The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 40, July 1936 - April, 1937 Page: 111
348 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Free Negro in the Republic of Texas
did not choose to evade the issue. The amendment was rejected
and the bill lost."4
This long series of unfavorable consideration to bills for manu-
mission seems to have had the desired result of stopping petitions
begging such privilege. For more than three years, apparently,
no petitions were received and no bills introduced pertaining to
the manumission of slaves."9
During the last session of the Texas Congress, a bill authorizing
G. H. Harrison and Ann C. Harrison to manumit a Negro boy,
Shadrack, successfully passed the House but was defeated in the
Senate,96 while Edward Teal made a third futile attempt to manu-
mit his slave Fannie.97
The last request for the right of manumission submitted to
the Texas Congress came from an early settler, Thomas Cox, and
holds particular interest. Cox emigrated from Alabama, arriving
in Texas in March, 1822. At the time he was thirty-eight years
of age and with him he brought his wife Cynthia and one child.98
In 1845, he was living in Harrison county and from there he
petitioned Congress for the right to manumit his two natural
children who were slaves. The petition was referred to a select
committee which rendered a favorable report and the bill passed
the House, but no action was taken in the Senate.99 Three years
later, at which time the number of his children had increased to
four, Cox, then sixty-four years of age, wrote a forthright and
sincere statement of his peculiar position:
To the Honorable the senate and House of Representatives
of the Legislature of the State of Texas.
Your petitioner would respectfully represent unto your
Honorable Body that he is the father of the following chil-
dren, Lotty, Commodore, Perry and Frederick, who under
the Institutions and laws of the Country are Slaves-That
since his emigration to this State, now several years, he has
done and performed all the duties required of him as a
'"Congressional Papers, Sixth Congress, No. 2336, File 25.
"No entries have been found in the House Journals or Senate Journals
for the seventh or eighth congresses, and no petitions or bills have been
discovered in the Congressional Papers for those same sessions.
"Congressional Papers, Ninth Congress, No. 2939, File 32. Senate
Journal, Ninth Congress, 205.
"gHouse Journal, Ninth Congress, 329.
"Austin's Colonists, I, 44.
"This petition has not been found. Congressional Papers, Ninth Con-
gress, No. 2972, File 32. House Journal, Ninth Congress, 202.111
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 40, July 1936 - April, 1937, periodical, 1937; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101099/m1/125/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.