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To: TexConfederate1861
Since one of my Confederate ancestors was a cattleman, in an area of Texas that didn't have agriculture or slaves, I would like you to point out how he was supposed to benefit from that institution....?

Since 99.81% of all black people in Texas were slaves then the odds are that if your ancestor ever met a black person then that person was likely to be someone's chattel. Thus he no doubt saw slavery as the right and proper place for a black person to be in, and would possibly resent any attempts to change what he saw as the natural order of things. But your ancestor was not one of the 28.5% of all Texas families that owned slaves. Those families brought a great deal of wealth to Texas and it's not unlikely that your ancestor earned a part of his living selling goods to those slave-holding families. It would certainly have been in his best interest to help protect his customers. So those are some of the ways your non-slave-holding ancestor benefited from the institution.

337 posted on 12/25/2003 7:23:50 AM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur
You might add that a prewar Texas cattleman's customers would have been almost entirely southern, as the cattle drives north hadn't started yet. The primary market outside of Texas for cattle in this period was New Orleans.
339 posted on 12/25/2003 7:33:33 AM PST by Restorer
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To: Non-Sequitur
I believe your percentages are wrong....The slaveholding population of Texas was concentrated in mostly Eastern Texas, and that was about it! I believe the percentage was more like 2% of the population.
382 posted on 12/27/2003 4:21:27 PM PST by TexConfederate1861 (Texas and Dixie Forever!)
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