names of families that owned slaves in texas

4807 Caroline If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe. Amid talk of reparations, political figures contend with their slave-owning ancestors. WebIn 1845, there were about 30,000 enslaved people in Texas. 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. After, ORourke shared his reaction on the blog site Medium. Cotton. Americans of European extraction and enslaved people contributed greatly to the population growth in the Republic and State of Texas. A relatively few slaves, perhaps as many as 2,000 between 1835 and 1865, came through the illegal African trade. Sugar plantations. 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. In the fall of 1835, a group of almost 100enslaved people staged an uprising along the Brazos River after they heard rumors of approaching Mexican troops. Field hands generally labored "from sun to sun" five days a week and half a day on Saturday. 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. WebThe U.S. census tracked the growth that followed, reporting 207 enslaved people in 1850 who made up 8% of the countys population and 1,074 enslaved people owned by 228 WebAnd for greater certainty I here give the names of the slaves mentioned and intended to pass to said children by this my 5th bequeath to the best of my resolution, to wit, 1 Scott 2 WebLand Records Names & Surnames Slavery & Servitude Claim Listing Sankofagen Wiki run by Karmella Haynes has a list of Arkansas Plantations and Slave Names listed by county, for counties formed prior to 1865. FS Library 976.4 D3sl, Garrett-Nelson, LaBrenda. Religion and music were also key elements of slave culture. It gives the county and location, a description of the house, the number of acres owned, and the number of cabins of former slaves. Randolph B. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 18211865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989). Once established as an economic institution, slavery became a key social institution as well. Brewer, John Mason. They survived with the help of Castillo's faith healing among the Indians. For example, it subjected them to punishments, such as working on road gangs if convicted of crimes, similar to those of enslaved rather than free men. WebI believe it to be written in the late 19th to early 20th century and I provide it here as a historical article on slavery. Alfred V. Davis, Concordia, Louisiana: 500+ slaves. The news organization used documents from Ancestry.com to confirm the connection. Vol 3 contains contains mostly translated summaries documenting the Black experience in Texas. 5 Resources. Slavery formally ended in Texas after June 19, 1865 (Juneteenth), when Gen. Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston with occupying federal forces and announced emancipation. Although Estevanico was still enslaved, after these events the Spaniards treated him more as an equal. Levi Anderson 1 13. [24] Fifty percent of the enslaved people worked either alone or in groups of fewer than 20 on small farms ranging from the Nueces River to the Red River, and from the Louisiana border to the edge of the western settlements of San Antonio, Austin, Waco, and Fort Worth. In 1860, mass hysteria ensued after a series of fires erupted throughout the state. Some slaveowners did not free their enslaved people until late in 1865. Although Mexican governments did not adopt any consistent or effective policy to prevent slavery in Texas, their threats worried slaveholders and possibly retarded the immigration of planters from the Old South. 25 percent. Marie Therese Metoyer. A group of enslaved people killed the sheriff of Gonzales when he attempted to stop their going to Matamoros. Early and family life Other FamilySearch collections not included: More collections are available in the FamilySearch Catalog. A survey of Texas in 1834 found that the department of Bexar, which was mostly made up of Tejanos, had exported no goods. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger and over 2,000 federal troops arrived at Galveston Island to take possession of the state and enforce the two-year-old Emancipation Proclamation. [33], Although most enslaved people lived in rural areas, more than 1000 resided in both Galveston and Houston by 1860, with several hundred in other large towns. [20], Many enslaved people who escaped from slaveholders in Texas or in the United States joined various East Texas Indian tribes. At first, the practice involved primarily Apaches; eventually Comanche children were likewise "adopted" as servants. There were two questionnaires: one for free inhabitants and one for slaves. Texas was a colonial territory, then part of Mexico, later Republic in 1836, and U.S. state in 1845. These records often include full names, former masters and plantations, and current residences. [11] In 1809, the Commandant General of the Interior Provinces, Nemesio Salcedo, ordered the Texas-Louisiana border to be closed to everyone, regardless of ethnic background. [52] By the late 19th century, Texas passed other Jim Crow laws. A Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Dallas Genealogical Society Angelina County, Texas, Slave Owners. Meredith Calhoun of Rapides, Louisiana: 709 slaves. [17] At the same time, however, Mexico offered full citizenship to free blacks, including land ownership and other privileges. Most slaves, however, supplemented their basic diet with sweet potatoes, garden vegetables, wild game, and fish and were thus adequately fed. They often made matches with slaves on neighboring farms and spent as much time as possible together, even if one owner or the other could not be persuaded to arrange for husband and wife to live on the same place. However, the north central region held much excellent cotton land, and slavery would probably have developed rapidly there once rail transportation was built. The number 5.2 Cemeteries. 3 (Sep., 1898) (pp. By the end of 1845, when Texas joined the United States, the state was home to at least 30,000 enslaved people. In general, Texas slaves continued to work and live as they had before the war. 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. Truly 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 resembled that of the Old South's famed Black Belt. The Mexican government was opposed to slavery, but even so, there 3 Vol. White society as a whole in antebellum Texas was dominated by its slaveholding minority. 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. [35] Enslaved people often lived similarly to poor whites in Texas, especially those new to the territory and just getting started. Meals often consisted of bread, molasses, sweet potatoes, hominy, and beef, chicken, and pork. Before The Guardian interviewed him for the story, he said neither he nor Amy knew that side of their heritage. Samuel Murray 3 9. . For the first time, free persons were listed individually instead of by family. The census for 1840 in Henderson County included 4,662 whites, 466 slaves, 35 free blacks. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere. You can also look up Charleston Manifests by Slave Owner [table striped="true" During the pre-Civil War statehood period, a majority of Texans were. In part due to the trade in enslaved people, New Orleans was the fourth largest city in the US in 1840 and one of the wealthiest. The history of slavery in Texas began slowly at first during the first few phases in Texas' history. 4 Cotton plantations. Freedmen Towns endstream endobj 510 0 obj <. 3 Research Strategy. Socially, slaveholders, at least the large planters, embodied an ideal to most Texans. This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 11:16. [29], The following year all those who had been living in Texas at the time of independence were allowed to remain. 1 Introduction. [42] Two years later, Colorado County hanged several enslaved people and drove one white man and several Mexicans from the area after uncovering a plot to equip 200enslaved people with pistols and knives to escape into Mexico. This company was created to assist African American soldiers of the Civil War and freed slaves. The first census in Austin's colony in 1825 showed 443 slaves in a total population of 1,800. 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. See the Heritage Exchange Portal for more information on how to document slaves and slave owners. Andrew J. Torget, Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800-1850 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015). Charles Heyward of Colleton, South Carolina: 491 slaves. Slavery was present in Spanish America and Mexico prior to the arrival of American settlers, but it was not highly developed, and the Spanish did not rely on it for labor during their years in Spanish Texas. Sugar and cotton plantations. Slavery may have thus hindered economic modernization in Texas. The system of school support was inadequate, and schools for racial minorities were seriously underfunded. Black Texans: A History of African Americans in Texas, 1528-1995 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996, 2nd Edition). For example, Jared Groce arrived from Alabama in 1822 with ninety slaves and set up a cotton plantation on the Brazos River. This was in the slave owners' self-interest, for marriage encouraged reproduction under socially acceptable conditions, and slave children were valuable. Web1800 Slave Owners 1. Gleaning Information about Enslaved Ancestors from Probate Files NGS Magazine 48 #2 (April-June 2022): 2327. 5.4 Church Records. WebTexas Slave Codes 1821. Berry says McConnells refusal to acknowledge his history was interesting. She says the senators family history may have come to light because of his opposition to legislation related to reparations for descendants of enslaved people. 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. O. J. Morgan, Carroll, Louisiana: 500+ slaves. Marie Therese Metoyer was born into slavery but died a rich woman. [30] As planters increased cotton production, they rapidly increased the purchase and transport of enslaved workers. Many planters, however, lost part of their workforce temporarily to the Confederate Army, which impressed one-quarter of the enslaved on each plantation to construct defensive earthworks for the Texas coast and to drive military supply wagons. Lambert Clayton 1 15. The General Provisions of the Constitution forbade any owner of enslaved people from freeing them without the consent of Congress and forbade Congress from making any law that restricted the slave trade or emancipated slaves. The Comanche sold any captured enslaved people to the Cherokee and Creek in Indian Territory, as they were both slaveholding tribes. 2021 Texas Standard. "Mike" Campbell, Cotton. To circumvent the law, numerous Anglo-American colonists converted their enslaved people to indentured servants, but with life terms. 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. Free persons of African descent were required to petition the. Few battles took place in Texas, which acted as a supply state to the Confederacy. WebThe enslavement of African Americans was the curse of early American life, and Texas was no exception. Although not considered equals in the tribes, they were generally treated well. During the war, slavery in Texas was little affected, and prices for enslaved people remained high until the last few months of the war. There is at least one positive outcome that could come from reckoning with slave-owning family members of the past. [13], The United States outlawed the importation of enslaved people in 1808, but domestic trade flourished, especially in New Orleans during the antebellum decades. Politically, slaveholders dominated public office holding at all levels. Thomas Justice 2 11. Many enslaved people ran away. One result was the Turtle Bayou Resolutions, which were an explanation of the grievances that had led to the disturbances. We need your support because we are a non-profit organization that relies upon contributions from our community in order to record and preserve the history of our state. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/slavery. 5.3 Census Records. Planters had hundreds of enslaved people arrested and questioned forcefully. 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. 3536 Grand Avenue New Orleans was the center of this trade in the Deep South, but there were slave dealers in Galveston and Houston, too. Phone: (214) 565-9026, African American Community Archives Program, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc.Willie Lee Gay - H-Town Chapter11100 Braesridge, Suite 2202Houston, Texas 77071aahgshtown@yahoo.com, Houston Museum of African American Culture Most escapees joined friendly American Indian tribes, but others settled in the East Texas forests. [41] See Underground Railroad South to Mexico. By 1840 there were 11,323 enslaved people in Texas. endstream endobj startxref This did not mean that the majority of slaves were content with their status. The low wages the enslaved person would receive made repayment impossible, and the debt would be inherited, even though no enslaved person would receive wages until age eighteen. Over 30 of the fugitives made it safely to freedom in Mexico. [12] His nephew, governor of Texas Manuel Mara de Salcedo, interpreted the order as allowing slaveholders from the United States to enter Texas to reclaim runaways. Search for "FREEDMEN - TEXAS" in the Subjects search bar to find. East Texas Research Center. [34], Plantation enslaved people generally lived in one or two-room log cabins. The number likely would have been larger but for the attitude of the Mexican federal and state governments. A project of the University of Virginia, this database includes a sampling of some of the 2,300+ interviews Austin: Encino Press, 1974. By 1865 there were an estimated 250,000enslaved people in Texas. %PDF-1.6 % States that had used it adopted other means to keep most African Americans from voting. Daina Ramey Berry is a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, and says addressing ones lineage of slavery is difficult, but ORourkes response helped bring the issue out into the open. The number of enslaved people in the state increased dramatically as the Union Army occupied parts of Arkansas and Louisiana. Alwyn Barr. (F. Lewis/Archive Photos via Getty Images) W hen Americans think of the slave trade, they usually imagine ships pulling into East Coast harbors not Texan ones. 5.1 Biographies. "The Texas Slave Insurrection of 1860," by William White. [21] Enslaved people often fought against the Comanche tribe, however. Economically, slave owners had a disproportionately large share of the state's wealth and produced virtually all of the cash crops. ILester G. BugbeePolitical Science QuarterlyVol. There they were raised to be servants. Nevertheless, slavery was a curse to Texans, Black and White alike, until 1865 and beyond. Africans and the descendants of Africans and Indians were excluded from the class of 'persons' having rights. Elisha Worthington of Chicot, Arkansas: 529 slaves. Favorable conditions for free blacks continued into the 1830s. [37] Urban enslaved people often had greater freedoms and opportunity. [22] From 1849 until 1860, Texas tried to convince the United States government to negotiate a treaty with Mexico to permit extradition of runaways, but it did not succeed. Slave owners and male If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. He tried to create a Republic of Sierra Madre in Northern Mexico but was defeated by the Mexican Army.[41]. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. Legally slaves were categorized as chattel (moveable property), but they were men, women and children who clearly despised their condition of servitude. 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. In the 1830s, the British consul estimated that approximately 500enslaved people had been illegally imported into Texas. WebAfrican American Resources for Texas. P.O. An excellent source is the Freedmans Savings and Trust Company (visit the African American Freedman's Savings and Trust Company Records page to learn more). The promise of ultimate deliverance helped many to resist the psychological assault of slavery. Most Whites thought that Blacks were inferior and wanted to be sure that they remained in an inferior social position. All slaves had to live with the knowledge that their families could be broken up, and yet the basic social unit survived. They had no property rights themselves and no legal rights of marriage and family. WebReturn to Slave Manifests main page Click on each Slave name to view information on that voyage. African Americans immediately started raising legal challenges to disfranchisement, but early Supreme Court cases, such as Giles v. Harris (1903), upheld the states. 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. 0 Sizable numbers, however, came through the domestic slave trade. [4] His account, along with those of the others, led to more extensive Spanish exploration of the new territory. [46], Unlike in other Southern states, only a small number of enslaved Texans, estimated at 47, joined the Union Army. He and his wife Mary moved there themselves and he died Update 12/7/2016(CLM): I have found various references of military rank from Captain to Brigadier General. [3] American Indians captured and enslaved the party, putting them to work as laborers. [11] Under Austin's development scheme, each settler was allowed to purchase an additional 50 acres (20ha) of land for each enslaved person he brought to the territory. Most slaves in Texas worked: On plantations and farms. [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. [8] There was intermarriage among blacks, Indians and Europeans. Marr. Shortly before 1858 he moved from Mississippi to Texas with his wife, Mary, and five children. Abraham Kuykendall 5 5. Of course, because Texas did not consider itself part of the United States, Lincolns proclamation could have no effect until federal troops gained control of the state. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was confronted with similar information about his ancestors this month, but had a different reaction. The news organization used documents from, to confirm the connection. Welcome to Geni, home of the world's largest family tree. The census of 1850 reported 58,161 slaves, 27.4 percent of the 212,592 people in Texas, and the census of 1860 enumerated 182,566 slaves, 30.2 percent of the total population. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. Slavery was thus a constant source of tension in the lives of slaveholders. Free and runaway blacks had great difficulty finding jobs in Texas. In 1860, the biggest slaveholders were Robert and D.G. Trying to get around the Gulf Coast, they built five barges, but in November 1528 these went aground off the coast of Texas. [24], Forty percent of Texas enslaved people lived on plantations along the Gulf Coast and in the East Texas river valleys, where they cultivated cotton, corn, and some sugar. [47] The last battle of the war was fought at Palmito Ranch near Brownsville, in 1865. In 1829, President Vicente Guerrero issued a decree abolishing slavery in all of Mexico, but within months he exempted Texas from that order. Slavery was also vital socially because it reflected basic racial views. [8] There was intermarriage among blacks, Indians and Europeans. D. F. Kenner, Ascension, Louisiana: 473 slaves. Geni requires JavaScript! The majority of adult slaves were field hands, but a sizable minority worked as skilled craftsmen, house servants, and livestock handlers. hbbd```b``N+$,>D2E6H0Y N `sA$C8t?"A"j`&`sJ'zziHg` ` -q [11], In 1829, Mexico abolished slavery, but it granted an exception until 1830 to Texas. Currently, there are only plantations listed for Chicot County, Jefferson County, Ouachita County, and Phillips County. On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act as unconstitutional,[55] a ruling which was shortly followed the implementation of Voter i.d. The supposed "poison" found in enslaved quarters was baby powder. WebList of the largest American slave owners The list below is compiled from the 1860 United States Slave Census Schedule. The son of Capt. In the fewer than fifty years between 1821 and 1865, the "Peculiar Institution," as Southerners called it, spread over the eastern two-fifths of the state, an area nearly as large as Alabama and Mississippi combined. University of Texas (San Antonio). The Comanche indiscriminately killed enslaved people and their white owners during raids. 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. PARENTAGE OF MARGARET FRENCH SLAUGHTER IN QUESTION. After the Texas Revolution ended in 1836, the Constitution of the Republic of Texas made slavery legal. WebWhat percentage of Texas families owned slaves? Most lived with a certain amount of fear of their supposedly happy servants, for the slightest threat of a slave rebellion could touch off a violent reaction. Samuel Allen 1 12. Slaves increased their minimal self-determination by taking what they could get from their owners and then pressing for additional latitude. The following information is included: The records are categorized by county. Thus, slavery was not the immediate cause of the revolution, but the institution was always there as an issue, and the revolution made it more secure than ever in Texas. Length of residence (in state, in county, in precinct), General Remarks--race is noted when the registrant was "colored". Slave labor produced cotton (and sugar on the lower Brazos River) for profit and also cultivated the foodstuffs necessary for self-sufficiency. The evidence is strong, however, that in Texas slaves were generally profitable as a business investment for individual slaveholders. 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. The issue of slavery became a source of contention between the Anglo-American settlers and Spanish governors.