Summary Of An Empire For Slavery

In An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821-1865 Randolph B. Campbell discusses the institution or empire of slavery in Texas from early 1821 until its somewhat conclusion in 1865. In Campbell’s book he provides readers with a look at the slavery existence in the state of Texas and how it was an empire that was a major part of Texas’s growth and history. Throughout the book Campbell explores many different aspects of the slave institution throughout the many cities and counties in Texas. Campbell discusses the perplexing economic impact of slavery, the relationship between slave and slave master, the life of a Texas slave and delves into the physical and psychological effects of both slaves and their masters preceding the Civil War. In the Spanish territory of Texas the slave population was almost non-existent. The people who originally lived in the Texas area did not have slaves or were not really into the slavery empire because the Mexican government was against slavery and wanted the abolish the slavery institution. The Mexican government tried to implement different laws that helped slow the growth of slavery in Texas. Campbell describes how Americans migrated illegally into the Texas area and with them they brought their

Austin was one of the main advocates for slavery. Stephen F. Austin often argued that slavery was important and imperative for the development of Texas. Austin also argued that slavery was very lucrative for the state in terms of growing and selling crops and improving Texas with different buildings, roads, and other structures. “Virginia-born Stephen F. Austin, for example, spoke at times as a critic of slavery and protested that he objected to the institution in principle, but he personally held slaves and did more than any other individual to establish slavery in Mexican Texas.”(45) Stephen F. Austin was just one of the many people that fought against the Mexican Government to keep slavery legal in