Episode 53 – Antebellum Texas – Headed To Civil War Part 1

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We call it the antebellum period in  American History, but exactly what is that?  The Antebellum Period in American history refers to the time leading up to the Civil War, specifically from the late18th century through 1861. The term “antebellum” means “before the war” in Latin, and it is often associated with the Southern United States. This era was marked by significant economic, social, and political changes, particularly in relation to slavery and the expansion of the U.S. territory.

Some of the main or key features that help us to recognize the Antebellum Period are:

Slavery and Tensions: I’ve talked about this issue and how prevalent slavery became in the state of Texas. How it served as an economic engine for Texas. The increase in slaves and slavery led to intense moral, economic, and political conflicts between the Northern and Southern states. One of the primary reasons for this tension was the North had begun moving toward industrialization and abolitionist movements were gaining strength.

Westward Expansion: Remember I talked about manifest destiny and the role that played as the nation acquired vast new territory in the West. As a result, there were conflicts over whether new states should permit slavery, further heightening regional tensions.

Economic Development: This was a big driving force and source of tension. The North and South developed distinct economies, the North focused on industry and urbanization while the South remained largely agricultural, relying on cotton production and slave labor.

Social Reform Movements: The period saw the rise of various social reform movements, including abolitionism, women’s rights, temperance, and educational reform. Key figures like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and others became prominent advocates for change. Needless to say, these types of movements caused great concern in southern states.

Political Conflicts and Compromises: Efforts to balance the interests of slave and free states led to significant legislation, such as the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854). However, these efforts ultimately failed to resolve the underlying tensions.

The Antebellum Period ended in 1861 when the Southern states seceded from the Union, and the outbreak of the Civil War. Last episode I spoke about the crisis of 1850 and how it proved there was strong positive feelings for the union in Texas, but it also revealed that in spite of its location in the southwest, many of its citizens still proudly identified with the Old South.

During this period, especially during the first few years of statehood, more people started coming to settle in Texas. The census of 1847, which was a state census showed the population was 142,009. Only 3 years in 1850 later the official U.S. census showed a population of 212,592 people. Almost 70 percent of the state’s 212,592 inhabitants were white, and the vast majority of them were settlers from other states. About 28 percent were black slaves and the rest were Hispanic or Indian. Native peoples were not counted in the official census of the U.S. until 1890.

Those new Texas arrivals originated from the upper South and states that at one time were considered the frontier, primarily in the Northwest such as Illinois. They arrived by traveling through the Marshall-Jefferson area, those who travelled through the Nacogdoches area were largely from the lower South. Meanwhile the Gulf Coast, Galveston and Indianola were the main entry points for many from the lower southern states; along with a large percentage of foreign-born immigrants, especially Germans, who arrived in the late 1840s.

For the most part, even though most historians don’t think of these settlers as “true frontiersmen” they were true pioneers, because Texas was truly a frontier state. There was a line of settlements that advanced westward as more people moved into and cultivated new regions. As a result of the continued encroachment into what we call ‘Indian territory’ those who tried to settle there often faced trouble with the early inhabitants, especially the Comanches.

Once Texas became a state, the Army had the job of defending the frontier settlements. Remember from earlier shows I spoke about the Frontier Forts and how in the years of 1848–49 a line of eight military posts were built from Fort Worth to Fort Duncan, at Eagle Pass on the Rio Grande. Only 2 years later, settlers applied more pressure so that the government opened up additional lands for settlement. Needless to say, this was accompanied by a demand that the army do a better job of protecting existing settlements. In response the federal government built seven additional forts approximately 100 miles to the west of the existing posts. This new line of defense, when completed in 1852, ran from Fort Belknap, on the Brazos River, to Fort Clark, at the site of present-day Brackettville.  While these forts and the soldiers who were there were theoretically supposed to be able to ease tensions with the Comanches, in reality conflict with them continued for the remainder of the decade and extended even after the Civil War.

During the 1850s , the Comanche troubles when combined with a lack of water and wood in west Texas hampered the advance of  the settlers and the frontier did not move past those last 7 forts. However, in the area immediately to the east, let’s say from east of what is now interstate 35,  the region continued to fill with settlers. By 1860, a line of settlements generally ran north to south through Clay, Young, Erath, Brown, Llano, Kerr, and Uvalde counties.

The great majority of the people who moved into Texas during the 1850s lived well to the east of the frontier fort areas. They moved onto land that had already been taken from the indigenous people who were there and even, in many cases, from the original Spanish land grant holders. These new Texans made up a significant portion of the population of slaveholding, cotton-producing farmers and planters that marched southwestward. Much like it did in the old south, “King Cotton” began to rule antebellum Texas. The Anglo-American settlers desired to build a plantation society that would stretch from the Red River and encompass all the fertile lands up to the Trinity, Brazos, Colorado, and included the lesser rivers that emptied into the Gulf of Mexico.     

Remember our 212,592 Texans from the 1850 census? It turns out that about 95 percent of them lived in the eastern two-fifths of the state. While you may think that two-fifths of the area of a state isn’t that big of a deal, realize that in Texas that is an area the size of Alabama and Mississippi combined. Only ten years later, the state’s population grew to 604,215, and the vast majority were still living in that same region. One difference between Texas and the Old South was that overall, there was a far greater ethnic diversity in Texas than you would find elsewhere.

For example, there was a significant number of German settlers in the south-central counties. A significant population of Mexican Texans ranging southward from San Antonio. Sprinkled throughout the region you would find smaller groups of Poles, Czechs, and other foreign-born immigrants. Regardless of this spread, the largest group of immigrants originated in lower South. By 1860 three out of every four households where headed by one of those immigrants. Unfortunately, enslaved African Americans constituted an increasingly large part of the Texas population, it is estimated that they comprised about 28 percent in 1850 and 30 percent by 1860. In real numbers during the 1850s, the count of those held in slavery rose from 58,161 to 182,566, a growth of 214 percent.

Slavery expanded because cotton production expanded. Cotton production rose from less that 60,000 bales in 1850 to a staggering 400,000 in 1860.  Slavery and cotton were wedded throughout antebellum Texas, and as a result both came to almost completely dominate the state’s agricultural economy. While there were plantations in Brazoria and Matagorda counties that produced a significant number of sugar crops, farmers and planters in other parts of the state focused on growing cotton as their primary source of cash income.

By 1860 King Cotton ruled the eastern two-fifths of Texas, with a prairie area that was around Dallas and the plains south of the San Antonio River, being the exception. In 1929, Historian Charles W. Ramsdell suggested that during the 1850s, the cotton frontier had begun to reach its natural limits in Texas.  The west Texas soil and climate made plantation agriculture untenable, and since the area is close to Mexico, there was always the very real possibility that slaves would run away. Mexico offered any run-away slave freedom and the guarantee they would not be returned to Texas.

When it came to expansion of the cotton production, even though there were obstacles, cotton had enormous expansion potential in Texas. By 1860. growth had not ended anywhere in the state, and some parts of the state, especially the north central prairie region had not yet even been opened. When combined, the fertile soils of both Blackland Prairie and Grand Prairie counties would have been able to produce hundreds of thousands of bales of cotton. When combined those two prairie regions were almost three-fourths as large as the state of South Carolina. The only thing holding them back was a lack of adequate transportation and not enough slaves to work the land. The cotton frontier of antebellum Texas almost became a virtual empire for slavery. Editor John F. Marshall of the Austin State Gazette (remember that paper? I talked about it last time) expressed great confidence when he wrote in one of his articles, that one day the state of Texas would have two million slaves or even more.

That’s going to do it for today, In the next episode, I’ll talk more about what’s ahead for Texas, for the plantation owners, the regular citizens, and those held in slavery as we inch closer to the civil war.  

 I hope you’ve enjoyed, and if not enjoyed at least learned something you might not have known before about the Hidden History of Texas. Please subscribe to the podcast,  If you want more information on Texas History, visit the website of the Texas State Historical Association. I also have four audiobooks on the Hidden History of Texas, The Spanish Bump Into Texas 1530s to 1820s,  Here Come The Anglos 1820s to 1830s, Years of Revolution 1830 to 1836. And, my latest A Failing Republic Becomes a State 1836-1850. You can find the books pretty much wherever you download or listen to audiobooks. Just do a search for the Hidden History of Texas by Hank Wilson and they’ll pop right up. Or visit my website https://arctx.org. By the way if you like audiobooks, visit my publisher’s website there’s an incredible selection of audiobooks there. In addition to mine you’ll find the classics, horror, science fiction, mental-health, and much more. Check it out visit https://ashbynavis.com

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