Texas in 1860 was an area where the Old South faded into what was to
become the new West. The state was a partially settled land of contrasts
surrounded by enemies on all but the Louisiana side.[1] This one
friendly boundary was a powerful tie that linked Texas both physically
and psychologically with its Southern parent lands.
Because the state was in an early phase of settlement, the population of
420,891 white persons included a great majority of people who had been
born in other states or in foreign countries. Barely one-third of the
whites had been born in Texas, while over ten percent of them were
originally from countries other than the United States. Most of the
settlers from other states were from the South.[2] Thus far these hardy
individuals had organized counties along the entire length of the Rio
Grande and, elsewhere, as far west as the 100th meridian frontier line.
Within the main settled portion could be found several distinctive
agricultural regions. The principal center of the cotton plantation
system was in a cluster of a half-dozen counties that touched the coast
in Matagorda and Brazoria counties, and included the best soil in the
Gulf Plains. Much cotton was also raised in the Brazos, Colorado, and
Trinity river bottoms. Most of the state's Negro population (182,566
slaves and 355 free Negroes) lived in the vicinity of these heavy cotton
producing counties. To the north and east of the plantation centers was
an area of agricultural diversity. Cotton was raised as a "cash crop",
while grains and vegetables were grown for local consumption. Northwest
and west of the cotton lands was a subsistence agricultural belt that
extended to the frontier. Here, strong men fought marauding Indians and
contended with periodic drought in an effort to make a meager living for
their families. Finally, to the southwest of the plantations was cattle
country, where almost four million unmarketable beeves roamed the open
ranges from the San Antonio River to the Rio Grande.
The agrarian nature of 1860 Texas is well reflected in the fact that
less than five percent of the population lived in urban areas. There
were fifty-two incorporated towns (settlements of over 1,000), of which
only San Antonio and Galveston exceeded the 5,000 mark. Other points of
minor population concentration were scattered villages and a score of
Federal military forts that were situated along the Rio Grande and near
the frontier line.[3]