Slavery

Slavery in Texas lasted less than fifty years from 1821 to 1865. Texas only had 5% of the total slave population of the United States and about two-fifths of them were in the eastern part before 1865. Most of Texas was settled by Southerners, which they would bring with them their slaves and re-establish their homes in Texas. The slave population increased in 1850 with slaves being about 30% of the state’s population. The rich soil in Texas allowed the institution of slavery to become an important aspect for slave holders to make a profit.

Specific Links:

Slavery in Texas
Texas Slavery
The Political Graveyard: Politicians Born in Slavery
Varner-Hogg / Patton Plantation Slavery
Texas Slave Narratives

Select Bibliography:

Abigail Curlee, A Study of Texas Slave Plantations, 1822-1865 (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1932).

George P. Rawick, ed., The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, Supplement, Series 2 (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1979).

George Ruble Woolfolk, "Cotton Capitalism and Slave Labor in Texas," Southwestern Social Science Quarterly 37 (June 1956).

Lester G. Bugbee, "Slavery in Early Texas," Political Science Quarterly 13 (September, December 1898). Randolph B. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821-1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989).