Slavery and the Texas Revolution Author(s): Paul D. Lack Source: The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 89, No. 2 (Oct., 1985), pp. 181-202 Published by: Texas State Historical Association Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/30239908 Accessed: 07-03-2019 03:21 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Texas State Historical Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Southwestern Historical Quarterly This content downloaded from 129.8.242.67 on Thu, 07 Mar 2019 03:21:57 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Slavery and the Texas Revolution PAUL D. LACK* IF LANGUAGE SERVES AS A USEFUL GUIDE, THE MATTER OF SLAVERY OC- cupied an important place in the minds of the leaders of the Texas Revolution. Their rhetoric brimmed with imagery depicting a struggle between freedom and bondage. In their view Mexico sought to enslave the only people in the land who still dared to defend the cause of lib- erty. A group of volunteers in October, 1835, labeled Mexican rule as "worse than Egyptian bondage"; the following June General Thomas J. Rusk sought to rally the people to the field against an enemy who in- tended "to make [them] the slaves of petty military commandants." The opposing soldiers thus became "menial slaves" of military despotism.