The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986 Page: 185
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 185
toward slavery, however, did have some effect.' Slaves in Texas had a
measure of judicial privilege, such as the right of petition. A knowl-
edgeable observer like Mary Austin Holley believed that blacks were
"invested with more liberty and [were] less liable to abuse" in Texas
than in the United States. Flurries of antislavery legislation had other
effects as well. The laws slowed the pace of American immigration and
possibly the importation of blacks. An estimate from 1834 suggests that
the number of slaves had grown at a slower rate than had the white
population. Also, continual labor shortages lengthened the period of
frontier conditions and retarded the growth of plantations, except for
a few instances along the coast.'
All things considered, however, Anglo immigrants seem not to have
significantly modified their hopes or expectations of slavery, inhospit-
able laws and government disapprobation notwithstanding. Planters
commonly considered their slaves "indispensable," as one traveler
noted, and leaders of the province believed that cotton held the key to
progress. When Anglo lawmakers came into power in places like Nac-
ogdoches in the mid-1830s, the legal privilege conferred on bondsmen
by Mexican law was quickly eroded. And Mexican inattention to slavery
after 1830o allowed the institution to grow in at least one area: statistics
for the Nacogdoches region reveal a spurt in the slave population be-
tween 1831 and 1835'
The persistence of this complex of attitudes toward slavery was re-
flected in the colonists' ideology. Stephen F. Austin sounded the key-
note when he argued that settlers in a raw land should not be deprived
of laborers. From their first confrontations with Mexican antislavery
law, Anglo-Texans had conceded the moral arguments while emphasiz-
ing the necessity of forced labor to develop the land. They also de-
fended slavery on racial grounds, contending that emancipation would
lead to black demoralization and that color differences naturally re-
7Adams, quoted in Lundy, War in Texas, 34; indenture contract, County of Leon, Territory of
Florida, Apr. 30, 1831, James Morgan Papers (Rosenberg Library, Galveston); Texas Gazette
(San Felipe de Austin), Sept. 25, 1829; A Visit to Texas. ... (2nd ed.; New York, 1836), 187-188;
Schoen, "Free Negro" (Oct., 1936), 86-94.
"Mary Austin Holley, Texas (Lexington, Ky., 1836), 133 (quotations); David J. Weber, The
Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest under Mexico (Albuquerque, 1982), 213;
James Michael McReynolds, "Family Life in a Borderland Community: Nacogdoches, Texas,
1779-1861" (Ph.D. diss., Texas Tech University, 1978), 188-190; Bugbee, "Slavery in Early
Texas" (Sept., 1898), 390-397, 400-401; Barker, "Influence of Slavery," 11, 32; W. L. Foleys to
"Messrs. Austin or Milan [sic]," Oct. 28, 1834, Samuel May Williams Papers (Rosenberg Li-
brary); Lowrie, Culture Conflict, 31; Connor, Texas, 75, 85, 86.
9Vzsit to Texas, 57 (quotation); Bugbee, "Slavery in Early Texas" (Dec., 1898), 662-664;
Carlos E. Castafieda (trans.), "Statistical Report of Texas by Juan N. Almonte, 1835," SHQ,
XXVIII (Jan., 1925), 178; McReynolds, "Nacogdoches," 288-290, 295.
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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/m1/223/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.