Arthur Blake of Charleston, South Carolina: 538 slaves. Through organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), African Americans continued to work to regain their ability to exercise their civil and voting rights as citizens. 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. Slave plantations were concentrated along the low-lying farmlands of East Texas. Randolph B. They had no legally prescribed way to gain freedom. A list of resources for African American research of ancestors who lived in Texas. Instead, place individual profiles into the category corresponding to the county of Texas where they held enslaved persons. 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 slaves were owned by Julien Devereux and used to work an almost 11,000-acre plantation. Most field hands received two sets of clothing twice each year, with a hat and coat for winter. Eliza Denwoo Henry David Rhodes, planter, was born in Alabama about 1819. Charles Heyward of Colleton, South Carolina: 491 slaves. They may be related. WebAmerican Slave Narratives - An Online Anthology. Although not considered equals in the tribes, they were generally treated well. Africans and the descendants of Africans and Indians were excluded from the class of 'persons' having rights. Only one in every four families in antebellum Texas owned slaves, but these slaveholders, especially the planters who held twenty or more slaves, generally constituted the state's wealthiest class. In some cases, whites with the same name may be members of the former slave holding family. In general, Texas slaves continued to work and live as they had before the war. After, ORourke shared his reaction on the blog site. Slavery expanded rapidly during the period of the republic. These records often include full names, former masters and plantations, and current residences. 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. Slavery in Waco. Although the law contained some recognition of their humanity, slaves in Texas had the legal status of personal property. As Texas was much more distant from the Union Army lines for much of the war, enslaved people were unable to reach them. [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. One result was the Turtle Bayou Resolutions, which were an explanation of the grievances that had led to the disturbances. The Bureau created a wide variety of records extremely valuable to genealogists. FS Library 976.4 D3sl, Garrett-Nelson, LaBrenda. In 1900, African Americans comprised 20% of the state's population of 3,048,710. After that, he could legally transport the enslaved people and sell them in New Orleans or areas further up the Mississippi River. [44] 5.1 Biographies. [34] Unlike in most southern cities, the number of urban enslaved people in Texas grew throughout the 1850s. Most slaves, however, supplemented their basic diet with sweet potatoes, garden vegetables, wild game, and fish and were thus adequately fed. WebThe Neals, Foxes, and Timberlakes were all white families of at least moderate wealth that was dependent upon the forced labor of enslaved people. [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. In 1829, President Vicente Guerrero issued a decree abolishing slavery in all of Mexico, but within months he exempted Texas from that order. Three enslaved people were known to be at the Battle of the Alamo; a boy named John was killed, while William B. Travis's enslaved person, Joe, and James Bowie's enslaved person, Sam, survived to be freed by the Mexican Army. There, he proclaimed his "General Order No. Both the Baptist and Methodist churches appointed missionaries to the enslaved people and allowed active participation by them. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/slavery. [33] Enslaved people were not held between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. As news of emancipation spread across the state, a few owners angrily told their slaves to leave immediately, but most asked the freedmen, as they soon became known, to stay and work for wages. 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. [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. Dallas, Texas 75225-0446 [46] Anyone convicted of providing arms to enslaved people during the war was sentenced to between two and five years of hard labor. Later he was given leadership of a Spanish expedition. List of slave owners - Wikipedia Brewer, John Mason. "Mike" Campbell, [27] Other enslaved people joined the Texan forces, with some killed while fighting Mexican soldiers. WebJoseph Marryat (17571824), owned slaves in Grenada, Trinidad, St. Lucia, and Jamaica. 2021 Texas Standard. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. [34], Plantation enslaved people generally lived in one or two-room log cabins. During the pre-Civil War statehood period, a majority of Texans were. 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. Shortly before 1858 he moved from Mississippi to Texas with his wife, Mary, and five children. The majority of adult slaves were field hands, but a sizable minority worked as skilled craftsmen, house servants, and livestock handlers. Wood was born into slavery in the early 19th century on a Kentucky farm owned by a man named Moses Tousey, McDaniel writes. 2 Online Resources. Sugar. Instead, slaves exercised a degree of agency in their lives by maximizing the time available within the system to maintain physical, psychological and spiritual strength. Marie Therese Metoyer was born into slavery but died a rich woman. [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. Most runaways attempted to go to Mexico. That year, Mexico made the importation of enslaved people illegal. Was Section 1325 Of The US Immigration Code Sponsored By A Segregationist Lawmaker? [4] His account, along with those of the others, led to more extensive Spanish exploration of the new territory. It is a tough history and its a hard history and its a history that many Americans are not comfortable with, Berry says. 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. Many enslaved people ran away. 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. [32] Some enslaved people lived among the cattlemen along the southern Gulf Coast and helped herd sheep and cattle. 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." All slaves had to live with the knowledge that their families could be broken up, and yet the basic social unit survived. Basically if we did that then wed have to rewrite American history because most public officers particularly, our first president, George Washington, owned enslaved people, Berry says. 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]. If they died, the boss did not suffer a monetary loss. Austin County, Texas, Slave Owners (0, 0, 1) B. Bandera WebThe Confederate gov ernment required many slave holders to provide slaves to work at military fortifications and other facilities throughout the South. Sam Houston made illegal importation from Mexico a crime in 1836. Marie Therese Metoyer. [8] There was intermarriage among blacks, Indians and Europeans. 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. 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. Slavery guaranteed that. For a complete list, please see: American slave owners Project Profiles. The first census in Austin's colony in 1825 showed 443 slaves in a total population of 1,800. The slaves themselves, however, also insisted on family ties. To Anglo-American slave owners slavery was a practical necessity in Texas the only way to grow cotton profitably on its vast areas of fertile land. In 1850 the number was 2,852. WebLists of Slave owners with names of slaves 781-----Edward, 660 Michael, 735 Adam, Andrew George, 425, 498, 533, 621 Guy, 498 Jack, 729 Lucy, 729 Peter, 533 Sam, 621 535 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 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. Questions concerning its profitability are complex and always open to debate. Married Margaret French Strother 1778. WebTruly giant slaveholders such as Robert and D. G. Mills, who owned more than 300 slaves in 1860 (the largest holding in Texas), had plantations in this area, and the population 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." 5.5 Emancipation Records. The cotton industry flourished in East Texas, where enslaved labor became most widely used. 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. Music and song served to set a pace for work and to express sorrow and hope (see AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHURCHES). If I can figure out where an earlier County Coordinator found this I will properly reference it. Slave Owners 1800-1820, 1850-1860 This page was last modified 06:24, 6 May 2021. Slaveholders in those areas often moved their enslaved to Texas to avoid having them freed. Early books sometimes contained the name of the former master or mistress and the name of the plantation. 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. [10], When the United States purchased Louisiana in 1803, Spain declared that any enslaved person who crossed the Sabine River into Texas would be automatically freed. 5.3 Census Records. On the other hand, western parts of Texas were still a frontier during the American Civil War. The slave population of Texas from 1850 to 1860 increased from 58,161 to 182,566, bringing the slave population from 27 percent to 30 percent of the state total. Abraham Kuykendall 5 5. There were a few slaves in Texas while it was a Spanish province, but slavery did not really become an institution of significance in the region until the arrival of AngloAmerican settlers. 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. See the Heritage Exchange Portal for more information on how to document slaves and slave owners. [33], Many churches in Texas accepted enslaved people as members. All ages were represented, however, from 5months to 60years. [16] That year, the American Stephen F. Austin was granted permission by Mexican authorities to bring Anglo settlers into Texas. Although slave marriages and families had no legal protections, the majority of slaves were reared and lived day to day in a family setting. 1836-1864 (10 fiche) FS Library 6118915, Oral Histories Recorded at the Gregory School, African American Freedman's Savings and Trust Company Records, United States, Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874, U.S., Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1871 ($), United States, Freedmen's Bureau Claim Records,1865-1872, United States, Freedmen's Bureau Hospital and Medical Records, 1865-1872, United States, Freedmen's Bureau Labor Contracts, Indenture and Apprenticeship Records, 1865-1872, United States, Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872, United States, Freedmen's Bureau Ration Records,1865-1872, United States, Freedmen's Bureau Records of Persons and Articles Hired, 1865-1872, United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Freedmen's Court Records, 1865-1872, United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Land and Property Records, 1865-1872, United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of Freedmen's Complaints, 1865-1872, United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of the Superintendent of Education and of the Division of Education, 1865-1872, United States Freedmen's Bureau Miscellaneous Records,1865-1872, United States Freedmen's Bureau, Records of Freedmen, 1865-1872, African American Freedmen's Bureau Records. Web1800 Slave Owners 1. 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. In 1860 there were 3,017 slaves in Marion county 1,406 males, 1,611 females. 0 [46], Unlike in other Southern states, only a small number of enslaved Texans, estimated at 47, joined the Union Army. I look at this and many of these opportunities as a place to teach and educate our country on our history because this is a part of our history that weve often sort of tucked under the rug or didnt give the details of that history, Berry says. 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. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. [18] A small number of enslaved were imported illegally from the West Indies or Africa. Residents of Texas, 1782-1836. 2) THIS PATRIOT HAD TWO DAUGHTERS NAMED MARY, ONE BY EACH WIFE; Daniel French Slaughter (October 15, 1799 October 13, 1882) was Virginia planter and politician from two distinguished families of politicians and soldiers. [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. The effect of the institution on the state's general economic development is less clear. In 1836 Texas had approximately 5,000 enslaved persons in a total population estimated at 38,470. Others hated their masters and their situation and rebelled by running away or using violence. Black Slaveowners That Will Tear Apart Historical Perception [48], On some plantations, many enslaved people left immediately after hearing of the emancipation, even if their former owners offered to pay them wages. [5], Both the civil and religious authorities in Spanish Texas officially encouraged freeing enslaved people, but the laws were often ignored. Tyler, Ronnie C. and Lawrence R. Murphy. [citation needed], June 19, the day of the Emancipation announcement, has been celebrated annually in Texas and other states as Juneteenth. 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. WebIn 1845, there were about 30,000 enslaved people in Texas. Slavery was a complex institution that varied according to time and place. The supposed "poison" found in enslaved quarters was baby powder. This company was created to assist African American soldiers of the Civil War and freed slaves. All copyrighted materials included within the Handbook of Texas Online are in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. William Brittain 1 14. Negro Legislators of Texas and Their Descendants: a history of the Negro in Texas Politics from Reconstruction to Disfanchisement. Gleaning Information about Enslaved Ancestors from Probate Files NGS Magazine 48 #2 (April-June 2022): 2327. There was an auction block next to the Menger Hotel and near the Alamo. [citation needed], In the 1870s, a system of legalized racial segregation and white supremacy was enforced. 3536 Grand Avenue [24], In 1845 the state legislature passed legislation further restricting the rights of free blacks. This is a mid-level category and should not have individual profiles added to it. Although no major rebellions occurred, individual acts of violence against owners were carried out. WIKITREE HOME | ABOUT | G2G FORUM | HELP | SEARCH. WebThe enslavement of African Americans was the curse of early American life, and Texas was no exception. They knew that they controlled their own bodies and therefore were free to move about as they chose and not be forced to labor for others. Most slaves, however, were neither loyal servants nor rebels. Included are land grant requests, wills, and testaments, letters of freedom and contracts of the sale of slaves. [52] By the late 19th century, Texas passed other Jim Crow laws. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. Several confessed to a plot by white abolitionists to avenge John Brown's execution by burning food supplies and poisoning slaveowners. Masters disciplined their slaves to get the labor they wanted, and yet had to avoid many problems of resistance such as running away and feigning illness.