Slavery in Early Texas

The history of slavery in Texas, so far as it is of interest to us, began with the year 1821, when Moses Austin received permission to plant an Anglo-American colony on the banks of the Colorado and the Brazos. There may have been a few negroes in the little towns of Bexar and La Bahia at that time, but the number must have been insignificant and limited wholly to personal servants in the families of the well-to-do. The coming of the energetic pioneers from the United States and the development of the rich bottom lands of Texas marked the beginning of a new era, not only in the history of Mexico, but in that of America; and the question of slavery in this wilderness, at that time seemingly of interest only to a few thousand farmers, was soon to engage the attention and determine the policy of the great neighboring nation.