Slavery was a foundational institution in Texas from the moment of independence through the antebellum era. Although Mexico had abolished slavery prior to 1836, the legal framework of the Republic of Texas reinstituted and protected the practice, aligning the new nation with the plantation economies of the American South.
When Texas joined the United States in 1845, slavery a party of its society, economy, legal framework, and political identity—an alignment that deepened in the two decades leading up to the Civil War.
Origins: From Mexican Abolition to Texan Reintroduction
Slavery in Texas predates the Republic era, with roots stretching back to the Spanish colonial period. Under Spanish rule, slavery was legally permitted, though it operated within a different legal and moral framework than in the American South. Spanish law—including the Siete Partidas and later colonial ordinances—recognized slavery but also afforded certain limited rights to enslaved persons, including legal personhood, the right to marry, to own some property, and to purchase freedom.
While enslaved Africans and Afro-descendants were present in colonial Texas, the institution was never as widespread or economically central as it later became under Anglo-American settlement. Most enslaved individuals were used in domestic service, ranching, or artisanal trades rather than plantation agriculture. In addition to African slavery, Native American captivity and forced labor—often through informal or extralegal means—also formed part of the region’s early coercive labor systems.
Following independence from Spain in 1821, the Mexican government moved quickly to abolish slavery, culminating in national emancipation in 1829. However, enforcement in distant provinces like Texas was inconsistent, and American settlers continued to bring enslaved people into the region under legal fictions such as “indenture” contracts. This friction over slavery—between Mexican law and Anglo settler practice—was a key point of tension leading to the Texas Revolution.
Friction over slavery was a significant, if understated, cause of the Texas Revolution. In the aftermath of independence, the new Republic explicitly authorized slavery as a legal institution.
The Constitution of the Republic of Texas (1836) forbade free people of African descent from residing in the country without legislative permission and barred Congress from emancipating enslaved persons or preventing immigrants from bringing them into Texas. Enslaved people were considered chattel property, and slaveowners were guaranteed protection of their “right of property in slaves.”
Growth of the Slave Population in the Republic Era
During the Republic period (1836–1845), the enslaved population in Texas grew rapidly. In 1836, the estimated number of enslaved persons was fewer than 5,000. By the final year of the Republic, the number had exceeded 30,000. Most enslaved people labored in cotton production in East Texas, though some were used for domestic work or hired out in towns.
The Republic government levied a head tax on enslaved persons, and county-level censuses often counted them separately from free persons, reinforcing their legal status as property. Runaway slave laws were passed and enforced, and Texas negotiated fugitive slave treaties with nearby Indian nations.
Most enslaved Texans lived on small to medium-sized farms, often with fewer than twenty enslaved people per owner. This created a more intimate but no less brutal form of enslavement, with enslaved persons working alongside owners and enduring constant surveillance. Field laborers typically rose before sunrise and worked long hours planting, tending, and harvesting cotton or corn. Meals consisted of simple fare—often cornbread, salt pork, and molasses—issued in rationed amounts by the owner. Clothing was coarse and issued seasonally, while medical care, when provided, was typically minimal and utilitarian.
Despite harsh conditions, enslaved people in Texas sought to preserve family ties, spiritual traditions, and cultural practices. Many entered informal marriages, even though these had no legal standing. Children born to enslaved women were considered property of the owner, and family separations were common due to sales or inheritance.
Enslaved Texans developed religious communities that blended African spiritual traditions with Christian belief, often gathering secretly in woods or cabins for prayer meetings. Music, storytelling, and oral history played key roles in preserving collective identity and offering emotional resilience in the face of bondage.
Slavery in the 1845 Annexation and State Constitution
Texas entered the Union in 1845 as a slave state. The U.S. annexation resolution explicitly allowed Texas to retain its public lands and guaranteed that slavery could continue unimpeded.⁴ The Constitution of 1845 echoed and expanded on the proslavery provisions of the earlier Republic charter. It prohibited the Legislature from passing laws emancipating enslaved people without the consent of owners and barred free Blacks from voting, holding office, or serving as jurors.
This constitutional entrenchment made Texas one of the most legally rigid slave states in the Union, reinforcing the role of slavery not just as an economic engine but as a defining legal norm.
The Political and Economic Role of Slavery
In the antebellum period, slavery became inseparable from Texas politics. Planters and slaveholders dominated the state legislature and used their power to ensure low taxes on slave property, strict patrol laws, and favorable land policies that encouraged the spread of cotton plantations. Slave labor fueled Texas’s entry into the global cotton market—particularly through ports like Galveston—and shaped settlement patterns in the fertile counties east of the Trinity River.
Efforts to expand slavery westward—particularly into the Hill Country and the Rio Grande valley—met with more resistance, both environmental and cultural. German immigrants in Central Texas, for example, often opposed slavery on moral and economic grounds, contributing to early divisions within the state.
Legal Framework and Policing
Slavery in Texas was regulated by a mix of state statutes and county-level enforcement. Enslaved persons could not legally marry, testify in court against White persons, own property, or leave their plantations without written permission. Resistance or escape attempts were punished with physical violence or sale to harsher conditions further east.
In many counties, “patrol laws” mandated that groups of White men regularly inspect enslaved quarters and suppress gatherings. Some counties issued formal rewards for the capture of runaways or published newspaper notices describing escaped persons in detail.
Texas law also required that manumissions—when permitted—occur only outside the state. Free persons of African descent were required to leave Texas within a specified time or face re-enslavement.⁷
Resistance and Rebellion
Enslaved Texans engaged in quiet and overt forms of resistance, from work slowdowns and tool sabotage to escape and rebellion plots. One of the most notable fears among White Texans was the threat of a slave uprising. In 1860, amid sectional tensions, panic erupted in North Texas after a series of fires in Denton and other towns. White residents blamed abolitionists and enslaved people, leading to the execution of dozens of Black Texans without formal trial.
Though often silenced in the historical record, the stories of resistance—of flight, rebellion, survival, and community formation—remain a crucial part of understanding slavery in early Texas.
Early Challenges to Slavery: Limits and Contradictions
Even in its heyday, slavery in Texas operated alongside contradictions. The frontier nature of the state sometimes made enforcement difficult, and the diversity of immigrant groups—including German abolitionists and Mexican-descended Texans—complicated the racial and legal picture.
In addition, Texas’s proximity to Mexico created a constant threat of flight for enslaved people. Mexico, unlike the United States, had abolished slavery and offered refuge to runaways. Slaveowners in South Texas sometimes organized militia expeditions to recover escapees across the border.
Emancipation and the End of Slavery in Texas
At the height of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring all enslaved persons in Confederate territory to be free. In spite of this, Texas remained largely unaffected at the time due to its geographic isolation and continued Confederate control.
It was not until June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston with federal troops, that emancipation was publicly enforced in Texas. Granger’s General Order No. 3 declared that “all slaves are free,” triggering celebrations among the Black population and the beginning of a long, uncertain transition to freedom. This date became known as Juneteenth, now observed as a state and federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in Texas.
Full legal abolition came with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in December 1865, which formally outlawed slavery nationwide. For many formerly enslaved Texans, however, emancipation brought new forms of hardship, including Black Codes, forced labor contracts, and racial violence, shaping the difficult course of Reconstruction in the state.
Sources
- Constitution of the Republic of Texas (1836), General Provisions.
- Campbell, Randolph B., An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821–1865 (Louisiana State University Press, 1989).
- Texas Laws, Acts of the Republic, 1837–1845.
- Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States, 28th U.S. Congress, 1845.
- Constitution of the State of Texas (1845), Article VIII.
- Jordan, Terry G., German Seed in Texas Soil: Immigrant Farmers in Nineteenth-Century Texas.
- Texas Acts 1850, “An Act to Prevent Free Persons of Color from Residing in This State.”
- Moneyhon, Carl H., “The Texas Troubles of 1860,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 86 (1982).
- Barr, Alwyn, Black Texans: A History of African Americans in Texas, 1528–1995.
