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Slavery

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Slavery was a very important issue to Austin, one he called "of great interest" to himself.[1] Austin was a periodical slaveowner throughout his life; however, he had conflicting views about it.[2][3][4][5] Theoretically, he believed slavery was wrong and went against the American ideal of liberty. But, in practice, he agreed with the social, economic and political justifications of it, and worked hard to defend and expand it.[6] Despite his defense of it, he also harbored concerns that the long-term effects of slavery would destroy white American society. He grew particularly concerned following Nat Turner's rebellion, stating:

"I sometimes shudder at the consequences and think that a large part of America will be Santo Domingonized in 100, or 200 years. The idea of seeing such a country as this overrun by a slave population almost makes me weep. It is in vain to tell a North American that the white population will be destroyed some fifty or eighty years hence by the negroes, and that his daughters will be violated and Butchered by them.[7][8][9]"

While Austin thought it would be advantageous for Texas to some day phase out of slavery, up until the Texas Revolution, he worked to ensure that his colony's immigrants could bypass the Mexican government's resistance to it.[10] Doing so ensured the population growth and economic development of his colony, which was primarily dependent on the monocropping of cotton and sugar.[11][12][13]

Arguing that the loss of slaves would be ruinous to the colony, he arranged for his settlers to receive eighty acres of land for each slave they brought with them to Texas. In August 1825, he recommended that the state government allow immigrants to bring their slaves with them through 1840, with the caveat that female grandchildren of the slaves would be freed by the age of 15, and males by age of 25.[14][15][16] His recommendation was rejected.

In 1826, when a state committee proposed abolishing slavery outright, 25 percent of the people in Austin's colony were slaves.[17][18] Austin's colonists, mostly pro-slavery immigrants from the south, threatened to leave Texas if the proposition passed, while prospective Southern immigrants hesitated to come to Texas until slavery was guaranteed there.[16]

Austin conceded that the success of his colony was dependent on slaves.[2][16][19] Without slaves, the colonists would lack the mass labor to cultivate the land, which would stall the pace of immigration needed to develop and increase the value of the land, which would deflate the economy and entice his colonists to leave.[16][20][21]

Austin went before the legislature and pleaded that, at the least; his original 300 colonists should be allowed to keep their slaves.[16] He argued against the "bad faith" of freeing them, demanded reparations to slaveowners for every slave emancipated by the state, warned that the loss of slaves could leave some colonists destitute, and reasoned that freeing them would not only leave his settlers alone in the harsh Texas environment, but would also expose them to the discomfort and nuisance of living amongst freed slaves, who would become vagrants seeking retribution upon their former owners.[22] While he waited for the legislature's verdict of his request, Austin went into a deep depression over the issue and sent his brother, Brown Austin, to further lobby the legislature on his behalf.[23][24]

In March of 1827, the legislature signed Article 13 into law. Despite the law complying with some of his requests, Austin called it "unconstitutional." He contested the law as it freed the children of slaves at birth, established a six-month grace period before fully emancipating all slaves in the state, and included provisions to improve the conditions of slaves and transitioning freedmen.[25][26][27][28] However Austin –– who had been so effective in persuading the legislature, that the author of Article 13 (before its passage) requested to withdraw it –– helped his colonists evade the law by advising them to legally supplant the word "slave" with the words "workingmen," "family servants," and "laborers," and by working to pass a decree that banned freedmen from Texas and forced emancipated slaves to work for their former slaveowners until the accrued "debt" (e.g. clothing, food), incurred for their own enslavement, was worked off.[9][27][29]

In 1828, Austin petitioned the legislature to guarantee that slaveowners, immigrating to Texas, could legally "free" their slaves before immigrating, and contract them into a lifetime term of indentured servitude, thereby avoiding recognizing them as slaves.[30] He lobbied to help his colony elude Vicente Guerrero's 1829 attempt to legally emancipate slaves in the province, and to bypass the government's effort to prohibit slavery when it passed the Law of April 6, 1830.[13][31][32] In 1830, Austin wrote that he would oppose Texas joining the United States without guarantees that he should "insist on the perpetual exclusion of slavery from this state [Texas]."[32] In 1833, he wrote:

"Texas must be a slave country. Circumstances and unavoidable necessity compel it. It is the wish of the people there, and it is my duty to do all I can, prudently, in favor of it. I will do so.[16]"

In May 1835, Austin's colonists learned that Mexico's tolerance for the evasions of slaveowners was drawing to a close, with its proposal of new abolition legislation.[9] Alarmed, and with Austin imprisoned in Mexico for pushing for independence, colonists turned against the Mexican government, calling it "oppressive" and a "plundering, robbing, autocratical government" without regard for the security of "life, liberty or property."[9][33] Resisting the impact a changed slavery policy would have on economic growth, and fearing rumors of Mexico's plan to free the slaves and turn them loose upon the colonists, shortly after Austin returned from Mexico, he and his colonists took up arms against the Mexican government. Austin later gained U.S. Government support for his revolution when he pleaded to a U.S. senator that Santa Anna planned to "exterminate" all of the colonists and fill Texas "with Indians and negroes [freed slaves]."[9][34][35] Justbean (talk) 23:36, 7 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

  1. ^ Austin, Stephen F. (7 Aug 1826). "The Papers of Stephen F. Austin". Letter to José Antonio Saucedo.
  2. ^ a b Cantrell, Gregg (2001). Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas. Yale University Press. pp. 8–9.
  3. ^ Austin, Stephen F. (30 May 1833). "The Papers of Stephen F. Austin". Letter to Wiley Martin.
  4. ^ Historic Missourians: Moses Austin (1761 - 1821). State Historical Society of Missouri.
  5. ^ Cantrell 2001, pp. 85, 204
  6. ^ Cantrell 2001, pp. 9, 204.
  7. ^ Barker, Eugene C. (1926). The Life of Stephen F. Austin, Founder of Texas, 1793-1836: A Chapter in the Westward Movement of the Anglo-American People. University of Texas Press. p. 201.
  8. ^ Cantrell 2001, pp. 189-190
  9. ^ a b c d e Lack, Paul D. (Oct 1985). "Slavery and the Texas Revolution". The Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 89 (2): 181–202.
  10. ^ Cantrell 2001, p. 190.
  11. ^ Barker 1926, p. 204.
  12. ^ Cantrell 2001, p. 191.
  13. ^ a b "Stephen Fuller Austin". Texas State Historical Association.
  14. ^ Barker 1926, pp. 203-204.
  15. ^ Cantrell 2001, p. 191.
  16. ^ a b c d e f Barker, Eugene C. (July 1924). "The Influence of Slavery in the Colonization of Texas". The Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 28 (1): 1–33.
  17. ^ Cantrell 2001, p. 191.
  18. ^ "Juneteenth—the Day Slavery was Abolished in Texas". Texas General Land Office. 16 June 2016.
  19. ^ Barker 1926, p. 206.
  20. ^ Morritt, Robert D. (2011). "Lure of Texas". Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  21. ^ Campbell, Randolph B. (1991). An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821--1865. LSU Press. pp. 32–34.
  22. ^ Barker 1926, pp. 204-206, 208.
  23. ^ Cantrell 2001, p. 190.
  24. ^ Barker 1926, p. 206.
  25. ^ Barker 1926, p. 208.
  26. ^ Cantrell 2001, pp. 192, 203.
  27. ^ a b Bugbee, Lester G. (Sep 1898). "Slavery in Early Texas. I". Political Science Quarterly. 13 (3): 389–412.
  28. ^ "Constitution of the State of Coahuila and Texas (1827)". University of Texas at Austin, Tarlton Law Library.
  29. ^ Austin, J.E.B. (10 Oct 1826). "The Papers of Stephen F. Austin". Letter to Stephen F. Austin.
  30. ^ Cantrell 2001, p. 204.
  31. ^ Cantrell 2001, pp. 85, 204.
  32. ^ a b Barker, Eugene C. (Jul 1918). "Stephen F. Austin". The Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 22 (1): 1–17.
  33. ^ Travis, William B. (21 May 1835). "The Papers of Stephen F. Austin". Letter to David G. Burnet.
  34. ^ Campbell, Randolph B. (1991). An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821--1865. LSU Press. p. 42.
  35. ^ Austin, Stephen F. (4 May 1836). "The Papers of Stephen F. Austin". Letter to Senator L.F. Linn.
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