out. [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 had many runaways and thousands escaped to Mexico. The Brazos department, including Austin's colonies and those of Green DeWitt, had exported 600,000 pesos worth of goods, including 5,000 bales of cotton. The 1867 Voter Registration includes names of voters who registered in the period between 1867 and 1869. [52] By the late 19th century, Texas passed other Jim Crow laws. (F. Lewis/Archive Photos via Getty Images) W hen Americans think of the slave trade, they usually imagine ships pulling into East Coast harbors not Texan ones. Gleaning Information about Enslaved Ancestors from Probate Files NGS Magazine 48 #2 (April-June 2022): 2327. WebThe Neals, Foxes, and Timberlakes were all white families of at least moderate wealth that was dependent upon the forced labor of enslaved people. See the Heritage Exchange Portal for more information on how to document slaves and slave owners. [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. Schedule No. To circumvent the law, numerous Anglo-American colonists converted their enslaved people to indentured servants, but with life terms. [17] At the same time, however, Mexico offered full citizenship to free blacks, including land ownership and other privileges. They survived with the help of Castillo's faith healing among the Indians. Freedmans Savings and Trust Company signature cards or registers from 3 March 1865 to 25 July 1874 may list the name of the depositor, date of entry, age, birthplace, residence, complexion, name of employer or occupation, wife or husbands name, death information, childrens names, name of father and mother, brothers and sisters names, remarks, and signature.