Let's take a trip back in time to a period just before the Texas Revolution. Perhaps we can find some basis for claims that a leading cause of the revolution wa

Let's take a trip back in time to a period just before the Texas Revolution. Perhaps we can find some basis for claims that a leading cause of the revolution was Anglo settler's desire to increase the number of slaves in Texas to help them build the economy and Mexico's reluctance to allow more slaves. For this trip we will briefly reflect on the writings of a man who traveled to Texas in 1828 to gather information about Texas - plants, geology, business and industry, the political climate, etc for a report back to leaders in Mexico City so that they could use the intelligence to shape their own policies relating to the province. We will use the book *Texas by Teran*. [0] [1] [0] https://archive.org/details/texasbyterandiar0000mier https://archive.org/details/texasbyterandiar0000mier [1] https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292752351/ https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292752351/ He touches on the subject of slavery several times since it is becoming, at the time, a point of friction between the Mexican government and the Anglo settlers. A couple of diary entries that support the fact that slavery was a keystone issue in Anglo settler's decisions to separate from Mexico follow. pp38 - He is making recommendations in a letter to President Guadalupe Victoria and his second recommendation notes - "If the North Americans are allowed to introduce slaves, the Mexicans of Tejas should also be permitted to do so, but if slavery is denied to some it should be denied to all." In 1824 Mexico adopted a new constitution that abolished slavery. By 1829 they elected their first president who had partial African ancestry (Guerrero). Slavery was not allowed in Mexico at the time of Teran's journey. pp 56 - The most persistent goal for this colony is to obtain permission for the introduction of slaves. Without them they say that their settlement cannot prosper, nor can much of the land be cultivated, because there are forests so thick that only with negro labor can they be cleared. They petition the state government for permission to have slaves and make the following proposals: that the slave will be such only temporarily until he repays through his labor the cost of owning him, and that his descendants will be emancipated. There is more in that entry that I encourage people to read but the gist is that anglo settlers wanted slaves and were willing to get them into the territory whether the Mexicans permitted it or not.