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David J. Weber Series in the New Borderlands History
Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800-1850
By the late 1810s, a global revolution in cotton had remade the U.S.-Mexico border, bringing wealth and waves of Americans to the Gulf Coast while also devastating the lives and villages of Mexicans in Texas. In response, Mexico threw open its northern territories to American farmers in hopes that cotton could bring prosperity to the region. Thousands of Anglo-Americans poured into Texas, but their insistence that slavery accompany them sparked pitched battles across Mexico. An extraordinary alliance of Anglos and Mexicans in Texas came together to defend slavery against abolitionists in the Mexican government, beginning a series of fights that culminated in the Texas Revolution. In the aftermath, Anglo-Americans rebuilt the Texas borderlands into the most unlikely creation: the first fully committed slaveholders' republic in North America.
Seeds of Empire tells the remarkable story of how the cotton revolution of the early nineteenth century transformed northeastern Mexico into the western edge of the United States, and how the rise and spectacular collapse of the Republic of Texas as a nation built on cotton and slavery proved to be a blueprint for the Confederacy of the 1860s.
Seeds of Empire tells the remarkable story of how the cotton revolution of the early nineteenth century transformed northeastern Mexico into the western edge of the United States, and how the rise and spectacular collapse of the Republic of Texas as a nation built on cotton and slavery proved to be a blueprint for the Confederacy of the 1860s.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published September 14, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 8, 2018
It is hard to believe that it has been more than one-half of a century since the last serious, scholarly history of Texas. This award-winning book has so much to offer, and is deserving of its multiple awards. Torget's approach is transnational and also places the Texas borderlands within the Atlantic world of empires, slavery-based capitalism, and the cotton commodity revolution. He is also rare for being the non-Mexicanist who actually carefully delves into the historical record in Mexico, from Spanish colony to republic, and at both the national and state levels.
One of the most interesting arguments is that the FAILED Republic of Texas modeled the later EPIC FAIL of the Confederacy. Such shining heroes of "Texas independence" as Austin, Lamar, Houston, and even Seguin, come off poorly: not much better than racist sharecroppers. Some Americans cultivated cotton without enslaved labor, though they did not become rich. Slavery made it possible for these haystack sleepers to chase the dream of unimagined wealth from the sweat of the brow of chattel slaves.
The privilege of whiteness was cemented early in the raucous borderlands: neither Native Americans nor the original Tejanos fared much better when facing the encroaching hordes of racist cracker cotton dreamers.
The work concludes with the disastrous-for-Mexico North American invasion, when the US decided AGAINST being a good neighbor. The unconstitutional and morally corrupt war also made it impossible to avoid the later civil war, while also plunging Mexico into even greater turmoil.
Scofflaw immigrants from the usual suspect states of AL, LA, and MI, set a fine precedent for the principles of liberty, the rights of man, and respect for constitutional law that still trouble our nation. And the abject conditions of the fabled "Texas Republic" (no hard currency, credit-based economy, brutality, illegal guns, refuting of national laws of Mexico, perceived slights, etc.) give lie to that imagined republic, which in reality, was nothing more than race-based nation making and ethnic cleansing.
One of the most interesting arguments is that the FAILED Republic of Texas modeled the later EPIC FAIL of the Confederacy. Such shining heroes of "Texas independence" as Austin, Lamar, Houston, and even Seguin, come off poorly: not much better than racist sharecroppers. Some Americans cultivated cotton without enslaved labor, though they did not become rich. Slavery made it possible for these haystack sleepers to chase the dream of unimagined wealth from the sweat of the brow of chattel slaves.
The privilege of whiteness was cemented early in the raucous borderlands: neither Native Americans nor the original Tejanos fared much better when facing the encroaching hordes of racist cracker cotton dreamers.
The work concludes with the disastrous-for-Mexico North American invasion, when the US decided AGAINST being a good neighbor. The unconstitutional and morally corrupt war also made it impossible to avoid the later civil war, while also plunging Mexico into even greater turmoil.
Scofflaw immigrants from the usual suspect states of AL, LA, and MI, set a fine precedent for the principles of liberty, the rights of man, and respect for constitutional law that still trouble our nation. And the abject conditions of the fabled "Texas Republic" (no hard currency, credit-based economy, brutality, illegal guns, refuting of national laws of Mexico, perceived slights, etc.) give lie to that imagined republic, which in reality, was nothing more than race-based nation making and ethnic cleansing.
April 1, 2024
Well-researched and well-written. Addresses history I didn't learn, but certainly should have, in Texas history classes in public schools.
Read
October 23, 2021Thinking A LOT about if you can ever untangle plantations from commodity crops, capitalism from commodity crops, techno- from commodity crops, etc. etc. A compelling economic history that is SO, SO fitting for my work this semester!
March 31, 2017
This is a very important book in the canon of early Texas history. It is very well researched, and reaches some interesting conclusions. The premise of the book is that the cotton production industry, using slave labor was the primary impetus in the early settlement of Texas--rather than the old theory of "Manifest Destiny." The book looks at history from all sides--giving the Mexican side of the story as well as the Anglo-American side. Although the history of Mexico in the 1820s and 1830s is a history of confusion, it is impressive that the actions of the Mexican government were based on enlightened principles. Mexico allowed slavery in this region because that was the only way to entice the settlement that was needed to develop the area, but Mexico also had a very strong anti-slavery movement. I believe that this book should be required reading for all college level Texas history courses. I highly recommend it.
March 5, 2022
The evolution of cotton farming in Texas and the southern U.S. gives the reader an intriguing look at one of the primary economic drivers behind the colonization of early Texas. Although the military side of the Texas story has been covered extensively by previous authors, Andrew J. Torget breaks new ground through this engaging narrative of intense political drama on the confluences of social and economic forces created by cotton farming and the role of slave labor in the Texas borderlands. This captivating story encompasses the highest levels of diplomatic circles in Spain, Mexico, Texas, the United States, Great Britain and France in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Torget sets the stage by delving deeply into the Spanish dilemma of how to settle their sparsely populated northern territory. He highlights the inability of Tejanos to deal with the encroachments of hostile tribes of Indians in Texas following the military defeat of the Gutierrez-Magee expedition at the Battle of Medina by the Spanish royalist forces in 1813. The subsequent suppression of Tejano residents that had been implicated in the rebellion drove a wedge between these native-born Texans and their Spanish oppressors. In the years which followed, the Tejano leadership in San Antonio de Bexar more closely aligned their political and economic interests with those of the Anglo immigrants in Texas.
At about the same time, advances in technology created a tremendous demand for high quality southern cotton used in the emerging textile industry in Great Britain. Most of this cotton was produced by a slave-based agriculture system in the southern United States. This, more than anything, accounted for the rapid growth in the populations of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in the first thirty years of the nineteenth century. The cotton farming boom in these southern states also created a great demand for field horses, resulting in horrific waves of violence as Texas Comanche Indians routinely raided the Spanish farms and ranches – stealing thousands of horses and driving them eastward in exchange for goods. The prospect of introducing Anglo-American emigration into Texas, as proposed by Moses Austin in late 1820, was viewed by officials in Mexico City as a logical solution in developing agriculture in the Texas borderlands as well as increasing the non-Indian population.
One of the greatest strengths of this book is its intricate discussion of Stephen F. Austin’s political persuasion in regard to the introduction of slave labor in Texas in 1824 and the efforts of Mexican political officials to abolish any use of African slavery within their borders. Austin tried in vain to negotiate the sensitive economic issue of slavery with officials in Mexico City, but he was met with fierce opposition. It was only after his lobbying effort with Tejano allies – including Juan Antonio Padilla and Jose Antonio Navarro, that Navarro, then a representative in the Coahuila-Texas legislature, quietly slipped a piece of legislation honoring “any prior labor contracts for American immigrants” into the region in 1828. This created a technical loophole for the widespread use of slave labor in Texas. Once this use of “indentured servants” was written into state law, it gave the political and legal protections to accelerate the American immigration plan into Texas, as potential settlers could rest assured that their slave-based agriculture system would be honored in Texas. The slave population in Texas rapidly increased over the next several years, contributing to the hardening of anti-American sentiment in Mexican politicians, many of whom called for a gradual or outright emancipation of slaves in Texas.
The book also chronicles the continuation of the slave-based labor system following the Texas Revolution in 1836 and the resulting negative political and economic backlash which factored into the first failed attempts at annexation, fund raising and early diplomatic recognition by the United States, Great Britain and France. One of the surprises in this work is its intricate yet highly entertaining documentation and discussion of the political discourse regarding the cotton and slavery issues which takes place between Texas diplomats, foreign governments, financiers, rabid abolitionists and the cotton farming and manufacturing industries. This complicated but engaging story not only gives us a new dimension to the story of early Texas, but it places the reader squarely into the time period. From here, we can begin to understand how this divisive institution of African slavery fit into the broader perspective of Texas independence and the subsequent expansion of the map of the United States.
By James P. Bevill, author of The Paper Republic, The Struggle for Money, Credit and Independence in the Republic of Texas, and Blackboards and Bomb Shelters, The Perilous Journey of Americans in China during World War II.
Torget sets the stage by delving deeply into the Spanish dilemma of how to settle their sparsely populated northern territory. He highlights the inability of Tejanos to deal with the encroachments of hostile tribes of Indians in Texas following the military defeat of the Gutierrez-Magee expedition at the Battle of Medina by the Spanish royalist forces in 1813. The subsequent suppression of Tejano residents that had been implicated in the rebellion drove a wedge between these native-born Texans and their Spanish oppressors. In the years which followed, the Tejano leadership in San Antonio de Bexar more closely aligned their political and economic interests with those of the Anglo immigrants in Texas.
At about the same time, advances in technology created a tremendous demand for high quality southern cotton used in the emerging textile industry in Great Britain. Most of this cotton was produced by a slave-based agriculture system in the southern United States. This, more than anything, accounted for the rapid growth in the populations of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in the first thirty years of the nineteenth century. The cotton farming boom in these southern states also created a great demand for field horses, resulting in horrific waves of violence as Texas Comanche Indians routinely raided the Spanish farms and ranches – stealing thousands of horses and driving them eastward in exchange for goods. The prospect of introducing Anglo-American emigration into Texas, as proposed by Moses Austin in late 1820, was viewed by officials in Mexico City as a logical solution in developing agriculture in the Texas borderlands as well as increasing the non-Indian population.
One of the greatest strengths of this book is its intricate discussion of Stephen F. Austin’s political persuasion in regard to the introduction of slave labor in Texas in 1824 and the efforts of Mexican political officials to abolish any use of African slavery within their borders. Austin tried in vain to negotiate the sensitive economic issue of slavery with officials in Mexico City, but he was met with fierce opposition. It was only after his lobbying effort with Tejano allies – including Juan Antonio Padilla and Jose Antonio Navarro, that Navarro, then a representative in the Coahuila-Texas legislature, quietly slipped a piece of legislation honoring “any prior labor contracts for American immigrants” into the region in 1828. This created a technical loophole for the widespread use of slave labor in Texas. Once this use of “indentured servants” was written into state law, it gave the political and legal protections to accelerate the American immigration plan into Texas, as potential settlers could rest assured that their slave-based agriculture system would be honored in Texas. The slave population in Texas rapidly increased over the next several years, contributing to the hardening of anti-American sentiment in Mexican politicians, many of whom called for a gradual or outright emancipation of slaves in Texas.
The book also chronicles the continuation of the slave-based labor system following the Texas Revolution in 1836 and the resulting negative political and economic backlash which factored into the first failed attempts at annexation, fund raising and early diplomatic recognition by the United States, Great Britain and France. One of the surprises in this work is its intricate yet highly entertaining documentation and discussion of the political discourse regarding the cotton and slavery issues which takes place between Texas diplomats, foreign governments, financiers, rabid abolitionists and the cotton farming and manufacturing industries. This complicated but engaging story not only gives us a new dimension to the story of early Texas, but it places the reader squarely into the time period. From here, we can begin to understand how this divisive institution of African slavery fit into the broader perspective of Texas independence and the subsequent expansion of the map of the United States.
By James P. Bevill, author of The Paper Republic, The Struggle for Money, Credit and Independence in the Republic of Texas, and Blackboards and Bomb Shelters, The Perilous Journey of Americans in China during World War II.
January 23, 2022
Another men's book club selection. And if you're in Texas, like Texas, hate Texas, or just like a really excellent lengthy summary of how and why Texas got the way it is, in terms of agriculture, extreme conservative political perspective on the part of many, and (at least) implicit racial sensitivity toward blacks and browns, then this is the book for you. Texas is the current manifestation of the remnants of all of this, along with its thirty-plus years of tenuous independence before it limped into the US to avoid being forcibly retaken back into Mexico by the Federal government in the state of Coahuila. The state joined the breakaway Confederate States of America before being absorbed back into the United States of America after the Civil War but did so with a unique clause that allowed it to remain as a single state or break apart into as many as five separate U.S. States if so desired. Whew!
It's sobering but accurate to state that Texas became a Republic "dedicated to defending slave-based agriculture in a world increasingly hostile to slave labor." It bordered the economies of the US Cotton Belt, and in many ways its climate and soil proved superior to the traditional SE USA states. Texas was both the Western edge of the US South and also the NE edge of Mexico. A confluence of Anglo-dominated deep-south thinking, thin Spanish and then Mexican governance, and powerful Comanche (and other native American) tribal reluctance to give up their traditional hunting grounds and often nomadic lifestyle left broad crosscurrents of powerful forces spreading over the huge borderlands.
This book offers a fascinating summary of "Centralism" versus "Federalism" in pages 150-151. This gap clearly has never been resolved one way of another, with resulting instability present in modern day America.
All in all, this is not only a brilliant, detailed, and nuanced history of Texas, but is quite relevant in today's difference of thinking in modern day America.
It's sobering but accurate to state that Texas became a Republic "dedicated to defending slave-based agriculture in a world increasingly hostile to slave labor." It bordered the economies of the US Cotton Belt, and in many ways its climate and soil proved superior to the traditional SE USA states. Texas was both the Western edge of the US South and also the NE edge of Mexico. A confluence of Anglo-dominated deep-south thinking, thin Spanish and then Mexican governance, and powerful Comanche (and other native American) tribal reluctance to give up their traditional hunting grounds and often nomadic lifestyle left broad crosscurrents of powerful forces spreading over the huge borderlands.
This book offers a fascinating summary of "Centralism" versus "Federalism" in pages 150-151. This gap clearly has never been resolved one way of another, with resulting instability present in modern day America.
All in all, this is not only a brilliant, detailed, and nuanced history of Texas, but is quite relevant in today's difference of thinking in modern day America.
April 22, 2020
Probably the best book on Texas history I have ever read, by the guy who set the Guinness World Record for “longest history lesson” at the University of North Texas a few years ago. A few thoughts:
1.) Hearing the story of Texas intertwined through the histories of Spain, Mexico, Britain, the US, slaves, and the Native Americans was pretty amazing. I mean, who writes like this? Just brilliant.
2.) I had a hunch that slavery played a more important role than what I had originally thought when it came to Texian-Mexican tensions between 1822-1845, but Torget reveals a giant web of cover-ups, deceit, lies, and even brutal honesty when it comes to keeping raw cotton production a big business and slaves to work that cotton.
3.) If Texas stayed its own country, who knows what would’ve happened...one of the big “What if’s” in American history. Torget proposes that Britain was more at hand with trying to abolish slavery in the South in general than what was originally thought. After reading this, I would have to agree.
1.) Hearing the story of Texas intertwined through the histories of Spain, Mexico, Britain, the US, slaves, and the Native Americans was pretty amazing. I mean, who writes like this? Just brilliant.
2.) I had a hunch that slavery played a more important role than what I had originally thought when it came to Texian-Mexican tensions between 1822-1845, but Torget reveals a giant web of cover-ups, deceit, lies, and even brutal honesty when it comes to keeping raw cotton production a big business and slaves to work that cotton.
3.) If Texas stayed its own country, who knows what would’ve happened...one of the big “What if’s” in American history. Torget proposes that Britain was more at hand with trying to abolish slavery in the South in general than what was originally thought. After reading this, I would have to agree.
March 3, 2019
Really enjoyed this engaging and informative book about the history of Texas, Mexico, and the role that "King Cotton" played in the settlement of the Texas borderlands. I had no idea that Texas was initially settled by people from other Southern States such as Alabama and Mississippi, who brought with them their slaves and their desire to grow cotton for export on the world stage. The "peculiar institution" of slavery was at odds with Mexico's political beliefs - a fact that surprised me, as well. Torget's well-written book takes us from the early 1800s, through the Texas Revolution in the 1830s, and the Annexation of Texas as the 29th State of the Union in December 1845. Highly recommended!
August 2, 2021
Three forces combined to determine the fate of Texas during this time period: the rise of global cotton economy, the international battle over slavery , and the struggle for political power in the region. The title says it all.
This is the story of how Texas came to be an independent republic and the failure of that republic due to the reliance of a one crop economy (cotton), the institution of slavery and weak/fractious governments of Mexico and Spain.
Well written, engaging, concise. Also full of information I did not know. Look forward to a discussion of this book in my Texas-centric bookclub.
This is the story of how Texas came to be an independent republic and the failure of that republic due to the reliance of a one crop economy (cotton), the institution of slavery and weak/fractious governments of Mexico and Spain.
Well written, engaging, concise. Also full of information I did not know. Look forward to a discussion of this book in my Texas-centric bookclub.
August 28, 2021
An excellent exploration of the settlement of Texas and the various powers who mismanaged it (Spain, Mexico, the Texans themselves) as well as the outside powers (the U.S. and Britain) that tried to negotiate with them with their own interests in mind. One thing is clear: Cotton and slavery were the driving force behind the population of Texas and its early governments, including whether such countries as GB (who was anti-slavery) would sign treaties with such a country.
Well written and easy to digest. Highly recommended for anyone curious about not just the Alamo but the development under Spain, then Mexico, then the Texans, and finally the U.S.
Well written and easy to digest. Highly recommended for anyone curious about not just the Alamo but the development under Spain, then Mexico, then the Texans, and finally the U.S.
August 3, 2019
I read this book as a required text for a history class at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Most history text are dry reads, however Andrew J. Torget conveys the information in such a way that the reader can easily forget that it is a history book. The level of detail provides testimony to the extensive research that Torget invested in his book. I recommend this book to any who might have a historical interest in the subject.
August 31, 2021
TL;DR: SS,DD.
Extremely detailed and well-written account of the early days of Texas. Light on some details by necessity when focusing so closely on such a large topic like slavery.
As an aside to the topics of slavery addressed in this volume, I find the story of Juan Seguin intriguing and incredibly tragic. It is sad to see that our gadgets and gizmos seem to have gotten better, but the hearts of white people have not grown much in 180 years.
Extremely detailed and well-written account of the early days of Texas. Light on some details by necessity when focusing so closely on such a large topic like slavery.
As an aside to the topics of slavery addressed in this volume, I find the story of Juan Seguin intriguing and incredibly tragic. It is sad to see that our gadgets and gizmos seem to have gotten better, but the hearts of white people have not grown much in 180 years.
August 2, 2020
A very readable account of the founding of Texas. A modern history that doesn't use the hackneyed idea of " manifest destiny" to cover the removal of native Americans and the founding 'Tejanos' from what was then northeast Mexico. Like many other land grabs, greed was the motivating factor. And the wealth came from planting cotton profitably which was not possible without enslaved people.
February 21, 2025
This ground-breaking work argues that the Texas revolution was initiated to establish a slave republic in what is today the Lonestar state. Dr. Torget uses personal correspondence, government records, and secondary sources to reach his conclusions. This should be a required text for any student of Texas history and to top it off, it reads effortlessly as well.
April 20, 2023
The early chapters are weirdly repetitive, making me think sometimes I was reading over myself, making me almost want to stop reading. The latter 2/3rds however did not have this problem and were dense with information.
January 13, 2025
I wrote a full review as a class assignment, but my assessment of this book is that it has contributed to changing the conversation about Texas during Anglo colonization, revolution, and Republic eras. Yes, it was about slavery. Why was it about slavery? The cotton industry. Economics seems to affect people’s decisions more than anything, something still relatable in today’s times.
June 3, 2025
Andrew J. Target’s Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands is a borderlands history that focuses on the role of cotton industry in shaping the development of Texas independence from Mexico and eventual statehood into the United States. The book focuses on the cotton industry within Texas in the early eighteenth century. Torget cites extensive primary sources including letters, government documents, and newspapers from the United States and Texas. He argues that Anglo-Americans envisioned Texas as an integral part of developing the Gulf Coast as a slaveholding region fueled by the growth and sale of cotton. Anglo-Americans settled within Texas, aspiring to create a cotton industry to rival those found in Mississippi. This, Torget asserts contradicts narratives of Texas Independence that argue Anglo-Americans sought independence from Mexico because of Catholic attacks on protestants.
June 8, 2016
excellent coverage of the topic and easy to see why this is a multiple award winning work.
February 8, 2023
I felt it was a bit repetitive in a lot of places. Pretty sure I reread a few quotes and sentences more than once. But I felt it was overall pretty insightful and interesting.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews