[scrabblehack]

You raise some good points.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3861e.cw0013200

I was wondering if that 20.7% slave popoulation out in Shackleford County TX got the message of the Emancipation Proclamation prior to June 19, 1865.

[DiogenesLamp]

You might notice the slave populations were concentrated on the rivers.

Some years back I looked up New Mexico territory. Back in the 1850s, "New Mexico Territory" was everything West of Texas all the way to California. Arizona was considered part of "New Mexico Territory."

According to the Wikipedia entry for "New Mexico Territory", there were never more than a dozen slaves in the entire territory from the early 1800s until the 1860s. It just wasn't profitable to have slaves there.