Mirabeau Lamar to John Russell, October 12, 1840

Summary: Lamar wrote to Russell in response to a letter he received from John Taylor, in which the latter was being prosecuted for allegedly shipping slaves to Texas. Lamar said the British interpretation of Texas law concerning slaves was completely misunderstood because under that law only blacks who had already been slaves would stay in servitude in Texas. The law was never meant to enslave free blacks who came to Texas.

To the

Right Hon. Lord JNO. RUSSELL,

Relative to free persons of Color transferred to Texas by John Taylor

REPUBLIC OF TEXAS

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.

City of Austin 12 Oct 1840.

MY LORD

I have recently received a letter from John Taylor dated Barbadoes July 28. in which he informs me that he is under prosecution for having transferred certain Persons of Color in Texas to be held

as slaves and he alledges that "the foundation of this charge is the fact, that these transfers bear a later date than the declaration of Independence of Texas, and the presumption that this declaration had made slaves of all Colored persons in Texas at that time held by indenture." I have no knowledge of Mr. Taylor but it affords me gratification in Compliance with his request to testify to your Lordship the utter fallacy of this interpretation of our Institutions. Our declaration of Independence makes no allusion to the subject of domestic Slavery. The ninth article in the Schedule of our Constitution provides that "all persons of Color who are slaves for life previous to their emigration to Texas and who are now held in bondage shall remain in the like state of servitude provided the said slaves shall be the bona fide property of the persons so holding said slaves etc. It would be superfluous to suggest to your Lordship that under this provision (and we can have no law contravening it) it would be impossible to subject to absolute slavery any person indentured for years only or who was not a slave for life previous to his emigration to this Country. I am prompted to this communication by a desire to correct an opprobrious error in relation to our young institutions, and so far as the correction will go to vindicate the innocence of one of her Britanic Majesty's subjects. With great consideration I have the honor to be your Lordships most Obt. Servt.

MIRABEAU B LAMAR

To The Right Hon. Lord JOHN RUSSELL

Secty. State for the Colonies

Source Copy Consulted: Mirabeau Lamar to John Russell, October 12, 1840, George Garrison, ed., Diplomatic Correspondence of the Republic of Texas, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1908, (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911), 3 vols., 3: 903-904