The Counter Revolution Of 1836: Texas Slavery & Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism

Texas has become a leader of ultra-right forces nationally – especially since the 1950s – when the notorious oilmen were the bulwark of support for McCarthyism. One lesson from Texas history, though, is that repression was so severe because resistance was so daunting – a lesson to keep in mind as this century unfolds.

When Mexico moved to abolish slavery, Texas seceded in 1836 – in a replay of 1776 – in order to perpetuate enslavement of Africans. Until 1845 Texas was an independent nation and moved to challenge the U.S. for leadership in the odious commerce of the African Slave Trade: Texas also competed vigorously with the U.S. in the dirty business of denuding Mexico by snatching California in the race to the Pacific and domination of the vaunted China market.

But Texas could not withstand pressure from abolitionist Mexico and revolutionary Haiti and joined the U.S. as a state – under questionable legal procedures – in 1845. Thereafter Texas’ enslaved population increased exponentially along with land grabs targeting Comanches, Caddo, and Kiowa – and other Indigenous nations – leading to staggeringly violent bloodshed.