names of families that owned slaves in texas

[38] Unlike most southern states, Texas did not explicitly ban education of enslaved people, but most slaveholders did not allow the practice. The civil rights movement led to the U.S. Congress and President Lyndon Johnson passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protected the rights of all citizens to integrated public facilities and enforcement of voting rights. A service of the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, After The Debates, Beto ORourkes Fundraising Slumped, While Julin Castros Jumped, Billionaire Ross Perot Remembered As Patriot, Family Man, Experts Say The Current Plastic Industry Boom Will Be A Bust In Five Years, News Roundup: New Initiative Aims To Register More Texans With Disabilities To Vote, San Antonio Migrant Resource Center Has Helped 30,000 Since March. Gleaning Information about Enslaved Ancestors from Probate Files NGS Magazine 48 #2 (April-June 2022): 2327. Many slaves may have escaped such punishment, but every slave lived with the knowledge that he or she could be whipped at his owner's discretion. White Texans were fearful about revolts, and as in other southern states, rumors of uprisings took hold rapidly, often in times of economic and social tension. Slavery in Texas was not a matter of content, well-cared for servants as idealized in some views of the Old South. 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. Several confessed to a plot by white abolitionists to avenge John Brown's execution by burning food supplies and poisoning slaveowners. 1 Introduction. Slaves adjusted their behavior to the conditions of servitude in a variety of ways. Joseph Henry 8 3. 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. At first, the practice involved primarily Apaches; eventually Comanche children were likewise "adopted" as servants. Shortly before 1858 he moved from Mississippi to Texas with his wife, Mary, and five children. They could be bought and sold, mortgaged, and hired out. [34], Plantation enslaved people generally lived in one or two-room log cabins. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry. 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. WebTruly 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 [51], The long-term effects of slavery can be seen to this day in the state's demographics. Randolph B. [46] Anyone convicted of providing arms to enslaved people during the war was sentenced to between two and five years of hard labor. Web1800 Slave Owners 1. Slave auction in Austin, Texas, circa 1850-1860. There was an auction block next to the Menger Hotel and near the Alamo. Levin R. Marshall, Concordia (2), Louisiana: 248 slaves. Eliza Denwoo Henry David Rhodes, planter, was born in Alabama about 1819. Slave owners and male Sugar. The emancipated slaves celebrated joyously (if Whites allowed it), but then they had to find out just what freedom meant. They were not, and even the best-treated slaves dreamed of freedom. Both the Baptist and Methodist churches appointed missionaries to the enslaved people and allowed active participation by them. [11] To encourage citizens to report unlawful activity, most southern states allowed anyone who informed on a slave trader to receive half of what the imported enslaved people would earn at auction. Texas did not, however, employ techniques common in other Southern states such as complex voter registration rules and literacy tests; even the "white primary" was not implemented statewide until 1923.[53]. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. WebThe Confederate gov ernment required many slave holders to provide slaves to work at military fortifications and other facilities throughout the South. West Feliciana: 127 slaves. WebThe Neals, Foxes, and Timberlakes were all white families of at least moderate wealth that was dependent upon the forced labor of enslaved people. A. Anderson County, Texas, Slave Owners. Field hands generally labored "from sun to sun" five days a week and half a day on Saturday. ILester G. BugbeePolitical Science QuarterlyVol. 3 Research Strategy. WebUnited States Census (Slave Schedule), 1850 Name index and images of slave schedules listing slave owners and only age, gender and color data of the slaves in cesus states or William Fletcher 4 6. Profiles are placed in this category with this text [[Category:Texas, Slave Owners]] . The Mexican government was opposed to slavery, but even so, there Online collections of Freedman's Bank records: The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was created by the US government in 1865 until 1872 to assist former slaves in the southern United States. [7] The 1783 census for all of Texas listed a total of 36enslaved people. In other words, it was an underlying cause of the struggle in 18351836. [20], Many enslaved people who escaped from slaveholders in Texas or in the United States joined various East Texas Indian tribes. 25 percent. 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. On the other hand, the legislature created political segregation; it classified free residents with at least 1/8 African heritage (the equivalent to one great-grandparent) as a separate category, and abrogated their citizens' rights, prohibiting them from voting, owning property, testifying against whites in court, or intermarrying with whites. Later he was given leadership of a Spanish expedition. Stephen F. Austin made this clear in 1824: The principal product that will elevate us from poverty is cotton, he wrote, and we cannot do this without the help of slaves. (see BLACKS IN COLONIAL SPANISH TEXAS andANGLO-AMERICAN COLONIZATION). The number Slavery thus linked Texas inextricably with the Old South. [17] Most of the settlers Austin recruited came from the southern slave-owning portions of the United States. 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. Before being brought to Texas, enslaved persons signed contracts with their masters by which they technically became free but, in return for their "freedom," agreed that they and their children would, in effect, be indentured to the master for life. It was Sarah Devereux that kept the plantation producing after Julien's death. 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. Length of residence (in state, in county, in precinct), General Remarks--race is noted when the registrant was "colored". 2021 Texas Standard. Texas, Special Voter Registration, 1867-1869. 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. In 1751, after three Frenchmen were found to have settled along the Trinity River to trade with the American Indians, the Spanish arrested and expelled them from the colony. 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. States that had used it adopted other means to keep most African Americans from voting. 7 rolls, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, New England Historic Genealogical Society, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library at Colonial Williamsburg, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Libraries, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research, Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, Natchitoches Genealogical and Historical Association, https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/index.php?title=African_American_Resources_for_Texas&oldid=5253354. Ninety percent of the runaways were men, most between ages 20 and 40, because they were best equipped to deal with the long, difficult journey. Slave labor produced cotton (and sugar on the lower Brazos River) for profit and also cultivated the foodstuffs necessary for self-sufficiency. There were a few slaves in Texas while it was a Spanish province, but slavery did not really become an institution of significance in the region until the arrival of AngloAmerican settlers. On the other hand, there was little comfort and no luxury. 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. FS Library976.4 D2rte Vol 1-3. For the first time, free persons were listed individually instead of by family. He tried to create a Republic of Sierra Madre in Northern Mexico but was defeated by the Mexican Army.[41]. Even as Austins colonists began to establish slavery on the lower Brazos and Colorado rivers, the independence of Mexico cast doubt on the future of the institution in Texas. For example, Jared Groce arrived from Alabama in 1822 with ninety slaves and set up a cotton plantation on the Brazos River. Amid talk of reparations, political figures contend with their slave-owning ancestors. Settlements grew and developed more land under cultivation in cotton and other commodities. [34] Unlike in most southern cities, the number of urban enslaved people in Texas grew throughout the 1850s. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. 5.5 Emancipation Records. 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 Handbook of Texas Online, [32] Some enslaved people lived among the cattlemen along the southern Gulf Coast and helped herd sheep and cattle. And when they declared independence and wrote a constitution for their new republic, they made every effort, in the words of a later Texas Supreme Court justice, to "remove all doubt and uneasiness among the citizens of Texas in regard to the tenure by which they held dominion over their slaves." African Americans immediately started raising legal challenges to disfranchisement, but early Supreme Court cases, such as Giles v. Harris (1903), upheld the states. 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. FS Library 973 D25ngs. In 1792 there were 34 blacks and 414 mulattos in Spanish Texas, some of whom were free men and women. Donald S. Strong, "The Rise of Negro Voting in Texas," American Political Science Review Vol. [23] By 1836, there were approximately 5,000 enslaved people in Texas. 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. [33], Many churches in Texas accepted enslaved people as members. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/slavery. Was Section 1325 Of The US Immigration Code Sponsored By A Segregationist Lawmaker? Charles Heyward of Colleton, South Carolina: 491 slaves. The British newspaper The Guardian reported this week that Democratic presidential candidate, and former Texas Congressman Beto ORourke, and his wife Amy, are descendants of slave owners. endstream endobj startxref Greg Abbott says if these corporate tax breaks return, renewable energy should be excluded, At these old-school restaurants in Texas, you feel like its an extension of your home, Gulf of Mexico warming at faster rate than global ocean, study finds. Through wills and census reports found during family research, I have discovered a couple sets of ancestors who owned slaves. J. C. Jenkins of Wilkinson, Mississippi: 523 slaves. The census in AngloAmerican settlers were very alarmed, but within a year the State Congress of Coahuila and Texas, some of its Tejano leaders impressed by the pleas of Austin's colonists concerning the need for labor and others distracted by debates over different issues, passed a law that used the familiar practice of indentured servitude to permit the bringing in of slaves under a different name. John Marshall (17551835), 4th Officials and Employees J. Harleston Read of Georgetown, South Carolina: 511 slaves. 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. Instead, place individual profiles into the category corresponding to the county of Texas where they held enslaved persons. Some felt well-treated by their owners and generally behaved as loyal servants. A project of the University of Virginia, this database includes a sampling of some of the 2,300+ interviews Music and song served to set a pace for work and to express sorrow and hope (see AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHURCHES). Elijah Williamson 3 10. John Burneside of Ascension, Louisiana: 753 slaves; Saint James: 187 slaves. The news organization used documents from, to confirm the connection. 3" on the balcony of Ashton Villa: The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. Thomas Justice 2 11. [11] Anglo-American immigration to the province slowed at this point, with settlers angry about the changing rules. WebAmerican Slave Narratives - An Online Anthology. This fact is not a tribute to the benevolence of slavery, but a testimony to the human spirit of the enslaved African Americans. [1] Estevanico accompanied his enslaver Captain Andrs Dorantes de Carranza on the Narvez expedition, which landed at present-day Tampa. University of Texas (San Antonio). P Denwood was a Quaker and in early days often was in trouble with the court as he was suspected of harboring Quakers on their way up to Maryland. Sources Taken from Szucs, Loretto Dennis, "Research in Census Records." [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. Samuel King 3 7. P.O. The material conditions of slave life in Texas could probably best be described as subsistence, in that most slaves had the food, shelter, and clothing necessary to live and work effectively. Arthur Blake of Charleston, South Carolina: 538 slaves. Leaders of the Mexican nation tended to oppose slavery, in part from revolutionary idealism and in part because slavery was not essential to the new nations economy, and therefore regularly threatened to limit or abolish the institution. In the 1830s, the British consul estimated that approximately 500enslaved people had been illegally imported into Texas. Dallas Genealogical Society A Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Dallas Genealogical Society Thomas Love 7 4. The supposed "poison" found in enslaved quarters was baby powder. [49] Throughout the summer, many East Texas newspapers continued to recommend that slaveholders oppose ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, in the hopes that emancipation could be gradually implemented. Some hid in the bayous for a time, while others lived among the Indians, and a few managed to board ships bound for northern or foreign ports. Legally slaves were categorized as chattel (moveable property), but they were men, women and children who clearly despised their condition of servitude. During the pre-Civil War statehood period, a majority of Texans were. [48], On some plantations, many enslaved people left immediately after hearing of the emancipation, even if their former owners offered to pay them wages. Few battles took place in Texas, which acted as a supply state to the Confederacy. [1] For 1865 and 1866, the section on abandoned and confiscated lands includes the names of the owners of the plantations or homes that were abandoned, confiscated, or leased. In 1829, President Vicente Guerrero issued a decree abolishing slavery in all of Mexico, but within months he exempted Texas from that order. Vol 3 contains contains mostly translated summaries documenting the Black experience in Texas. 42 (June, 1948): 510, 511-12. This was in the slave owners' self-interest, for marriage encouraged reproduction under socially acceptable conditions, and slave children were valuable. William Brittain 1 14. Elisha Worthington of Chicot, Arkansas: 529 slaves. The list below is compiled from the 1860 United States Slave Census Schedule. WebAn 1857 notice advertised the sale of two likely negroesa man named Strut and a woman named Rachel to be held at the courthouse door in Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas, to settle an estate. Slavery was a labor system and although slaves obviously freed their owners from the drudgery of manual labor and daily chores, they were a troublesome property in many ways. Millions of Texans have rare diseases. These records often include full names, former masters and plantations, and current residences. Slavery guaranteed that. [13], The United States outlawed the importation of enslaved people in 1808, but domestic trade flourished, especially in New Orleans during the antebellum decades. The use of slavery expanded in the mid-nineteenth century as White American settlers, primarily from the Southeastern United States, crossed the Sabine River and brought enslaved people with them. The original empresario commission given Moses Austin by Spanish authorities in 1821 did not mention slaves, but when Stephen F. Austin was recognized as heir to his father's contract later that year, it was agreed that settlers could receive eighty acres of land for each enslaved person they brought to the colony. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. The men sold enslaved people to James Bowie and others, who brought them directly to a customhouse and informed on themselves. Tyler, Ronnie C. and Lawrence R. Murphy. [52] By the late 19th century, Texas passed other Jim Crow laws. Others hated their masters and their situation and rebelled by running away or using violence. It contains a very significant number of Texas' African-American population. 509 0 obj <> endobj [47] The last battle of the war was fought at Palmito Ranch near Brownsville, in 1865. Included are land grant requests, wills, and testaments, letters of freedom and contracts of the sale of slaves. . If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe. Masters disciplined their slaves to get the labor they wanted, and yet had to avoid many problems of resistance such as running away and feigning illness. 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. But Texas was once the site of an illegal racket led by pirates who brought slaves into the state and sold them throughout the United 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. The greatest concentration of large slave plantations was along the lower Brazos and Colorado rivers in Brazoria, Matagorda, Fort Bend, and Wharton counties. Texas was a colonial territory, then part of Mexico, later Republic in 1836, and U.S. state in 1845. Slave owners had broad powers of discipline subject only to constitutional provisions that slaves be treated "with humanity" and that punishment not extend to the taking of life and limb. 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 The evidence is strong, however, that in Texas slaves were generally profitable as a business investment for individual slaveholders. [30] As planters increased cotton production, they rapidly increased the purchase and transport of enslaved workers. This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 11:16. You can also look up Charleston Manifests by Slave Owner [table striped="true" Levi Anderson 1 13. I think [the conversation] happens in a number of spaces, Berry says. Slavery was also vital socially because it reflected basic racial views. 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. Sugar. The payrolls for that slave The Brazos department, including Austin's colonies and those of Green DeWitt, had exported 600,000 pesos worth of goods, including 5,000 bales of cotton. [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. John J. Middleton of Beaufort, South Carolina: 530 slaves. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. Alwyn Barr. The slavery categories exist to help with tracking the genealogy and family history of pre-Civil War era slaves. As in other southern states, however, the enslaved people made Christianity their own and they developed strong religious faith. [4] His account, along with those of the others, led to more extensive Spanish exploration of the new territory. 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). Mention is made of Henry being a judge.The following is from Rootsweb: Geni requires JavaScript! DAR# A105070 1. In 1900, African Americans comprised 20% of the state's population of 3,048,710. 3 (Sep., 1898) (pp. The number of enslaved people in the state increased dramatically as the Union Army occupied parts of Arkansas and Louisiana. LEVI JORDAN HISTORY Levi Jordan arrived in Texas in 1848. [citation needed]. 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. In 1860, the biggest slaveholders were Robert and D.G. John Robinson of Madison, Mississippi: 550 slaves. The 1867 Voter Registration includes names of voters who registered in the period between 1867 and 1869. Slaves ate primarily corn and pork, foods that contained enough calories to provide adequate energy but were limited in essential vitamins and minerals. In 1792 there were 34 blacks and [50], Slavery was officially abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment which took effect on December 18, 1865. WebAfrican American Resources for Texas. That year, Mexico made the importation of enslaved people illegal. These films do not appear to contain the names of former slaves. laws in Texas. WebLists of Slave owners with names of slaves 781-----Edward, 660 Michael, 735 Adam, Andrew George, 425, 498, 533, 621 Guy, 498 Jack, 729 Lucy, 729 Peter, 533 Sam, 621 A group of enslaved people killed the sheriff of Gonzales when he attempted to stop their going to Matamoros. FS Library976.4F2bjm 1970 Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), Constitution of the State of Coahuila and Texas, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. Slave clothing was made of cheap, coarse materials; shoes were stiff and rarely fitted. For a complete list, please see: American slave owners Project Profiles. Free persons of African descent were required to petition the. After that, he could legally transport the enslaved people and sell them in New Orleans or areas further up the Mississippi River. To find Freedmen's Bureau records: Visit the African American Freedmen's Bureau Records page to learn more about utilizing these records. Most slaves, however, supplemented their basic diet with sweet potatoes, garden vegetables, wild game, and fish and were thus adequately fed. 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. Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke holds a rally at Scholz Garten in Austin. Sizable numbers, however, came through the domestic slave trade. We'll send you a couple of emails per month, filled with fascinating history facts that you can share with your friends. (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. American slave owners or slaveholders were owners of slaves in the United States which typically worked either as agriculture laborers or house servants. Slavery, The first census in Austin's colony in 1825 showed 443 slaves in a total population of 1,800. They fought bitterly against the disruption of their families by sale or migration and at times virtually forced masters to respect family ties. They listened as best they could for any war news and passed it around among themselves, and no doubt many heard of Abraham Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that all slaves behind Confederate lines on January 1, 1863, would be freed. Samuel Allen 1 12. Copies of death certificates were sometimes attached to the entries. Enslaved African Americans had maintained human strength and dignity even in bondage, and Texas could not have grown as it had before 1865 without the slaves' contributions. Others simply called their enslaved people indentured servants without legally changing their status. Texan forces executed one runaway taken prisoner and resold another into slavery. To circumvent the law, numerous Anglo-American colonists converted their enslaved people to indentured servants, but with life terms. The majority of adult slaves were field hands, but a sizable minority worked as skilled craftsmen, house servants, and livestock handlers. Slavery in Early Texas. A slave had a right to trial by jury and a court-appointed attorney when charged with a crime greater than petty larceny. WebThe 1783 census for all of Texas listed a total of 36 enslaved people. It was a decision that increased tensions with slave-holders among the Anglo-Americans. The white primary was another way to exclude African Americans from making electoral decisions, and it was not overturned by the Supreme Court until 1944 in Smith v. Allwright. [5], Both the civil and religious authorities in Spanish Texas officially encouraged freeing enslaved people, but the laws were often ignored. [56] Those against this decision typically argue that it unfairly targets key Democratic constituencies such as minority groups and the elderly,[57] while proponents argue that the law's intention is to prevent voting by illegal immigrants. [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. African-, Afro-Americans throughout the Americas / Black History - Master Project, Black Washingtons of Pope's Creek Plantation, Virginia, Somerset Place Plantation, North Carolina, 9 of the Biggest Slave Owners in American History, Standing in Way of Alabama Walmart: Slave Graves. One result was the Turtle Bayou Resolutions, which were an explanation of the grievances that had led to the disturbances. Early books sometimes contained the name of the former master or mistress and the name of the plantation. All slaves had to live with the knowledge that their families could be broken up, and yet the basic social unit survived. The Slave Narratives of Texas. 13, No. Slaves in general did not lash out constantly against all the limits placed on them that would have brought intolerable punishment but they did not surrender totally to the system, either.