The Black Crop: Slavery and Slave Trading in Nineteenth Century Texas

Commonly thought of as the epicenter of American rugged individualism, the modern state of Texas would not exist without the institution of slavery and the slave trade. The 1836 Texas "Revolution" was largely based on protecting and preserving slavery and served as an important precursor for the American Civil War. The 1845 annexation of Texas engendered feverish debates about the role of slavery in the American republic and its relationship to westward expansion. Slave trading—both internal and external—was a basic and underappreciated component of the economic development of Texas, and enriched many northern business elites such as Charles Morgan, who provided the first regular steamship service into Texas, Elisha Marshall Pease, who served as a two-term Texas governor in the 1850's and during Reconstruction, as well as William Marsh Rice, for whom Rice University is named. This book re-imagines and re-writes the history of Texas from a modern African-American perspective and asks provocative questions about the role of the Lone Star State in the meaning of American freedom.