The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986 Page: 201
610 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Slavery and the Texas Revolution
dom. Mexican military ventures in Texas and around the Rio Grande
attracted the participation of former slaves. Runaways, especially those
who fled in groups, still sought their liberty in Mexico in the years just
after the Revolution. Troublesome as this outlet for freedom proved to
be, white Texans also feared a far worse prospect-that abolitionists
would provide financial support to Mexico for a renewal of the war
along antislavery lines.45
Even though British and American abolitionists continued to view
Texas as a fair field for their work, their vision had virtually no support
in the young Republic. The proslavery element in Texas, unlike its coun-
terpart in other independence movements in the Americas, faced no
antislavery crusade from within the new nation. With hardly any exag-
geration the Telegraph and Texas Register in the fall of 1838 proclaimed
that "our country enjoys a complete immunity" from abolitionism.46
Texas governmental authorities rapidly added to the proslavery mea-
sures passed during the Revolution. As British consul William Ken-
nedy reported from Galveston in 1843, "laws and regulations have be-
come ... less favourable to Slaves since Texas obtained the position of
an independent State." Both Congress and municipalities developed
more definitive slave codes. Even though Texas lawmakers acceded to
external pressure and provided punishments for the traders who im-
ported slaves from Africa or the Caribbean, this illegal traffic remained
difficult to repress.47 The African slave trade remained an important
source for labor in the Republic, but most of the traffic in human be-
ings was of the legal variety from the United States. The rate of white
immigration to East Texas in the first five years after the Revolution
doubled that of previous years, with the bulk of these immigrants com-
ing from states that had large slave populations. Slaves frequently ac-
companied or sometimes even preceded their owners to Texas. Alto-
gether, these sources swelled the slave ranks rapidly. In the decade
after 1834, the number of slaves rose from about to percent to over 16
45 Porter, Negro on the Frontier, 382-383; A[ndrew] J. Sowell, Rangers and Pioneers of Texas ...
(1884; reprint, New York, 1964), 187-189; Joseph Milton Nance, After San Jacinto: The Texas-
Mexican Frontier, 1836-84r (Austin, 1963), 308; Civilian and Galveston Gazette, June 11, 1843,
June 8, 1844; Samuel Swartwout to Morgan, Dec. 27, 1841, Feris A. Bass, Jr., and B. R. Brun-
son (eds.), Fragile Empires: The Texas Correspondence of Samuel Swartwout and James Morgan,
i836-1856 (Austin, 1978), 151.
46 Adams (ed.), "Correspondence from the British Archives" (Oct., 1913), 204-205; Telegraph
and Texas Register (Houston), Oct. 13, 1838 (quotation).
47Adams (ed.), "Correspondence from the British Archives" (Jan., 1912), 213-215, (Oct.,
1913), 200oo, 203 (quotation); Telegraph and Texas Register (Houston), Jan. 11, May 9, 1837, Nov.
21, 1838; John Clark to W. R. Lansing, Nov. 14, 1840, John Grant Tod Papers (Rosenberg Li-
brary, Galveston).201
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986, periodical, 1985/1986; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117151/m1/239/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.