USA > Texas > The history of the republic of Texas, from the discovery of the country to the present time; and the cause of her separation from the republic of Mexico > Part 19
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General Houston, in the course of his speech, dwelt with great force on the claims of the Indians, and the expediency of making friends of them ; but unfortunately his humane views were not ap- preciated by his colleagues, and therefore the Cherokees were not only deprived of their lands, but a military expedition was immediately set on foot to drive them back into the United States ; but to suppose that Texas, in her present feeble state, can coerce a nation of 40,000 warriors, with as many allies as the Cherokees have, is madness. The Texans may dupe them, and cut them down one
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258
KICKAPOOS, SHAWNEES, AND CREEKS. :
by one, as they do, but they cannot meet them openly in the field, expert at the rifle, well mounted and disciplined, as they have been, under the fa- mous Pick-she-nubbee.
As the Cherokees are one of the many members of the great family of North American Indians, whose manners, habits, &c., have already been de- scribed by so many different travellers, it would be superfluous for me to mention them; yet I am convinced that they will not give up their territory quietly, and that its possession will be dearly bought. They have been duped, and when they discover it their hostility towards the Texans will be immeasurable.
The combined strength of the Kickapoos, Shaw- nees, and Creeks, with their fugitive tribes, may be estimated at about 7,000. Being too few in number to oppose, they have recently followed the Cherokees in their war excursions. They always move on foot, and a Shawnee Indian can outrun the quickest horse, and continue his quickest pace for several days. These tribes have always been most troublesome, and will continue so, to the settlers in eastern Texas. They live in tents covered with deer skins, and their camps are for the most part located about the head waters of the Trinity River, and Buffalo Buyon, a portion of Texas as yet unexplored.
In addition to the above tribes, another has been recently discovered on the Trinity River,
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UNKNOWN INDIAN TRIBE.
about 200 miles from its mouth. They are per- fectly wild, and even at the sight of other In- dians, they fly into the woods. Their cries are most unearthly. They go perfectly naked, and do not use the rifle, bow, or any other weapon of de- fence, and are, therefore, supposed to live on roots and nuts, which abound in that region of the coun- try. Their numbers and origin are as yet to- tally unknown.
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CHAPTER VII.
Slavery-The number of Slaves in Texas-Number of Slaves imported annually -- How imported-Texan Loan-How to be applied-Savage barbarity of a Planter towards a negro wo- man -- A Texan Slave Auction-The assertions and arguments of the Texans relative to Slavery and Slaves-The abolition of Slavery by England-The duty of England towards her subjects of African origin-Unjustifiable aggression of the citizens of the United States-Mr. Kennedy's fears-Another figment for the Pro-slavery advocates-International right of interference in cases of aggression - Native Americans of African origin-The children of the Niger, Gambia, Ohio, and Mississippi - Pro-slavery rights of the Colonial subjects of France in Texas-Mr. Kennedy's vain threats-An oracle for modern bravados-Mr. Kennedy's Municipal Philosophy- Review of Mr. Kennedy's Slavery in its mildest form-Pro- gress of Abolition in the United States-Texas without negro labour, &c.
THE number of slaves imported into Texas from Africa, Cuba, and the United States, previous to the declaration of her independence, may be esti- mated at 3,500. One half of this number ran away, and remained in the bush, or joined the Mexican army during the revolution, but were sub- sequently restored to their respective owners.
The number imported into the country from the United States, from the date of the independence of Texas (1836) down to the close of the year 18 10,
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NUMBER OF SLAVES IN TEXAS. 261
has averaged 2000 annually, which would bring the whole number of slaves in Texas to about 11,500; and if we fix the mortality among the slaves at 2 per cent. on the whole slave population, the number now remaining would be about 10,616; whereas it appears by the returns of assessors of 1810, that the whole number of slaves in Texas was 11,323. This return, however, includes the servants of transient visitors, and free blacks, that enter the ports of Texas in foreign vessels, who must be duly registered at the office of assessors; and thus the number set forth in the assessor's report is made up.
It is a gratifying fact to know, that the number imported annually is not on the increase; but this is owing solely to the want of capital in Texas. This the Texan Government, with the most bare- faced effrontery, is straining every nerve to obtain in Europe, but, fortunately for humanity, without the remotest prospect of success.
Every loan that has been granted by England to foreign countries has been attended with evil con- sequences. First, by creating anti-national interests at home ; secondly, by supplying contending parties and petty factions abroad with " the sinews of war." War has either ensued, or been continued, and thus our commerce has been cramped, and our moral and political influence completely paralysed ; while disgust, contempt, confusion, and in some cases, a panic in our monetary market has been the result of all.
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262 )
TEXAN LOAN-HOW TO BE APPLIED.
But what would be the consequences of Eng- land's granting a loan to Texas? How would it be employed? First, --- In the permanent establish- ment of a new slave market; for the abolition of which, in her own colonies, she has recently paid 20,000,0007. sterling. Secondly,-It would be ap- plied to carrying American influence and interest to the gates of Mexico, a country where England has vast monetary and commercial interests at stake. Thirdly,-It would be giving a premium for, and would consolidate an unjust and daring aggres- sion in the south, on the part of the United States, which might speedily be imitated in the north .*
Hence, then, without venturing an opinion as to the probability of the Texans paying the interest of a foreign debt, it is to be hoped that their efforts to obtain a loan in England may ever prove unsuc- cessful. .
The slaves (as I have before stated publicly;) have been imported from the United States by dealers, labour-masters, (men who hire slaves in the States and let them out again in Texas,) and insol- vent planters, who carry their slaves to Texas in order to evade their creditors. From fifteen hundred to two thousand slaves are annually imported into the country by such persons; and it will scarcely
* Vide Extracts from Lord Durham's Report on Canada, page 278.
+ Vide Supplement : Opinions of the French Press.
# See Letter to Lord Palmerston in Appendix.
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TREATMENT OF SLAVES.
be believed that they are imported from the United States across the Gulf of Mexico, i.e. from the Mississippi to Texas, a distance of four hundred miles, in the steam-packets which run between those two places, in the face of every treaty and law now in force for the suppression of slavery ! I happened to be at the city of Galveston, Texas, in February, 1840, when the steam-packet " Columbia" arrived in Galveston harbour from New Orleans, with no less than thirty or forty slaves on her deck; and again in May of the same year, while I was at Gal- veston a second time, the " Columbia " boat arrived with twenty slaves. Thus the traffic is carried on.
The slaves, however, are well treated while on board the steam-packets, but they are not so ashore. The instant these poor creatures land, they are carried away to the interior of the coun- try, to work on some plantation, where they have to labour from sun-rise to sun-set, under the eye of their cruel task-masters, whose heartless conduct I have too often witnessed. On one occasion, I was perfectly horrified at the savage barbarity of a planter towards a poor negro woman. The planter here alluded to was a young man about twenty-three years of age, the son of a widow named Thompson, who oc- cupies a plantation on the Brazos river, about three miles above the city of Richmond. On the 20th of March, IS10, I had some business to transact in the immediate neighbourhood of Mrs. T.'s plantation. As I rode along the boundary fence I heard the
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KILLING A NEGRO
most piteous cries of a female, in the direction of a cotton patch within the fence. I hastened as near the spot as I could get on horseback, where I . beheld the most revolting scene imaginable. A poor negro woman, who complained of being ill, was seized by the planter, James Thompson, who, after strik- ing her several times with his clenched fist, called her husband from the gang then at work in the field, made him take hold of his wife, place her head between his (her husband's) legs, raise her clothes, and give her a cow-hiding, which the hus- band did, and then led his poor tortured wife back to the gang, who stood watching the execution of the inhuman monster's sentence .*
The next outrage that came under my own im- mediate notice, was the trial of a man named Vince, at the spring term of the second Judicial District Court, held at the city of Richmond, Texas, in the first week in April last. An action was brought against Vince by a planter, to recover the value of a negro whom Vince had shot. The defendant openly acknowledged that he shot the negro, which was not deemed murder, the action being brought merely to recover the value of the man. The jury, after hearing counsel on both sides, gave a verdict for the plaintiff, and the murderer of the negro was allowed to leave this court of justice without a reprimand. But any man, in fact, may go out and
* See Anti-slavery Reporter, 4th November, 1840.
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NOT DEEMED MURDER.
shoot any number of slaves in Texas, provided he is able to pay for them; and, indeed, if he cannot pay for them, he has only to make an affidavit to that effect, and all remedy at law is at an end .*
Soon after this, a whole family was offered for sale, at public auction, by the sheriff of Fort Bend County, under execution. The family consisted of a man, his wife, and two children ; the eldest, a boy about four years old; the youngest, an infant at the breast. The sheriff, after describing (to a host of spectators) the capabilities of each member of the family, who stood before him weeping at their degradation, and seeming to be fully impressed with the injustice and cruelty of their fate, he opened the sale, which was soon brought to a conclusion, as the slaves happened to be the property of an alien, who was absent, and the terms of sale twelve months' credit. However, the result of the sale was,-the man was bought by a planter who resides about thirty miles below; and his wife, with the infant at her breast, by a man who lives sixty miles above ; while the boy was bought by a third party, who carried him away some thirty or forty miles west of the place of sale. Thus the holiest of ties -- the strongest bonds of civilization-were torn asunder, and the purest affections of the human heart grossly outraged! The man or woman whose skin is as white as the snow from heaven, could not press each other more affectionately to their bosoms,
See " Digest of the Laws of Texas."
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NEGRO DEPRAVITY ENFORCED.
or weep more bitterly, than this poor man and wo- man did when parting from each other and their children, in all probability, for ever.
The man, on arriving at the plantation of his purchaser, was sent to live with a woman who had three children by another man. Here depravity was enforced, and yet the very men who enforce it, will, with an air of singular composure, tell me " that the niggers are the most depraved race in the world -- that they are a curse and a disgrace to the human race;" while they employ many ingenious arguments to prove, that the " native American, of the African origin, is closely allied, or is, in fact, a branch of the monkey family; and were it not for a singular perverseness of nature, which has given the black native American a mouth and ear formed to speak many languages, as they do correctly, in lieu of what the naturalists vulgarly call a tail, in- stead of a projection," the most philosophical mind might admit the correctness of the analogy drawn by the Anglo-American slaveholder, which, by the by, is not at all flattering to " the whites," inasmuch as the blacks, whom they define as belonging to the baboon species, are, in their physical formation, nearly a fac-simile of themselves. But, to show how they reason on this head, I will here give a quotation from the anonymous Texan author before quoted :--
" How does it happen, asks every stranger that visits our country, that so moral and chaste a people have so many mulattos among them ? You may
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ARGUMENTS OF AMERICAN SLAVE-HOLDERS.
travel the whole extent of Mexico without meeting so many individuals of mongrel breed, though, amongst the Mexicans, marriages between the various castes are neither prohibited by law, nor stigmatized by public opinion. And your slavery ? What have you to say to that ?
" Here, they think they embarrass us; but we can produce," continues the same author, " good arguments to prove that the negroes are an inferior race, made purposely to be hewers of wood and drawers of water to the whites. If they wish Scrip- ture authority, we can quote the curse of Noah against one of his sons and his posterity ; and nothing prevents us from supposing that our negroes are descended from Ham. In that case we do nothing more than fulfil the Scripture. If they wish for phi- losophical proofs, dissect a black man, and you will find the internal structure of his body is somewhat different from that of the whites. The difference is somewhere about the lumbar regions, anatomists say. Does not this make our assertion good, and prove them to be intended by nature to serve us as playthings ? If they want metaphysical argu- ments, we can show that negroes are inferior to us in judgment ; and though some of their fanatical friends (in the Northern States) represent them as naturally superior in warmth of fancy and quickness of imagination, we are not bound to acknowledge the truth of the fact."
" But here," he adds, " I must drop the subject.
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ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
It is dangerous to treat on it even in the coolest manner ; my neighbours might mistake me for an abolitionist, and in that case I should become hate- ful. The suspicion of abolitionism operates like the plague in Texas as well as in the Southern States."
Leaving this sagacious writer in doubt as to " the truth of a fact," and the full and uninterrupted enjoyment of his transatlantic logic, I may, with- out wasting time in sighing after Anglo-American freedom, take the liberty of inquiring into the past and present policy of England relative to her negro subjects.
The emancipation of the slave in our West Indian colonies was not only an act of humanity, but also an act of sound policy. It has changed the cha- racter of our trade in that quarter, it is true ; but this new character gives an impetus to our trade, which was confined, during the existence of slavery, to the interests of the few, the planters, through whose cupidity (the legitimate offspring of their wan- ton extravagance in too many cases) the consumption of the mass of the population was becoming daily more limited; while this declining consumption itself was confined to our coarsest and cheapest manufactured goods. But since the abolition of slavery, the great mass of the population have and will continue to exercise their own taste; and as their condition improves, they will not be found less negligent of their external appearance than any
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BY ENGLAND.
European. Hence we have the new and improved character of our West India trade, which consists simply in the consumption of a better description of manufactured goods, which equals already in amount the former consumption of the coarsest and cheapest ; and while this emanates, as it does at pre- sent merely from the abolition of slavery, its future extension hinges on the social improvement of the great bulk of the people ; and as their resources will at all times be equal to those of the most prosperous peasantry in Europe, it becomes the onerous duty of the British legislature to promote their improve- ment ; while we are bound as a nation, who have admitted the negro to the rank of a fellow-citizen and subject, to protect him from insult, and to defend the institutions which we have given him from innovation, whether foreign or domestic.
But here I may take another view of our position relative to slavery.
The proof we have of the advantage of slave labour is the enormous sum of £20,000,000 ster- ling which England has recently paid by way of compensation to those who held slaves, for its abo- lition ; and here the cost of abolition to us may be taken for the true value of slavery to others. When, therefore, we consider that the advantages (admitting for a moment that there is an advantage in slave labour) are solely commercial, we, as a commercial people, having already paid £20,000,000 for its abo- lition, are bound in all consistency snd expediency
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ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
to retard, at almost any cost, its growth where it exists, and to prevent its revival in a country where it has been abolished, and its establishment where it has never yet been known.
Having thus treated the subject as a national question, let us for a moment consider what Mexico, a country where slavery has been abolished, has lost or gained by its abolition.
In the history of the revolutionary war or strug- gles for independence in Mexico, we find, as I have before asserted, something at the conclusion of each sanguinary contest to compensate the lovers of humanity for the effusion of blood on those occasions.
The first revolution under Hidalgo ended in the total destruction of the Inquisition. The subse- quent establishment of the independence of Mexico by Iturbide placed the people of colour on a level with their fellow men; and the degradation of being a mulatto, which may be attributed to the gross depravity of the African's oppressors, was at once buried in eternal oblivion. The introduction of republican institutions on the abdication of the emperor (Iturbide) was speedily followed by the total abolition of slavery, and all traffic in slaves was for ever prohibited in the republic of Mexico. Thus the strength of the oppressor (the white man) was lost in his own depravity ; and by its natural offspring (the mulatto) the poor negro was brought to the fountain of liberty to drink and to be re- freshed ; and as every Christian, it is to be hoped,
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BY MEXICO.
holds the life of a black as dear as a white man's ; and knowing, as we do, the historical fact, that the blacks and castes amounted at the period of the revolution . to two-thirds of the population of Mexico ; it may be said that that country has gained for itself that which is most dear to every Christian people, " civil and religious liberty."
For which, however, her territory has been in- vaded and taken from her by the citizens of a powerful foreign nation (the United States). A country that stigmatizes the Mexicans as impertinent demagogues, brainless priest-ridden fanatics, and a despotic, san- guinary, cowardly, merciless race. And all this is heaped upon the Mexicans by their democratic, re- publican, Anglo-American neighbours, because, for- sooth, they abolished slavery, the very act which led the government of " king-ridden England" to recog- nize the republic of Mexico as an independent nation. In this, America was the first to show the way, not having, as usual, sufficient foresight to see that it was her interest to support the Spaniards with their inqui- sitions, their depravity, and their slavery ; and now that the discerning eye of republicanism detects the error, and beholds freedom approaching the confines of " the land of the free," she raises her arm, hurls her back, and creates a creature after her own kidney. America's want of foresight in this matter may cost her more dearly than any act of which Mexico has ever yet been guilty. If Mexico adopt the emancipation of the negro as
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ANOTHER FIGMENT FOR MR. KENNEDY.
a war-cry, and extends a sincere hand of friendship to aborigines, enfeebled as she is, the Union of America will receive a shock that it never can recover ; and when once the wild elements of which that nominal Union is composed breaks forth, future ages will shudder at the bare thoughts of what may occur pending their convulsion. And much as Mr. Kennedy and his pro-slavery friends in America may dread the consequence of such a war ; much as the anti-slavery movers in England would deplore its existence, particularly the Society of Friends, who hold out the olive branch to all mankind ; yet when an anti-slavery war occurs, as an event over which they can exercise no control, they will not desert their standard ; and if now, in these days of peace, they stand to be smote on one cheek, and again turn the other, it is because they simply entertain a firm and unalterable conviction, that the wise and con- stant exercise of moral influence will, ere long, lead to the abolition of slavery and the slave trade throughout the world.
Perhaps Mr. Kennedy will be so good as to re- turn to the young republic, and communicate the substance of the foregoing "figment" to the rulers of the slavery-loving Texan republicans. Well may they call for forties of thousands of their countrymen to aid them against the unspotted escutcheons of the truly republican Mexicans, on whom slavery was forced by their conquerors and ancestors, but with the iron rod of Spanish tyranny,
MEXICAN FREEDOM. 273
the chains of the African were cast under the feet of the conqueror and freemen to rise no more, and therefore, if England was to participate, directly or indirectly, in the dismemberment of the American union, under existing circumstances, she could not be surprised; for when the United States recog- nized the independence of Texas, and therein ap- proved a daring and unjustifiable aggression on the part of her citizens, she knew that England had re- cognized with herself (the United States) the inde- pendence of Mexico as a free and sovereign nation ; and she also knows, full well, that the national in- terests of Great Britain imperatively demand that we should support her as such, particularly now that England must be deemed an anti-slavery nation ; and while it is known that the poor negro is under the merciless lash, and the wandering Aborigines, in Texas, are daily falling under the Bowie knife (a murderous weapon almost peculiar to her people) and the rifle of her citizens, she cannot be surprised to find the national prejudice and force of a free and chris- tian people directed against any nation who would deny them the right of interference, which every na- tion has in all cases of aggression, but more particu- larly against those who recognize and so perpetuate the unutterable sufferings of their kindred man.
This is the international right that England enjoys, as far as the act of aggression is concerned, until the recognition of Texas by the British government shall be absolutely ratified. But should this point
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RECOGNITION OF TEXAS
be foolishly lost, the execration of every free people cannot fail to be heaped on those who would, by such an act, sanction the principle of slavery, to say nothing of those who promote its revival in a coun- try where it has long been abolished.
That the people of the northern states of Ame- rica were privy to the recognition of Texas by the American government, is no more to be supposed than that the people of England were privy to her recognition by the British government.
The Americans of the north are liberal enough to admit, that the fraud is too base-the deception too deep-the mask too hideous -- and the degrada- tion too abject, of those who have erected the stan- dard of independence in Texas, and on which the words "slavery" and "intolerance" are written in letters of blood, to the immortal disgrace of those who have raised it on the territory of a free people. They are also too enlightened to deny or " doubt the truth of the fact;" nay, they may with truth boast, that the " Native American" of African ori- gin is as intelligent and as useful in the state as a husbandman, and, in many of the mechanical arts, as the peasantry of any country in Europe; while they fearlessly assert, that the children of the Niger and Gambia are cast in the same mould as the off- spring of those who nobly possessed themselves of the sovereignty of the Ohio and the Mississippi.
France, throughout her negotiations for the re- cognition of the independence of Texas, claimed
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BY FOREIGN POWERS,
for her colonial subjects all the rights and privileges enjoyed by the most favoured nations ; and we find that the United States, the most favoured nation, has a right, under the constitution of Texas, to introduce any number of slaves into the Texan republic; and France, in the 18th article of the treaty between France and Texas, has also secured this right to her colonial subjects; so that, in the event of the French government attempting to abolish slavery in her own colonies, the worthy French slave-holders in the West India islands will only have to run their slaves across the Gulf of Mexico to Texas, where they can dispose of them to some advantage. In addition to this, French brandies are admitted into Texas duty free, and wherever France can secure such a privilege as this, there the soul of the French cabinet is sure to be pledged, and thus the object of the recognition of Texas by Marshal Soult as readily accounted for.
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