Stephen F. Austin, Cotton, & Chattel Slavery In Texas

Cantrell, the author of Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas said, “He understood very clearly that the cotton economy depended upon slave labor. On numerous occasions, when people raised this issue with him, he said, ‘Texas must be a slave country,’ and he put his money where his mouth was.” Austin lobbied hard to ensure slavery in Texas despite the attempts of the Mexican government to ban the institution. However, in 1824, Mexico passed the General Colonization Law, which enabled all heads of household, regardless of race, religion, or immigrant status, to acquire land in Coahuila y Tejas. Mexico was attempting what the United States offered in the constitution to land-owning white men; life, liberty, and land ownership to all peoples, including Black peoples.