The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 39, July 1935 - April, 1936 Page: 303
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The Free Negro in the Republic of Texas
[wedding] being an extraordinary occasion, all the elite in the
country were invited, and few regrets were sent."
There were a couple of strangers present who attracted a good
deal of attention-an elderly man, with a professional handle to
his name, and his son a lad of twenty or thereabouts. They had
money for which they were seeking investment. Both of them
were well dressed sporting gold watches and shirt studs, and the
young man was cutting a wide swath among the girls, laying us
buckskin boys quite in the shade. But by and by old Aunt Celie,
a mulatto woman who was looking on through the open door,
beckoned to her young mistress, Miss Harriet Craft, and taking
her aside said:
"Miss. Ha'it, wat you in dar dancin' wid dat niggah fo' ?"
"Hush, Aunt Celie; that isn't a nigger," said Miss Craft.
"He is niggah, Miss. Ha'it; he jes as much niggah as I is. Look
at his ha' and his eyes," urged the indignant old woman.
. . . Later developments proved the keenness of the old
woman's perception."
No planned Negro immigration from the United States ever
materialized, but a number of schemes to colonize free Negroes
in Texas was suggested by Anglo-Americans, Mexicans and
Negroes.
The chief exponent of such proposals was Benjamin Lundy,
who contemplated the establishment of a colony of free Negroes
in Texas as early as 1830. His chief purpose was to demonstrate
that the cultivation of sugar, cotton and rice could be engaged
in profitably by the use of free labor. To this end, Lundy hoped
and worked for the repeal of the law of April 6, 1830, which
prohibited emigration from the United States to Texas, but
finally, upon the advice of Almonte, Texas Commissioner of Col-
onization from Mexico, shifted his efforts to Tamaulipas, and
there received a large grant of land, which, however, he was never
able to develop."
Lundy's plan received publicity, if not encouragement, in both
northern and southern newspapers, and apparently it was a sub-
ject of discussion and debate among white men as well as Negroes.
The New York Commercial Advertiser of April 27, 1833, accord-
ing to the African Repository, "holds the following sensible lan-
"Noah Smithwick, The Evolution of a State, 156.
wLife of Lundy, 63, 66, 69, 79, 80, 86, 128, 130, 145, 147, 149, 152, 162,
164, 167, 168, 183, 188, 189.303
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 39, July 1935 - April, 1936, periodical, 1936; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101095/m1/329/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.