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Essay About Slavery In Texas History

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Slavery is a big controversy within Texas history. The Texas 1850s newspapers from the Portal to Texas History prove that Randolph B. Campbell was correct in how he described slavery in his book, An Empire for Slavery. The newspapers and the book reveal that Texans believed that slavery was morally right, they believed that African Americans were inferior and they believed that abolitionists were constantly trying to constantly interfere with slavery. Slaves as a result, frequently tried to rebel or resist their masters.
For start, Texans believed that slavery was morally right. The Texas legislature and many other Texans claimed that slavery was not morally wrong. According to the State Gazette the Texas legislature said that slavery was not wrong. Because slavery was not wrong no one had to be worried about ending slavery. The north could keep to its self and not pay attention to slavery. Slavery could not be morally wrong and practically right at the same time. The bible …show more content…

Without cotton, Texas could go into poverty. In the Dallas Herald, Judge Reagan gave a speech and said that slavery was necessary for the survival of the cotton economy in Texas. Without cotton Texas would experience poverty. Campbell revealed that slavery came to Texas mainly for economic purposes. Stephan F. Austin and people like him believed that it was much easier to farm the land using slaves, instead of using paid workers. The land did not cost very much money, so as a result poor people were not that interested in being hired as a laborer. As a result, slaves were needed. Texans believed that without slaves the cotton industry would not last. People like Stephan F. Austin saw the land as being so cheap that they would not be able to hire anyone. The newspapers and Campbell show that Texans could not understand why other people would see slavery as being

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Austin was one of the main advocates for slavery. Stephen F. Austin often argued that slavery was important and imperative for the development of Texas. Austin also argued that slavery was very lucrative for the state in terms of growing and selling crops and improving Texas with different buildings, roads, and other structures. “Virginia-born Stephen F. Austin, for example, spoke at times as a critic of slavery and protested that he objected to the institution in principle, but he personally held slaves and did more than any other individual to establish slavery in Mexican Texas. ”(45)

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Contradicting William jay 's slavery as a reason for the war, John D. P. Fuller proposes in his The Slavery Question and the Movement to Acquire Mexico, 1846-1848 that toward the start of the Mexican War, the common conviction was that domain procured from Mexico would enter the union with slavery, yet after sectional controversies had erupted, most Southerners turned out contrary to obtaining of new region. Although many of the people who supported the annexation of texas were slaveholders, they were not primarily motivated by the establishment of slavery in a new state rather it was for manifest destiny since also these southerners were from the southwest. The annexation raced many debates and conflicts and as Fuller said it was not

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The black community utilized the documents of the United States to push abolitionists’ logic; white slaveholders, however, were able to counter the reasoning using the Constitution as well. According to many slavery supporters, the Constitution provided United States citizens with the “right to life, liberty, and property”, which meant that slavery was constitutionally sound if they saw slaves as human property. They did not see slaves as human beings rather as a labor force created by God to help increase production. Furthermore, slave owners created many other arguments to hold onto the roots of slavery. Some used the bible as a reason to continue enslavement; many believed that the impoverished status of free people and slaves was enough of a justification for slavery.

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An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821-1865. By Randolph B. Campbell. (Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 1989.) In An Empire for Slavery, published in 1989, Randolph B. Campbell discusses how slavery was instrumental in the forming of the state of Texas.

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Slavery, the “peculiar institution” of the United States, has been a heated subject for many years. Even though slavery remained in some parts of the world, opposition to it grew. The leading argument was that slavery was immoral and that it violated the constitution. Three main reasons for opposition to slavery were social issues, the press, and political views.

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An Empire for Slavery is a book that was written by Randolph and Campbell in 1989 this book talks more about slavery in Texas. Looking at the Peculiar Institution in Texas, it has been argued out that the Texan historians were generally against the issue of slavery, and hence they sent a deaf hear to the benefits which were being associated with slavery. In their works, the two gentlemen challenged this belief by stating that slavery was crucial in this society since these slaves played a big role in providing labor which therefore means that they contribute to the economic development of that country. Therefore, this review will take an in-depth look at slavery as explained by Randolf, its impacts on the society and how the community viewed the phenomenon. In this

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Lots of people lived in and enjoyed Texas back in the 1800’s. Texans felt extremely loyal to Texas since it freed a lot of people after the Mexican War. However, it felt like the North was trying to take away some of their rights and privileges and Texans did not like that at all. Texas had previously fought for their independence and they did not want

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The South had very little industry. It was based off of an agrarian economy (Document B). Slaves picked cotton off the plantation and the farmers sold the cotton to make money (Document A). The Southern weren't able to keep their money without slaves working for free. Slavery was vital in the South for the economy.

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“182,556 slaves populated Texas and over 30% of the population was made up of slaves,” (Document A). Slaves were a big part of the south's economy, farmers used them to help gather, plant, and harvest crops. “ If they come up to Austin they will take whatever they see that they want such as Bacon, corn horses, wagons, beef, and negroes, and and anything,” (Document D). Plus, the south didn't think that African Americans were important and deserved to be anything else then servants. “That they were rightfully held as an inferior and dependent race,” (Document B).

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This was also coupled with the “determination of some expansionists to bring Texas into the union as another slave state and increase the economic gains that would result from the expansion of slavery into the area” . Furthermore, as more and more people continuously began populating into Texas, they began to disregard the authority of government officials from both Mexico and Texas. As a newspaper from the time period states “It is uncertain to many living in the newly occupied Texas territory, as to the attitudes held by Mexicans of the new American presence in the area, and whether or not it is positive or negative, cannot yet be judged” . The uncertain feelings that were oblivious to settlers of this time quickly became negative as newcomers continued to break Mexican rules and laws including those against slavery. The actions committed by Americans in the new area grew in number as did the complaints by Mexican citizens of their new neighbors.

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The annexation of Texas was a contentious issue in the United States. According to the reading, the critics argued about the consequences of annexing Texas would be "the wealth and cares brought by expansion" would make the US government certain to die. Moreover, others assumed that "expansions was a scheme by southern slave owners to add new slave states and thus increase their power" (p134). On the other hand, the opponents such as Walker mentioned the threatened consequences of not annexing Texas such as abolishing slavery problems, "the country would face economic depression, civil war, and dismemberments; and America's most powerful enemy would be handed a potent weapon with which to menace the nation's security ... should annexation

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Slave owners would use the legal system to justify their actions. “We were delivered up to the sheriff, Mr Joseph Graham, and by him placed in jail” (Douglass, Pg. 68). The quote above references when Douglass almost escaped his masters. The sheriff taking in the nearly escaped slaves shows (at least at the time) slavery was legal. The law on the side of the slave owners shows that the slave owners could have thought of what they were doing as right.

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They believed that an economy based on cotton and slavery would continue to prosper". This shows that Slaves and cotton were very important to the Southerners. In conclusion, slaves in the south were important people because they managed to do so much stuff with the least number of things. For example, they had their own cultures and they kept that religion going on even through the roughest times in their lives like being separated from their family, or even getting a whipping for no reason. These slaves went through so much and they are strong people who couldn't make history the way it is now and

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Southern planters were under the mistaken notion that slaves were necessary to cultivate cash crops. Because of this belief, they thought that slaves were necessary to maintain their economy and, thus, their way of life. However, the South would have been more productive and profitable had a free-market society existed, instead of slavery, for two main reasons: 1) Under slavery, there was no motivation to work. Had they been paid, or at least indentured servants, they would have reason and motivation to work. Thus, paid labor would have resulted in greater productivity and employee morale.

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