An Empire for Slavery

American author and historian Randolph B. Campbell’s non-fiction book An Empire for Slavery: The Popular Institution in Texas (1989) covers the lesser-known history of slavery in the state of Texas. Campbell generally covers the years between 1821 and 1865, when the Civil War ended and slavery was officially outlawed across the United States.

Despite the fact that most popular representations of slavery depict life in the Southeastern United States, Campbell's central thesis is that the lives of slaves in Texas were not significantly different than in other Confederate states. Before exploring slavery in Texas, as it existed from the 1820s, the author provides a brief history of forced labor in Texas during colonial times, when the territory was still a part of the Spanish Empire. From the 1500s to the 1800s, most of the slaves in Texas were of Apache or Comanche descent. In fact, a census report from 1777 shows that in the city of San Antonio, 151 of its 2,060 residents were of African descent, and only fifteen of those men and women were counted as slaves. In 1803, after the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory, the Spanish decreed that any slaves who crossed the border into Texas would earn their freedom. Nevertheless, Galveston Island became a hot spot for importing slaves into the U.S. in order to circumvent new laws banning the international slave trade.

In 1821, the Mexican War for Independence made Texas a part of the newly founded sovereign nation of Mexico. Although Mexico allowed and even encouraged American settlers—most of whom were slave owners—the country also declared that any free black residents would receive full citizenship. Two years later, Mexico banned the buying or selling of slaves, declaring that the children of slaves would earn their freedom when they reached the age of fourteen. By 1830, Mexico abolished slavery throughout the nation, including in Texas. To circumvent the new abolition law, slave owners changed the legal status of their slaves so they would be listed as "indentured servants with life terms." The change in status was purely a matter of semantics, as the quality of life for these slaves remained the same.



As existing slave owners found ways to retain their slaves by calling them "servants," new settlers also found ways to circumvent the ban on new slave imports into Texas. Often, owners would tell authorities that their workers weren't slaves but rather people working off a debt. Technically, they would receive "wages" but only on paper. The wages were so small that slaves would usually die still owing their owners this invented debt, passing it along to their children.

By 1835, the white slave-owning settlers of Texas were no longer willing to tolerate Mexico's laws against slavery. This was one of the biggest factors leading to the Texas Revolution, an armed uprising against Mexico that eventually resulted in the founding of the independent Republic of Texas. Due to Mexico's legal system, which was much more favorable to servants and free men of African descent, many slaves sided with Mexico during the revolt. When Texas won its independence in 1836, it declared that all men and women of African descent who had been considered indentured servants for life would now be considered slaves. Although free men and women were allowed to retain their emancipated status and remain in the new nation, they were denied personhood and equal rights under the Constitution if they were even one-eighth African or greater. At this point, the Texas slave population became 5,000, up from 443 slaves just eleven years earlier.

Over the next four years, the slave population in Texas more than doubled to 11,323. This number continued to increase dramatically in the years following Texas' induction into the United States. By 1850, the slave population reached 58,161. By this time, the author argues, slavery was as central to Texas' economy as it was in other states in the South. Most of the slaves farmed cotton, but a large number were also cattle ranchers. The culture in Texas also began more closely to resemble that of other Southern states, as the state became a predominantly agrarian economy dependent on slave labor and controlled by a slave-owning elite. The author also looks at documents and letters that suggest that the life of an average slave was largely similar to the lives of slaves elsewhere in the United States. To the extent these slaves were allowed personal interests or privileges, they spent their time focused on family, music, and religion.



Finally, Campbell discusses the subtle ways in which Texas slavery differed from slavery in other states. For example, slave-owners were legally empowered to arm or educate their slaves if they so wished. Because of the larger number of armed slaves and the attitudes of Mexican natives toward slaves, it was not uncommon for Mexicans living in Texas to encourage "unrest" among slaves. Unfortunately, these periodic uprisings were rarely successful, usually resulting in "vigilante-like reprisals" on the part of even non-slave-owning whites.

An Empire For Slavery provides a thoroughly researched argument that slavery was a significant factor in the growth and evolution of Texas.