History of Slavery in Texas - Confederacy

Confederacy

Texas seceded from the United States in 1861, and joined the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. It replaced the pro-Union governor, Sam Houston, in the process. During the war, slavery in Texas was little affected, and prices for slaves remained high until the last few months of the war. The number of slaves in the state increased dramatically as the Union Army occupied parts of Arkansas and Louisiana. Slaveholders in those areas often moved their slaves to Texas to avoid having them emancipated. By 1865 there were an estimated 250,000 slaves in Texas. Many planters, however, lost part of their workforces temporarily to the Confederate Army, which impressed one-quarter of the slaves on each plantation to construct defensive earthworks for the Texas coast and to drive military supply wagons. Anyone convicted of providing arms to slaves during the war was sentenced to between two and five years of hard labor.

Unlike in other Southern states, only a small number of Texas slaves, estimated at 47, joined the Union Army. Few battles took place in Texas, which acted as a supply state to the Confederacy. As Texas was much more distant from the Union Army lines for much of the war, slaves were unable to reach them. The last battle of the war was fought at Palmito Ranch (near Brownsville, TX) in 1865.