Chapter 13
Life in the State of Texas
1851-1860
Essential Questions
Why did Immigrants come to Texas and what impact did
they have when they arrived?
Was it the destiny of Texas to become a slave state?
Could Texas have avoided joining the Confederacy?
Changes in Texas
• Many people in Texas had come in from other states
– familiar with customs, money system, and languages
• But, Texas was still a Frontier State…challenging and
exciting
• Frontier Line in Texas stretched from Red River to Rio
Grande…known today as Interstate 35
• But, Texas was experiencing rapid growth
• Read “In this Land of Ours” box p. 286
Rural Life in Texas
• Between 1846-1860, most Texans lived on farms and ranches
• Number of farms grew from 12,000 to 43,000
• Most people had their own farm or ranches
• Most focused on growing food crops
• Corn: largest food crop
• Other crops: wheat, oats, sweet potatoes
• People didn’t make much money from food
cropshttp://soilcrop.tamu.edu/photogallery/cornsorghum+/pages/corn%20ears.htm
Rural Life in Texas, cont
• Cotton: main Cash Crop (crop produced for profit)
• Cotton was grown in Texas and shipped to northern
states and Europe…made into cloth
• Other cash crop: sugar cane
• Raising livestock on (milk cows, hogs, chickens) was
profitable
• Ranches started—raised cattle and sheep—profitable
http://seedrack.com/indiv/cotton.html
http://www.alternative-energy-fuels.com/biofuels/liquid-biofuel/sugarcane-research-aims-to-harvest-green-energ
The Growth of Towns
•
In 1850, fewer than 13,000 people lived in towns. But by 1860, more than 26,000 lived
in towns
– Towns had home, general stores, blacksmith shops, lawyer/doctor/trade shops
– Sheriffs, town marshals provided law enforcement
– Most buildings made of wood—logs or lumber
– No paved streets
– Picture on page 284 depicts life
•
Galveston: largest town in Texas at beginning of Texas statehood (1850)
– Most developed port and trade center
•
San Antonio became largest town by 1860
– Many German immigrants moved to San Antonio
– Menger Hotel (built of stone in 1859 and tallest building in state except for Capitol
in Austin)
•
Houston became 3rd largest town due to railroads
•
Other important towns
– New Braunfels—many German immigrants
– Marshall—center for trade
– Austin—state’s political center and capitol
The Growth of Towns, cont
• Texas had 2 manufacturing facilities
– In Houston: made hats
– In Henderson: Textile Factory—made cloth
• Other info
– East Texas towns had saw mills
– Most towns had grist mills—corn, grains ground into
meal for baking
– Areas where cotton was grown had cotton gins—
separate hulls from seeds
– Areas that grew sugar cane had mills for grinding sugar
Transportation
• 1850s, most rode horseback or in wagons pulled
by horses, mules, or oxen (picture page 284)
• On Rio Grande, shipping down river was possible
– Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy established shipping
on steamships during Mexico War
– They established King Ranch in South Texas
• East Texas—rivers were better and small boats
could travel 100 miles upriver if water was high
enough
Transportation, con’t
• Many Towns served by stagecoaches
– Could travel 5-8 miles/hour
– Carried passengers, freight, mail
– Famous Stagecoach: Butterfield Line—went
from Mississippi to Pacific Ocean…crossed
North Texas
– Took about 30 days to go from San Antonio to
San Diego, CA…cost $200 for one-way ticket
http://www.wellsfargohistory.com/stagecoach/stagecoach_flash_alt.jpg
Transportation, cont
• Railroads
– started building them in 1850s
– By 1860, 400 miles of railroads had been built
– Laid out in spider-web fashion around Galveston and
Houston
– Mainly transported products to ports and to market
Education
• Read Then and Now on page 288
• President Lamar had set aside public land for education
when he was President of the Republic of Texas
• No public education yet—most kids went to private
schools set up by churches in one room school houses
• In 1854, TX Governor Elisha M. Pease set aside 2
million dollars for a school fund
– A few public schools were started
– A few colleges were started then
Education, con’t
• Permanent School Fund: created in 1876 to
make sure that schools would always have money
– Today that fund is worth about $20 billion +
– Today schools use interest from that money to help
them
• Elisha M. Pease
• Known as one of TX most successful governors
•
•
•
•
Supported Permanent School Fund—still used today
Cleared state’s debt
Set aside money for hospitals for people with mental illnesses
Set aside money for schools for people who were deaf
Social and Cultural Life
• People liked to
– Race horses, hunt, fish
– Dance—Saturday night hoedowns
– Fiesta Activities—Hispanic culture
– Religious Celebrations—weddings, baptisms,
revivals
– Political Election rallies
– Theater Groups
– Newspapers
Interesting Info
• Camels (page 287)
– In 1856, 32 camels plus one baby camel born at sea came from
Africa to Texas as a US Army experiment
– These 33 camels plus 41 others that came later were taken to
Camp Verde (TX hill country)
– Very helpful in carrying supplies across dry southwest area
– Some even used during Civil War
– But the camels were stinky and had bad tempers and were too
hard for army to control, so they sold them after the Civil War
Camels in Texas
http://www.transchool.lee.army.mil/museum/transportation%20museum/images/camels_painting.gif
Cotton Gin
http://0.tqn.com/d/americanhistory/1/0/u/A/cotton_gin.jpg
Grist Mill
http://www.rlrouse.com/pic-of-the-day/glade-creek-grist-mill.jpg
The Menger Hotel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Menger_Hotel_San_Antonio_Texas_photo_of_histrical_photo.jpg
http://images.travelnow.com/hotels/1000000/10000/5900/5877/5877_27_b.jpg
http://www.mengerhotel.com/historic-san-antonio-hotel/
http://gorvtexas.com/menger.htm
Elisha Pease
http://www.tspb.state.tx.us/spb/gallery/govs/images/1989_36_Pease_LG.jpg
http://www.transchool.lee.army.mil/museum/transportation%20museum/images/camels_painting.
gif
A Changing Population
• Many settlers coming into Texas
– Population in 1850: 212,000
– Population in 1860: 604,000
– Many Native Texans forced out when Anglo Americans
moved in
– Why did they come?
• Land
• Sense of adventure
• Political freedom
• Problems in homeland
Migration from the US
• Most new Texans came from southern
states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, & Alabama)
• Most settlers went to areas in Texas that
were like their former home
– have similar lifestyles
Cultures and Settlement in Texas 1820-1860
Mexican Texans
• 1850: estimated to be 23,000 Mexican Texans
– Most lived in San Antonio area between Nueces River
and Rio Grande
– Or they lived along Rio Grande from Big Bend to El Paso
– Many had successful cattle or sheep ranches
• Other Mexican Texans worked on these ranches
• Jose Antonio Navarro had successful ranch
– Some Tejanos concerned that Anglo American settlers
were becoming more influential than Tejanos who had
been there longer
• Juan Cortina…was concerned
http://www.fold3.com/page/1178_the_mexican_texans/
Juan Cortina
• Operated ranch near Brownsville
• Believe Tejanos were not being treated fairly because
their land was being taken away from them
• Cortina fought against corrupt officials who helped take
land away from Tejanos by carrying out acts of violence
– Became known as Cortina War
• See Picture/caption on page 291
Juan Cortina
Cortina War
• Cortina had about 400 supporters
• Cortina was defeated by a Confederate
captain: Santos Benavides
• Result of Cortina War: left Mexican and Anglo Texans
suspicious of each other
• Regardless, Mexican Americans continued to have strong
influence on economy, art, culture, and language of Texas
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Juan_Nepomuceno_Cortina.jpg
German Texans
• By 1860, more than 43,000 people born outside of US
lived in Texas
• Germans made up largest number of immigrants
• Germans came for
– political/religious freedom
– economic opportunities
• Many Germans came to Texas as part of organized effort
of Adelsverein—Society for Protection of German
Immigrants in Texas
German Texans, cont
• John O. Meusebach: leader for German
settlers
• Brought German settlers to New Braunfels
• Helped settle Fredericksburg
http://www.texasescapes.com/WTBlock/TexasGermanSettlerFirstGenElkinsBrossmJPenney.jpg
http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2012/02/overheard-at-water-cooler-german-texans.html
German Settlers in Texas
Boerne, TX
1890
http://www.littlecolonel.com/Places/Texas/Boerne/pics/Boerne1890-0.jpg
Other European Immigrants
• Irish: 2nd largest group of settlers in Texas
• English: 3rd largest group
• Irish:
– left Ireland mainly because of disease that attacked potatoes,
Ireland’s main food crop. This disease caused a famine
• famine: severe food shortage
• Many Irish settled in San Patricio and Refugio
Other Europeans, cont
• Settlers also came from France
– Frenchman named Henri Castro founded colony of Castroville
along Medina River
• Other settlers came from:
– Poland
• led by Father Leopold Moczygemba
• settled in town of Panna Maria
– Czechoslovakia—
• settled in Central Texas
• led by Ernst Bergmann & Josef Lesikar
– Sweden, Norway, Italy, and the Netherlands
http://www.bestplaces.net/images/city/castroville_tx.gif
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/badeker-tx-castroville-1849.jpg
Henri Castro
http://www.castroville.com/henri_castro.htm
http://www.castroville.com/
Castroville
http://www.castroville.com/images/henricastro.jpg
Native Texans
• Pres Lamar had forced out most Native Texans when
Texas was a Republic
– Kiowas and Comanches still lived in West Texas
• His policy was called the Removal of Native Texans
Removal: forcing Native Americans to move to
reservations
• As more settlers came into Texas, they moved into Native
American land = increased tensions
• US Army set up military posts to help keep peace
– Line of military posts from Ft. Worth to Eagle Pass
Reservations
• In 1854, Texas government passed a bill (law) that set land aside for
reservations
– Brazos Reservation (close to Ft. Belknap in Young County)
• Set up for Tawakonis, Wacos, Tonkawas
– Clear Fork Reservation (on Brazos River…in Throckmorton
County)
• Most Native Texans refused to stay within boundaries of reservations
• Boundaries were crossed by settlers
• Within a few years, most reservations were gone and Native Texans
had been forced out of Texas
Indian Reservations
http://www.texasalmanac.com/topics/history/camp-cooper-ft-belknap-and-indian-reservations
http://www.texashistory.com/Archives/TexasIndianReservations/tabid/152/language/en-US/Default.aspx
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bpb03
https://www.tsl.state.tx.us/exhibits/indian/statehood/page2.html
http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/fundamentals/images/marcy-map-redrawn-sm.jpg
http://www.texasalmanac.com/sites/default/files/images/campcooper.png
Wedges of Separation
• Read “A Real Life Story” p. 295
• For newly annexed Texas meant that US problems were now Texas
problems
• Slavery was a big problem
• During 1850s, several issues caused “wedges of separation” that divided
the US into North and South and led to the breakup of the Union of the
US
– Slavery
– States rights
• By 1861, ¾ of Texans voted to secede from the Union and join the
Confederacy.
– Secede=to withdraw formally
http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/wedge.gif
Slavery in Texas
• Slavery had existed in Texas for many years
• By 1860, the slave population was growing faster than the
free population
• Slaves
– Had no property rights
– Had no legal rights of marriage & family
– Had no way to gain their freedom
– Slave families could be separated and sold
– Could not vote
– Had no freedoms like even the poorest Anglo American
citizens had
Slavery
http://ftsblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-07-at-11.25.16-AM-1024x576.png
Slavery in Texas, cont
• As population of Texas grew so did number of slaves
• Growth of cotton industry meant more slaves were needed
to work the fields
– Many slaves also worked on smaller farms or in trade
shops
• By 1860, about 182,000 slaves lived in Texas (almost 1/3
of state’s population)
• Even though most white people in Texas didn’t own
slaves, they supported the institution of slavery
– They claimed that slaves were needed to support the economy of
the South
– Economy of South did depend on slaves to help produce cash
crops
Slavery in Texas, con’t
• But, many Texans (including
German immigrants and
Tejanos) opposed slavery
– Thought it was morally wrong for
one person to own another
person
• In the North, economy based
on industry/manufacturing and
had not become dependent on
slaves
http://www.belch.com/img/carbon-neutral-farming.jpg
Free African Americans in Texas
• Not all African Americans were slaves
• About 150 free African Americans lived in Texas
during time of Mexican rule…they had full legal
rights
• They lost these legal rights when Texas became
a state but many of them stayed in Texas
anyway
• By 1860, about 350 free African Americans lived
in Texas…probably more
Free African Americans in Texas, con’t
• Most free African Americans were poor farmers but
some were wealthy business owners
– William Goyens: owned blacksmith shop in
Nacogdoches
• When his status as a free man was challenged,
Thomas J. Rusk represented him in court
– Aaron Ashworth: owned farms and ranches in Zavala
County
– Both of these men owned slaves
William Goyens
http://www.tbhpp.org/goyens.html
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fgo24
Aaron Ashworth
http://www.tbhpp.org/goyensmarker2.jpg
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fas05
Slavery in the New US Territories
• Citizens of US debated over whether slaves should be
allowed in new territories
• Compromise of 1850 decided issue for some territories
(like California)
• But issue of slavery had to be decided for other areas
• US Senator Stephen A. Douglas introduced bill to open
settlement in Kansas and Nebraska
– called the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
• Had provision in it that allowed citizens in those territories
to decide if they would permit slavery or not
• All US Senators voted on the bill
– Texas Senator Sam Houston voted against the bill because he
thought that the Kansas-Nebraska Act would divide the Union
– Texas Senator Thomas J. Rusk voted for the bill
• The bill passed but Texans were angry with Sam Houston
because he wanted to keep slavery out of those territories
and Texans wanted slavery
– Sam Houston was not elected to the Senate again as a result of
his voting against the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Political Parties
• Things went from bad to worse for Sam Houston. He
supported the development of a new political party in
Texas
• The Know Nothing Party
• Opposed immigration to US…especially Roman
Catholics with German or Mexican ancestry
• 2 major political parties in US
Democratic Party: mostly supported farmers and
laborers (Most Texans)
Whig Party: mostly supported business growth
Political Parties, cont
• When Texas became a state, most
Texans were Democrats
• Some Texans were Whigs but party never
had strong influence in state
• When Sam Houston supported the Know
Nothing Party, he did so just to oppose the
Democrats in the Texas legislature
– But, he never officially joined the Know
Nothings
Houston’s Race for Governor
• Sam Houston resigned as state senator and
returned to Texas to run for governor in 1857
• He ran as an independent and not as a member of
either political party
• He strongly believed that Southern states should
not secede from Union but that Union should
remain whole
Houston’s Race for Governor, con’t
• Hardin J. Runnels was nominated by the Democratic
Party in Texas to run for governor
– Originally from Mississippi
– Owned a plantation near Red River
– Supported state’s rights—believed that each state had right to
make own decision about slavery
– Favored secession if needed to preserve state’s rights
• Houston had been gone from Texas for 10 years and had
become out of touch with what the citizens of Texas really
wanted
• Sam Houston lost the election but made immediate plans
to run again in 1859
– Runnels became governor in 1857
Governor, cont
• Sam Houston stayed in Texas even after he lost the
governor’s election in 1857
• His presence reminded Texans about who he was and
his contribution to Texas’ history
• Problems on the frontier caused Texans to lose faith in
Gov Runnels
• Gubernatorial Election in 1859: Sam Houston defeated
Hardin Runnels
– As governor, Houston strongly supported the US Union but most
Texans strongly supported state’s rights. Under Houston, Texas
found it difficult to secede from the Union during secession crisis
of 1860-1861 before Civil War began
http://www.tspb.state.tx.us/spb/gallery/govs/images/1989_37_Runnels_LG.jpg
Hardin R. Runnels
http://blog.americanheritage1.com/Portals/48049/images/HOUSTON%20SAM%20PHTO%20COLOR%20SEATED%
20Sam_Houston2.750.jpg
Sam Houston