The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 41, July 1937 - April, 1938 Page: 107
383 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Free Negro in the Republic of Texas
February 5, 1845, they were at all times subject to ten days
notice to leave the State. Negroes who came to Texas after
February 5, 1840, as illegal residents were always subject to
the same ten days notice to take themselves out of the Republic
upon penalty of sale into slavery. Until January 10, 1843, no
Negro had any guarantee that his property rights would be re-
spected, and after that date by private act only a few were given
security in their holdings. That so many of them were able to
achieve social respectability and economic independence becomes
more remarkable in the light of this continual uncertainty which
permeated their whole life and constituted perhaps their chief
handicap.
The study of the free Negro in the Republic of Texas leaves
us with two opposing pictures. One is drawn from generalizations
of contemporaries depicting a theoretical attitude toward the group
in which the Negro is described as irresponsible, disreputable and
worse than useless because vicious and dangerous. The other sketch
is inductively drawn from particularizations of contemporaries
describing practical attitudes toward individual Negroes in which
they are uniformly portrayed as responsible, reputable and useful
because industrious and peaceful.
These anomalous attitudes reflect the two current opinions on
free Negroes which Texans were never able to reconcile. Their
interest and inclination as private citizens was invariably to look
with favor upon those whose labor they might use to advantage.
As public citizens, however, these same men were apprehensive lest
the contact of free Negroes would lead slaves to dissatisfaction,
insubordination and finally to insurrection.
The attitude toward the class resulted from impersonal encoun-
ters and was embodied in the general laws; that toward the
individuals grew out of personal contacts and was enacted into
numerous private laws or more often, expressed itself in an unwill-
ingness to enforce the general laws.
In whatever connection the problem of the free Negro was
brought under consideration, these two diverging views were certain
to be presented. To defend restrictions on manumissions we are
told that freedom was a greater curse to the slaves themselves
than the bondage in which they were held. In utter dispite of
this assertion we are assured that the slaves were rendered dis-107
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 41, July 1937 - April, 1938, periodical, 1938; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101103/m1/115/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.