Statehood, Secession and Civil WarIntroductionContextAnnexation marked a milestoneFreed from any realistic threat of mexican reconquestBolstered by the economic, military and diplomatic benefits that resulted from American statehoodTexas enjoyed greater latitude to chart its courseYears between annexation and civil war, the state became more closely aligned with theCultureEconomyPoliticsOf the deep southSlavery and cotton had increasing importanceHelped Texas follow a Southern path in the decades after the war.Following annexation, Texas remained a magnet for immigrants seeking new beginningsFederal census212,000 personsIncluding slavesInhabited the stateEthnically and culturally diverseAnglo Americans from the southern US constituted more than half of all residentsThe South provided two different streams of immigration inflowPeople from the lower south (States from South Carolina to LA) Clustered in Eastern and south eastern TexasSection of the state had commercial farms that used slave labor to growCotton, sugar and riceIn contrast with people from the upper southBorder states separating the south from the northVirginia to ArkansasGravitated to the North and North central counties of TexasThis wave ran family farms instead of commercialDepended less on cotton and more on food-stuffsPrimarily corn and wheat.Ethnic diversity was every where tooTexas Mexicans - TejanoGermansIrishNorwegiansCame as well and formed their own settlementsOn the eve of the Civil war, Texas’s population had almost tripled to 604,000Its growth since 1850 had been dramatic and the cultural diversity and ethnic regionalism of the population were markedDuring the same era however, slavery and the politics of sectionalism fused the diverse elements of Texas society to life in the Deep South.In 1861 when the Civil war began, the majority of Texans would side with the seceding states despite the cultural and diverse affiliationsTexas Economy at MidcenturyTexas had been shaped by the basic premise of Mexican FederalismThe state and not the federal govt should administer the state’s domain.Desiring the perpetuate that tradition, Texas had insisted on maintaining its public lands.As a state, Texas perpetuated the Land Policy of the Republic and thereby continued to attract lots of immigrants.In 1854, the state legislature passed the Texas Preemption ActThrough which the state offered homesteaders 168-acre parcels of land for as little as 50 cents an acre.Compared to 1.25 an acre price in the USThroughout the 1850s, Texas remained primarily an agrarian societyIn 1850, there were 12,107 farms in the stateBy 1860, there were 35,563 farmsDuring that same decade, the number of improved acres rose from 600,000 to 2.5 millionCotton production increased from 58,000 bales in 1849 to 431,463 bales in 1859While sugar and wool increasingly became cash commodities, cotton remained the state's staple crop.Cotton thrived on plantationsLower valley of the Colorado river to the SabineSettled by inhabitants of the US’s lower southBetween 1848 and the eve of the civil war,Lands worked by slaves gave high profits. Greatly fueled westward expansion of both cotton and slavery.It must be remembered that only 1/3 of Texas farms even had slaves as part of their work forceTexas who constituted planter elite (owned more that 100 slaves) amounted to a small minorityIn reality, 20% of planters heading the list of slave owners, owned 96% of the total slave populationMost Texas slave owners had fewer than 5 slavesNot everyone relied on cotton.North and North central farmersWheatOatsOther food stuffsAg pattern from the upper southPart of the state from the Brazos river, west to the frontier beyond San AntonioAnglo landowners using slave labor coexisted with small farmers who cultivated veggies, grains and fruits, engaged in viticulture and delved into ranching.Over time, many of the small farmers in the regionGermansThey slowly accepted southern nuances of southern culture and began to support chattel slaveryThe ranch kept its economic importance around the prairie area and also the piney woods and in north eastern countiesTejanos continued to ranch along the Rio Grande border but as Anglos drifted in to the areaDisputes over cattle ownership and ranch land arose between the two peopleAmong the newcomers to the cattle ranching empire wereH. L. KinneyRichard King (of King Ranch)From the early settings of Anglo cattle ranching in eastern Texas ranchers during the 1850s migrated southwest to the Guadalupe, San Antonio and Nueces river valleysRich pasture land that had been dominated by???Ranching also pushed west into the central western frontier of the state toward the counties of the cross timbers and into the upper hill country areas such as San Saba and LampasasWith this spread, ranching traditions imported from the Southeastern seaboard of the US made their way Westward.As of 1850, only 10% of Texans lived in towns of populations with greater than 100 people.Galveston was Texas’s largest city with a population of 5,000Location on the gulf made it a natural center for shipping, storage and wholesale commerce though the port city also sustained itself through manufacturing, banking and cotton compression.Only four other towns in the whole state had a population greater than 1000San AntonioPoint of departure for stage coaches and freight companiesHoustonInland port that acted as a conduit to the GulfNew BraunfelsMarshallAustin had barely 600 inhabitants at mid centuryEven the largest Texas towns lacked the conveniences with urban livingOne or two room structures acted as stores of municipal buildingsLibraries, theaters or rec areas were absentBy 1860, however, the number of Texas communities boasting populations of greater than 1000 had jumpedSan Antonio with 8000 occupants passed Galveston as Texas’s largest city.North Texas still had no major city by the onset of the Civil WarNot even Dallas was prospective then.Southern TraitsUrban economics reflected in the state’s basisCotton, sugar and wool constituted the main urban exportsIndustry was in its infancyThe iron foundaries of Galveston and Houston ranked among the major employers in Texas but neither hired more than 40 peopleAt the beginning of the civil war, the state’s economy resembled that more of the south than the urbanized northIn comparison to New York and Penn,