After the Alamo: The Real Fight Over Texas & Slavery

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, but that was only the first chapter of a very long struggle with chattel slavery.

Following the annexation of Texas from Mexico in 1845, the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) resulted in a treaty in which the United States obtained Texas and part of California. The United States paid Mexico $50 million for Texas and a section of California, the same amount that they paid France for the Louisiana purchase.

Mexico was anti-slavery. Plantation owners from the south quietly slipped chattel slavery into Texas as the war for possession of the territory raged. The practice of owning people  spread across the eastern two fifths of the state. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, but slavery in Texas didn't end. For two years after the Proclamation, most slave owners in Texas kept quiet about the fact that the enslaved were, in fact, free. 

It wasn't until June 19, 1865, now commemorated in the Juneteenth celebration,  when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston with the news – the Civil War was over and the enslaved were free. 

I was gently reminded, by a good friend from Texas, that Texans have begun to sort out romanticized hero history stories. And of course, many events in our nation’s history have been glossed over and romanticized.

Studying and recording our history with much more attention to accurate detail, as our teachers loved to remind us in school, is often a painful lesson. Discussions of cancel culture spark debates, but it’s truth that matters.

Facing the reality of our past gives us a greater understanding, and a chance to work toward fairness and equity for all.