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Although he governed Texas as a slave-holding state and was a slave owner himself, he did not feel that it was in the best interests of Texas to secede from the Union over slavery. Houston and his wife, Margaret Lea Houston, relied on slaves to perform household, agricultural, carpentry, blacksmithing, and other duties for the family. Eliza ...
Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. When Houston was founded in 1836, an African-American community had already begun to be established. [1] In 1860, 99% of the city's African American population was enslaved; [3] there were eight free blacks and 1,060 slaves. [1]
In 1829 the Guerrero decree conditionally abolished slavery throughout Mexican territories. It was a decision that increased tensions with slave-holders among the Anglo-Americans. After the Texas Revolution ended in 1836, the Constitution of the Republic of Texas made slavery legal. Sam Houston made illegal importation from Mexico a crime in 1836.
When Houston died in 1863, his slaves were part of the inventory of his estate and valued at $10,530 (~$204,690 in 2023). [7] [8] Joshua's son Samuel Walker Houston was born in February 1864, seven months after Sam Houston's death, and is always referred to as having been born into slavery. [9]
In 1862 the Confederate Congress in Richmond, Virginia, passed a conscription law that ordered all men from 18 to 45 years of age to be placed into military service except ministers, state, city, county officers, and certain slave owners; all persons holding 20 slaves or more were exempt from Confederate conscription under the "Twenty Negro Law".
Houston was born on and inherited a slave plantation and mansion, and owned many slaves throughout his life. [110] While he did not enforce some anti-slavery measures, strong slavery laws were still in place under his leadership.
Blue has been said to have runaway just before Houston freed his slaves. Houston was said to have conveyed to them Abraham Lincoln's September 1862 Emancipation Proclamation, which would free all enslaved people on January 1, 1863. According to the story published in James Haley's Sam Houston, Houston decided to free them immediately.
After slavery ended in Texas in June 1865, ex-slaves were forced to live in separate enclaves within each of Houston's wards. The voting population of the wards was lower than the population, since women and African-Americans had been forbidden from voting.