SSStttooonnnyyy BBBrrrooooookkk UUUnnniiivvveeerrrsssiiitttyyy The official electronic file of this thesis or dissertation is maintained by the University Libraries on behalf of The Graduate School at Stony Brook University. ©©© AAAllllll RRRiiiggghhhtttsss RRReeessseeerrrvvveeeddd bbbyyy AAAuuuttthhhooorrr... The Limits of Liberty: African Americans, Indians, and Peons in the Texas-Mexico Borderlands, 1820-1860 A Dissertation Presented by James David Nichols to The Graduate School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Stony Brook University May 2012 Copyright by James David Nichols 2012 Stony Brook University The Graduate School James David Nichols We, the dissertation committee for the above candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, hereby recommend acceptance of this dissertation. April F. Masten – Dissertation Advisor Assistant Professor, History, Stony Brook University Paul Gootenberg - Chairperson of Defense Professor, History, Stony Brook University Kathleen Wilson Professor, History, Stony Brook University Karl Jacoby Professor, History, Brown University This dissertation is accepted by the Graduate School Charles Taber Interim Dean of the Graduate School ii Abstract of the Dissertation The Limits of Liberty: African Americans, Indians, and Peons in the Texas-Mexico Borderlands, 1820-1860 by James David Nichols Doctor of Philosophy in History Stony Brook University 2012 In the decades surrounding the U.S.-Mexico war, the borderlands of Texas and Northeastern Mexico teemed with mobile peoples crossing to the other side in search of better working and living conditions. While these migrants authored virtually no written sources, they left their mark in other ways. They employed one of the few resources available to them—mobility—to pioneer alternative routes across the borderlands. Runaway slaves who sought freedom in Mexico, Mexican indebted laborers who sought liberal working conditions in Texas, and Native Americans who hoped to assert their cultural autonomy blazed routes across the Rio Grande/Bravo. But once they reached their destinations, the insecurity of conditions on the ground put very real limits on their liberty. For one thing, in the absence of more regular diplomatic options, Texan regulars and volunteers kept up constant military pressure on Mexico to return runaway slaves and punish errant Indians. For another, the poverty of the Mexican frontier and the inability of commanders to meet the challenges of the Texans and the needs of the migrants added to the insecurity. Meanwhile, Native tribes who immigrated to Mexico found that the inhabitants of the Mexican North thought of them no differently than the Comanches with whom they were at war. The situation was not much improved for the migrants who charted the opposite trajectory, escaping debt peonage in Mexico to find more liberal working conditions in Texas. Mexicans who failed to replicate the racism of West Texas often found their lives hemmed in by violence. Most threatening of all to these people “in-between,” however, was the prospect of international cooperation between the United States and Mexico, both of whom sought to assert their sovereignty over the borderlands in the 1850s. Nevertheless, mobile peoples forced Northern Mexican officials to take a stand against slavery and racism, and the experience of peons in Texas nudged Mexicans towards embracing free labor. In the final analysis, border-crossers had a significant impact not only on the meaning of the borderlands, but also on the understanding that Northern Mexicans and Texans had of themselves, their societies, and their respective nations. iii Dedicated to my father, James Allen Nichols iv Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………..…………………......……1 I. “Impatient for the Promised Freedom”: Runaway Slaves in the West Texas Borderlands……………………………………………….……………..………...…20 II. “A Great System of Roaming”: Runaway Peons in the West Texas Borderlands………………………………………………………………..…………60 III. “Under the Ample Protection of the Law”: Afronorteamericanos in the Texas- Tamaulipas Borderlands……...…………………………………...……..…………106 IV. “Semi-Civilizados”: Immigrant Tribes in the Texas-Coahuila Borderlands……………………………………………………………..…..………145 V. “A Pretty Respectable African Colony”: Violence in the borderlands of Slavery and Freedom………………………………………………..……………………...……188 VI. “Entre Las Fronteras de Ambos Países”: War and Peace in Lipan Apachería…….233 Conclusion……………………………………………………….…………………282 Bibliography………………………………………………………..………………302 v List of Figures West Texas in 1851…………………………………………...………..………………......……20 Ben Kinchelow, May 22, 1937……………………………………..…………….….........……132 The Texas-Mexico Borderlands before 1848………………………....………………......……233 vi List of Abbreviations AGN Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico City. AGEC Archivo General del Estado de Coahuila, Saltillo, Coahuila. FSXIX AGEC Archivo General del Estado de Coahuila Fondo Siglo XIX [Satillo, Coahuila] AMG AGEC Archivo General del Estado de Coahuila Fondo Archivo Municipal Guerrero FCMO AGEC Fondo Colonias Militares Orientales SEDNA Archivo de la Secretaría de Defensa Nacional SRE Archivo de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Mexico City LE SRE Archivo de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriories Fondo Legajo Encauderno AEMEUA SRE Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Archivo de la Embajada Mexicana en los Estados Unidos de América AHMAT Archivo Historico de Matamoros, Tamaulipas AMS Archivo Municipal Saltillo, Coahuila AGENL Archivo General del Estado de Nuevo León, Monterrey CAH Center for American History, Austin Texas WPW CAH Walter Prescott Webb papers TIP Texas Indian Papers TSA Texas State Archives NAW National Archives Washington, microfilm (consulted at Colegio de México) L legajo E expediente C caja F and fs. foja vii Acknowledgments This dissertation would not have been possible without an army of supporters, well- wishers, friends, and sympathizers. First of all, my entire graduate career would have come to naught without the intellectual guidance of my committee members at Stony Brook University. I thank Professor Kathleen Wilson for helping me think hard about issues of freedom and slavery. After taking her seminars, I will never be able to see identity as something stable or whole ever again. Professor Paul Gootenberg, meanwhile, introduced me to the entire world of Latin American history and social sciences, and for that I am eternally indebted. As a fellow audiophile, he has also hipped me in the arcane art of turntablism. Finally, Professor April Masten is the person most responsible for my intellectual development over the past decade. Not only has she awakened me to the social responsibility that historians share with their subjects, she has ignited in me a passion for 19th century history. I am fortunate to count her as both a mentor and a friend. I would also like to acknowledge the enormous impact that a class on the “Age of the U.S.-Mexico” war taken with Professor Walter Johnson at New York University had on my thinking. And finally, I owe much in my scholarship about borderlands to both the writing and personal guidance of Professor Karl Jacoby—who was also kind enough to serve as my outside reader for the dissertation. Of course, scholarly and emotional support alone cannot sustain an extensive research trip. An International Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council made this work possible financially. I would not have completed my dissertation without this grant. It afforded me the rare luxury for a graduate student of having nothing to do except research and think for an entire year—and in a wonderful host country to boot. viii The generosity of the SSRC got me to Mexico, and once there I had the invaluable assistance of a number of scholars. These included Carlos Manuel Valdés and Francisco Rodríguez in Saltillo, Luís García in Monterrey, and Gerald Gurza and Paulina del Moral in Mexico City. Cyrilla Quintero in Matamoros, meanwhile, was immensely helpful in getting me acquainted with that town. Most importantly, my affiliation at Colegio de México immersed me in the intellectual life of that great city. A meeting with Josefina Vásquez led me to a number of sources and got me into the tightly-guarded Archivo de la Secretaría de Defensa Nacional. Finally, I will be eternally grateful to my advisor in Mexico, Dr. Clara Lida, for her support and for introducing me to the charms of San Ángel. In addition to my institutional guidance, I would also like to acknowledge the friendly and knowledgeable archival and library staffs whom I encountered in Texas. I am also obliged to the Texas State Historical Association for partially funding my work. I began my research at the Center for American History at the University of Texas on a John H. Jenkins Research Grant. Three years later, I finished my work there with a William and Madeline Smith Travel Award, which funded a month long stay in the city of Austin. Archival and library staffs in Mexico likewise lent me vital assistance. In Mexico City, the staff at Archivo General de la Nación always made me feel welcome. I am also forever indebted to Stony Brook’s own Froylan Enciso, who guided me to a number of boxes at the Archivo de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores that had not seen the light of day in decades. In Monterrey, my research was helped along greatly by the curator and baseball aficionado, Artemio Benavides. In Saltillo, the staff at the Archivo General del Estado