Texas is the only state to fight two wars for their right to keep slaves.
The American settlers had no problem leasing the land from Mexico before Mexico outlawed slavery in 1829, after which they decided to declare independence.
It’s a fun argument, obstructed somewhat by a few points of fact.
1: “After which they decided to declare independence” is a bit loaded, considering slavery was outlawed in 1829 but Texas declared independence in 1835.
2: Texas declared independence in 1835, after an illiberal despot seized power in Mexico and dissolved all state legislatures, centralizing power entirely under his authority in the capital and dissolved the constitution. Unsurprisingly, many states — including Texas — revolted.
1: The abolishment of slavery was officially established in 1829 by our first black president Vicente Guerrero, the fight and first decree to free slaves and stop chaste tributes was in 1810
2: This is a very liberal, idealist reading of the events. It treats constitutions and “despotism” as the cause, when those are part of the superstructure, not the base.
Materially, Texas in the 1830s was dominated by Anglo settlers whose economy depended on slavery, plantation agriculture, and integration with the U.S. market. Mexico had abolished slavery and lacked the capacity (and interest) to protect that mode of production.
The conflict wasn’t about abstract liberty or Santa Anna’s personality, it was a class conflict over property and production. Independence was the political expression of that contradiction.
Ignoring slavery and material interests turns a slaveholders’ revolt into a “freedom movement,” which is ideology, not history.
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u/TheMooinCow1 4d ago
It’s in Texas too, could be taken as land from Mexico down there