Black History Facts: The Truth About Sam Houston

Just because someone claims that some historical figure was a good guy doesn’t make it so. This is the case with Texas President Sam Houston and his less than humane views that was unfortunately defended by a few uneducated individuals at the San Antonio School Board closure meeting held recently. Sam Houston became the president of the Republic of Texas in the days when slavers were leaving Tennessee to escape anti-slavery activity. Sam Houston owned approximately 12 slaves. Fortunately, two of them escaped from him and went into freedom in Mexico. On the surface Sam Houston seemed tormented, if one is to believe that he was a “good slave owner,” for like many racialized whites of his day he could not reconcile the norms of a racist society with his desire to act in humane ways. On the one hand Houston was said to educate his slaves and treat them more humanely than other slave owners, but this flies in the face of the fact that Houston adamantly opposed the abolition of slavery. In Texas, we ought to remove his name from any institution that bears it for his mythical status only adds to the array of false white supremacist history. Additionally, a review of the reasons for his opposing Texas secession from the Union had little to do with any opposition to slavery. A better explanation is that Sam Houston was a master politician, speaking out of both sides of his mouth while hiding his true intentions.
In the 1800s, the Creek Indians in Alabama became concerned about the flood of white settlers which were invading their lands. The governor of Tennessee tasked Andrew Jackson to lead the racist Tennessee militia into Creek Alabama. In 1814, with a force of some 3,000 men, including sell out Cherokees, Jackson attacked Creek villages at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River. These Creeks were allied with escaped African slaves which became Black Seminole Indians. One of the volunteers on this expedition of genocide was Sam Houston, the so-called “Father of Texas.” Cherokees that had become allies of the pro-slaver forces captured many of the Creeks and blacks and this explains why Sam Houston became friends with these particular Indians. However, Indians that were tricked into supporting white supremacy lived to regret it, as they would all be eventually hunted down like animals so that white settlers could occupy their land. Sam Houston eventually returned to live with the Indians that supported the slavers. This is why it is total dishonesty for someone to claim that Houston was a good guy because he lived amongst the Indians—which Indians is the question! Sam Houston’s participation in the war against the Creeks ended up allowing thousands of racialized white settlers to steal 23 million acres of land from indigenous people, which later became the state of Alabama as soon as the area was ethnically cleansed. Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston became great friends. Andrew Jackson believed that slaves had to display complete submission to their white slave masters before they could be treated kindly and this racist philosophy seems to have been adopted by Houston.
This explains why some of Houston’s slaves ran off while those that remained docile stayed. However, the claim that Houston freed his slaves seems to be more of a racialized white invention as historical records apparently challenge the claim. Houston died before the end of slavery, and a catalog of his property lists 12 slaves valued at approximately $10,000. So who did he free? Houston was no fan of African Americans, and attempts to invent such stories are riddled with falsehoods. In short, Houston may have treated some of his slaves “kindly” if they sucked up to white supremacy and the ways of racialized whites.
The claim that Houston sought to uphold the Union on anti-slavery grounds is foolishness and easily refuted given the fact that Houston believed in “absorbing” Mexico into a scheme that allowed England and France into negotiations over the future of Texas. Houston played the game of international politics with some finesse as he courted the English and the French into supporting Texas as an independent country. If Houston could accomplish a coalition between Texas, England, and France, then he could realize his dream of conquering Mexico for the Republic of Texas and extending slavery through a “protectorate.” Houston knew that supporting the expansion of slavery by Southern slave holders would jeopardize his plans to create an independent slave republic of his own choosing. After Texas seceded from the Union Houston fully supported slavery by supporting his son’s desire to join Confederate slaver forces. After Houston lost his attempt to keep Texas in the mix as a slave republic, and in the Union, he supported the slave owners by saying, “for whose defense my blood has been spilt.”
Houston supported the admission of Texas into the union as a slave state in 1844 after it became apparent that his scheme to involve England and France waned. France and England pressured Texas into postponing consideration of joining the union for a short period, providing time for Houston and his surrogates to pressure Mexico into recognizing Texas’ as an independent country. Houston and his surrogate Anson Jones played both ends of this international game. The United States senate figured out Houston’s scheme, and the plot was rejected by that body. Sam Houston’s racism is ever more evident when he stood before the Senate and said these words, “I have always believed, Mr. President that Congress does not possess the power to interfere with the subject of slavery . . . . Let the North abstain from all encroachments upon Southern rights . . . .” In speaking about Frederick Douglas and the abolitionist movement Sam Houston said, “They are bastards.” Enough said to refute the incorrect views of those who defend Sam Houston’s name. They know the tourist version of history but not the devil in the detail. (The black star the author uses symbolizes looking below the surface and the demise of the white star of white supremacist interpretations of history).