OUTLINE

Antebellum Texas

I. Slavery

A. demographics and distribution

B. the cotton economy

C. slavery as a social institution

II. Politics: From statehood to secession

A. James K. Polk and the U.S.-Mexican War

B. the Wilmot Proviso and the slavery issue

C. the Compromise of 1850

D. national politics and slavery, 1850s

E. the “Texas Troubles,” 1860

F. the secession crisis

1. positions on secession

a) fire-eaters

b) Southern-Rights Democrats

c) Cooperationists

d) Unconditional Unionists

2. Sam Houston

3. the Secession Convention

1. joining the Confederacy