What was texas like in the 1800

He was elected to the Texas legislature in and When the session closed, it marked the end of African American participation in the Texas legislature for 70 years as the expansion of Jim Crow laws kept African Americans from being elected until He built a successful manufacturing business and became a leader in the National Negro Business League.

Roosevelt later said,"No one can tell whether it was the Rough Riders or the men of the 9th who came forward with the greater courage to offer their lives in the service of their country. At its height, the Corsicana field produced over , barrels a year, in an era where remote Texas still could not compete with Pennsylvania oil.

Corsicana and the Magnolia Company worked to develop Texas markets for fuel, asphalt, and illumination. In , the state enacted the first laws regulating the industry, requiring operators to cap off wells to protect groundwater and to stop letting natural gas escape into the air. No; there is no honor, and but slight reward; let him fight like he can, in such furious onslaughts that nothing but the walls of hell can withstand him; and prove, to those vile creatures who would rob him of his glory and prowess, the soldier that he is, the most courageous Because of the success at Corsicana, further exploration was conducted throughout Navarro Country.

This led to the discovery of the Powell oilfield in By Powell produced , barrels of oil, which grew to more than 33 million barrels in The little town of Powell doubled in size to people, a foreshadowing of the wild oil boomtowns to come.

The resort town of Sour Lake, 20 miles northwest of Beaumont, was the site of the first refinery in Texas in A gusher came in in and Sour Lake was transformed into a boom town. By , over-drilling had already caused the field pressure to decline drastically. On January 10, , at a. Wildcatter Anthony F. Lucas had been right about what lay under the salt dome near Beaumont. Spindletop nearly ripped its derrick to pieces and shot a tower of pure crude feet in the air.

It took more than a week to bring the giant gusher under control. The black gold headlines spread around the world. Former Standard Oil executive Joseph F. Cullinan had founded Magnolia Company to put the Corsicana oil fields on a businesslike footing. He did the same at Spindletop with the Texas Company later Texaco , which purchased oil and transported by barge and rail car to a new refinery in Port Arthur.

In , the company completed a pipeline directly from the oil field to the refinery. Poll taxes were a fee people had to pay in order to vote, legally restricting the political participation of lower income voters. This occurred within a broader context of Jim Crow laws that severely restricted African American mobility and advancement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Texas required voters to pay the poll tax until when the U. Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional. Poll tax sign from Amarillo, Texas, s. Courtesy National Museum of American History. Despite his success, white America was unwilling to accept a Black champion.

Jack Johnson. The Slocum Massacre occurred on July 29, , in Slocum, Texas, when white residents of Anderson County believed rumors of an African American uprising and responded with violence. Mobs formed throughout the county to raid African American neighborhoods and attempt to kill any person that crossed their path.

Six deaths were officially confirmed, but it is estimated as many as African Americans lost their lives in this massacre. None of the attackers were ever prosecuted and no government investigation was conducted. In the aftermath, many African Americans left Anderson County and never returned.

Coverage of the Slocum Massacre in a Houston newspaper. Wilbur and Orville Wright, who in had designed and flown the first successful aircraft at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, also built the Army's first airplane. Although he crashed on the last of the four flights, Foulois's flight marked the beginning of the U. Air Force. In , drillers looking for water discovered the Electra field in Wichita County near the Red River.

In , oil was discovered in the ranching town of Burkburnett. Larger strikes in and caused a huge boom, drawing more than 20, people to the area before the boom died in the late s. Fearing the resurgence of Mexican nationalism spurred on by the Mexican Revolution, President Taft stationed 20, U. The Mexican Revolution raged between and The area quickly grew into a vibrant business, religious, and cultural center.

Courtesy Houston Public Library. The soldiers spent more time in battle than other American troops, yet they confronted racism while training for war and once they returned home.

Many African American soldiers in this regiment received the Croix de Guerre from the French government. Courtesy The History Channel. Oil required the opening of new frontiers in law, chemistry, and engineering. Refineries that rivaled the largest in the world were built. Port facilities along the coast were dredged to accommodate tanker ships. In , dredging began on the Houston Ship Channel. It was completed in , providing the link to the sea for the interior of Texas.

It remains one of the most heavily utilized waterways in the U. Courtesy Fort Bend Museum. Millard G. McKinney Papers. Raids by Mexican outlaws intent on reclaiming Texas land as outlined in the Plan de San Diego escalated into guerrilla warfare. The Texas Legislature authorized mass inductions of men to serve as Ranger forces. Reports of vigilante-like brutality inflicted on both Mexicans and Tejanos by these less disciplined and under-supervised Rangers increased.

Months passed and many Buffalo Soldiers died in ceaseless fights with Villa's men, but Villa himself remained at large. After the arrest of Jesse Washington, an African American teenager, for the killing of Lucy Fryer, a mob gathered around the Waco courthouse and captured Washington.

The aftermath of Washington's murder incited a push to end lynching around the country. The NAACP led the charge in passing anti-lynching laws which led to the decline of lynching after the s and into the early s. There was a violent confrontation between Houston Police and two African American soldiers on August 23, , and Cpl.

Charles Baltimore was hit over the head and taken to police headquarters. Rumors reached Camp Logan that he had been shot and killed, which fueled the African American soldiers at the camp to march on Houston.

In a single night, 11 civilians, 4 policemen, and 4 soldiers were killed. In total, members of the battalion were tried for mutiny. Nineteen were executed, and 63 received life sentences in federal prison. No white civilians were brought to trial.

It remains the largest murder trial in the history of the United States. The 92nd and 93rd Infantry regiments were established with approximately 25, African American soldiers from across the United States.

Battle losses were high, but so were the Buffalo Soldiers' achievements. The French government bestowed the Croix de Guerre on 68 Buffalo Soldiers for their heroic service in battle. On November 1, , approximately 10, Texas and Louisiana oilfield workers walked off the job to protest long hours and low pay.

The strike dragged on for months. Oil producers refused to accept federal authority to mediate the dispute. Prohibition gained momentum nationally, in part due to the efforts of Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas. Texas approved the 18th Amendment to the U. Constitution in But by the mids, Prohibition had become unpopular as anti-prohibitionists took control of the Texas legislature.

Prohibition was ended in Some estimates place the number of Hispanic citizen deaths by Texas Rangers during the wars with Mexico as high as 3, Canales of Brownsville insisted on a legislative investigation. As a result of the findings, the Texas Legislature reduced the number of Ranger companies as well as the number of men in each company.

More stringent Ranger selection criteria and a citizen complaint process were also put in place. By June , there were 98 suffrage organizations in Texas alone! After years of struggle, a bill permitting women to vote passed in both the Texas House and Senate. Governor William P. Hobby signed it into law on March 26, On June 28, , Texas became the first state to approve the 19th Amendment to the U. Constitution, winning women the right to vote in national elections. Prohibition passed in The Texas oil boom exploded two years later.

Rangers spent a lot of time smashing stills, intercepting bootleg liquor from Mexico, and handcuffing criminals to telephone poles when the jails were too full. It was during this time that Ranger Captain Manuel "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas cemented his legend as a one-man law enforcement agency along the Texas border. After discovering that no American school would accept African Americans, she traveled abroad to attend aviation school in Le Crotoy, France.

Though the Fifteenth Amendment, passed in , granted all U. Miriam "Ma" Ferguson was the first woman governor of Texas, serving two terms , and She ran on a platform condemning the Ku Klux Klan, proposing spending cuts, and opposing Prohibition. Her husband, James E. Hazel Bernice Harvey Peace was an educator, community activist, humanitarian, and philanthropist born in in Waco, Texas.

Terrell High School in and spanned nearly 50 years. In addition to working at universities across Texas, Peace was also the editor for the Texas Standard, an official publication of the Colored Teachers State Association of Texas. She was active in many civic groups in the Fort Worth area and dedicated her life to fighting for social justice. Portrait of Hazel Bernice Harvey Peace, ca. Louis, then the largest school for Black women in the nation. Branch transformed Tillotson from a struggling junior college for women into a successful four-year college.

During her administration, enrollment steadily grew, and in , the college was admitted to membership in the American Association of Colleges. Her work rescued the school from near ruin and paved the way for a future merger with Samuel Huston College, forming Huston-Tillotson University in Mary Branch. Congress from until He was elected Speaker of the House in He was selected as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's running mate in and served two terms as vice-president.

He retired in The day after her inauguration, Governor Miriam "Ma" Ferguson disbanded the entire Texas Ranger force as payback for their support of her gubernatorial opponent. She personally appointed 39 men as replacements. Ferguson's men formed an ineffective and often sleazy "Special Ranger" force and crime rose steadily. Governor James V. Rangers retained law enforcement responsibilities but were now also required to keep careful records of criminal investigations.

A scientific crime lab was built that rivaled the FBI's lab. A new era of Ranger history had begun. Colonel Homer T. Garrison, Jr. Under his year leadership, the Rangers developed into a world-renowned criminal investigation unit. Texans celebrated the th anniversary of Texas independence with statewide festivities. The United States issued commemorative three-cent stamps and half-dollars to observe the anniversary.

The Centennial Exposition was held in Dallas on the state fairgrounds, and opened on June 6, It ran until late November of that year. Over 6 million people attended. In , Porter attempted to exercise his right to serve on a jury.

When asked to leave a Dallas courtroom, he refused to be dismissed. He was physically forced out of the room and thrown headfirst down the stairs. Even still, it took the U. Texas to stop courts from only summoning white citizens for jury duty. Thurgood Marshall, September 17, Her work was devoted to the advancement of African American education and voting rights.

Under her leadership, the Houston chapter became the largest in the South. Lulu B. Although F. Jacqueline Jackie Cochran, famed American aviator, wrote to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to suggest the formation of an all-female auxiliary pilot corps to fly non-combat stateside missions for the military. Cochran explained that women pilots could fly " The act required all men between the ages of 21 and 35 later extended to age 37 to register with a local draft board. Each man was assigned a draft number that was entered into a lottery.

Lottery number drawings determined who would be "called up" to military service for twelve months. Jackie Cochran became the first woman to fly a military plane across the Atlantic Ocean. She traveled to England to meet with the women pilots of the British transport command to determine if American female flyers were needed to help the war effort in a besieged Britain.

He also asked her to develop a proposal outlining the duties that women pilots might perform for the Army Air Forces. Just before 8 a. The strike was a well-planned and surprise retaliation against the U. In less than two hours, eight battleships, 20 additional ships and almost airplanes were destroyed. Over 2, American sailors and soldiers died in this attack. President Franklin D. In his address to Congress, President Franklin Roosevelt said, "On the morning of 11 December, the Government of Germany, pursuing its course of world conquest, declared war against the United States.

The long-known and the long-expected has thus taken place. The forces endeavoring to enslave the entire world now are moving toward this hemisphere. Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty, and civilization.

This was a people's war and everyone was in it. Nevertheless, Miller manned anti-aircraft guns during the attack and tended to the wounded. After the Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross is the second highest decoration for valor awarded by the Navy. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz pins the Navy Cross on Miller on board a U. Navy warship in Pearl Harbor on May 27, Courier editor James G.

Thompson wrote, "The first V for victory over our enemies from without, the second V for victory over our enemies from within. Under her command, , women served in Army jobs both stateside and abroad. In , Colonel Hobby received the Distinguished Service Medal for her outstanding contributions to the war effort. In her newspaper column, My Day , First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote: "I believe in this case, if the war goes on long enough, and women are patient, opportunity will come knocking at their doors.

However, there is just a chance that this is not a time when women should be patient. We are in a war and we need to fight it with all our ability and every weapon possible. Women pilots, in this particular case, are a weapon waiting to be used. The hurricane is coming. All of the men want to stay home. When you hear the alarm, we'll sound the siren, and report immediately. We've got to take these planes out. Do you? As more women entered flight training, it became clear that the facilities at the Houston Municipal Airport were no longer adequate.

A second training facility was approved at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. The base was already home to Canadian male trainee pilots. Half of the women pilots of Class reported to Avenger Field to begin training on February 14th. Cochran closed the Avenger Field airbase to all activities except female flight training and air emergencies. The Canadian male pilots were transferred to other bases. Populated by women only, Avenger Field became known as "Cochran's Convent. A direct result of the War, Beaumont's population boomed as people moved there to take jobs in the shipyards and war plants.

The rapid increase of population forced integration due to the sheer lack of facilities in the town. In June , overcrowding, Ku Klux Klan activity, and Juneteenth plans combined with an explosive incident—an African-American man was accused of assaulting an 18 year-old white woman. The suspect was shot and killed by police for allegedly resisting arrest. A second sexual assault was reported on June The accuser was unable to identify her attacker, but still a riot erupted that evening.

The mayor of Beaumont called in the Texas National Guard and the city remained under martial law for five days. Beaumont was one of many cities in the U. With her appointment as director, all civilian female flying corps were under Cochran's command. Arnold suggested "Women Airforce Service Pilots. Combat pilot losses continued to rise, which increased the already severe shortage of male pilots. Military leaders realized that many of the losses were due to American pilots' inability to avoid enemy radar detection.

A new radar evasion program was developed but there were no test pilots. Cochran volunteered the Women Airforce Service Pilots. Women Airforce Service Pilots continued to take on more military pilot duties including target and glider towing, radar calibration, bombing range runs, and instrument instruction. Training hours at Avenger Field were increased to flight hours and ground school hours.

Some male combat pilots refused to fly the B Martin Marauder, a fast twin engine bomber also known as "the widow maker" and "the flying torpedo. It was over. I was profoundly sad but also sincerely grateful. To serve my country as a military pilot in wartime had truly been an opportunity of a lifetime. Then I wrote fifty letters to every aviation company and airline that you could think of, trying to get a flying job. I didn't know there were that many ways to say no. Robinson was court-martialed when he refused to move to the back of a segregated bus during training exercises.

He was acquitted of the charges and left the Army with an honorable discharge in Three years later, Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and became the first African American to play major league baseball. Lonnie E. Allwright for the right to vote in the Democratic primary election, which required all voters to be white.

In a landmark decision, the U. Supreme Court overturned the Texas law. The white primary restricted voting in primary elections to white Texans and was the most prevalent means of reducing African American political participation. Although many challenged the legality of this system, including Lawrence A.

Nixon in and Richard R. Grovey in , it remained in place until the Supreme Court struck it down in Lonnie Smith votes in primary election, Jackie Cochran pinned the coveted silver Women Airforce Service Pilots wings above the left pocket of the graduates' jackets. At the present time, they are not entitled to benefits which should go to them in accordance with the duties they are performing. There was public resistance to granting Women Airforce Service Pilots military status, and although under attack as an organization because of HR , WASP continued to perform valiant military service.

In one of their non-flying assignments, several Women Airforce Service Pilots participated in high altitude testing to determine how oxygen affected women pilots. At a. By the end of the day, approximately , Allied troops had invaded, with more than 4, losses.

After less than an hour of debate, HR was defeated by a vote of to All Women Airforce Service Pilots who were in service at the time of this decision had to pay their own way home. The Women Airforce Service Pilots program ceased to exist. All WASP military records were sealed, classified, and sent to storage archives for 30 years.

Distinguished Service Medal for her contributions to the war effort. Japanese Emperor Hirohito refused to accept the terms of unconditional surrender determined by the Potsdam Conference. In an effort to end the war, President Truman decided to drop an atomic bomb on Japan rather than risk American lives in an invasion of the mainland. Despite the devastation at Hiroshima, the Japanese War Council continued to refuse the terms of unconditional surrender.

Determining that continuing the war would "only result in the annihilation of the Japanese people," Emperor Hirohito finally agreed to the terms of unconditional surrender. Emperor Hirohito delivered a radio broadcast telling the country that Japan had accepted the surrender terms of the Potsdam Conference.

World War II began to draw to a close. Juanita Craft was a leader in the civil rights movement in Dallas. Congress passed the Women's Armed Services Reserve Bill which allowed women to serve in the military reserves. During the next two years, over Women Airforce Service Pilots were commissioned into the reserves as 2nd Lieutenants.

They received only non-flying assignments. President Truman issued Executive Order abolishing racial discrimination in the armed forces, effectively ending the formation of all-black regiments.

The order took six years to be implemented and full integration of all Army units did not occur until the Korean War. When African -American student Heman Marion Sweatt applied for admission to the University of Texas School of Law, he was rejected on the grounds that integrated education was prohibited.

Sweatt, with the help of civil rights activists, sued the state. Eventually, the U. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Sweatt and ordered the end of segregated professional schools.

This case was influential in the later monumental ruling of Brown v. Ranching, like farming, experienced impressive growth, as Texans drove more than three million cattle north to the railroads in Kansas between and , after the Indians had been forced from the plains and the buffalo almost destroyed.

Major ranchers in West Texas joined those in South Texas in raising the largest herds in the nation, which grew from 4,, cattle and 3,, sheep in to 8,, cattle and 4,, sheep in Prices began to fall because supply outran demand, disease led to quarantines, harsh winters and drought killed animals, and new settlers began to fence the plains with barbed wire. Huge ranches, some supported by foreign investment, introduced improved breeds, but the total number of animals declined to 7,, cattle and 1,, sheep by The development of commercial farming and ranching received important stimulation from the growth of railroads.

Spurred on by state land grants of over thirty million acres, railroads grew from 1, miles of track in to 9, in The new track, more than half of which was laid between and , crossed the state both east-west and north-south to provide faster and cheaper transportation for people and products. Yet in the s control by Jay Gould and Collis P. Huntington of most railroads in Texas led to reduced competition and uniform rates.

Farmers and small businessmen began to complain of monopolies and trusts, and political debates and government regulations followed. Business and manufacturing also received an important boost from improved transportation. The Corsicana oilfield produced 65, barrels in and foreshadowed the twentieth-century economic development of Texas. To improve wages, hours, and working conditions the laborers in these industries began to join unions.

The Knights of Labor attracted perhaps 30, members in the late s but declined after the Great Southwest Strike of railroad workers failed in Local craft union representatives met in state conventions during the s, and some groups joined the American Federation of Labor.

Between and the number of women in the work force increased from 58, to ,, an advance from 11 percent to 13 percent of all employed persons. Women in agriculture, domestic service, and teaching roles formed 95 percent of those working in but declined to 90 percent by as the number of dressmakers and saleswomen increased. Some economic growth proved short-sighted. Cattle replaced the buffalo on the plains, and hunting and fishing reduced several other species of wildlife.

Lumbering steadily cut into the size of East Texas forests. In response the legislature inaugurated the office of state fish commissioner in and authorized the short-lived Texas Arbor Day and Forestry Association in The development of industries, primarily in urban areas, stimulated the growth of Texas towns in the late nineteenth century.

The number of Texans living in urban centers towns with a population of more than 4, grew from , in to , in , an increase from 7. The patterns of urban growth shifted, however, as newer interior towns expanded more rapidly with advancing settlement.

San Antonio grew from 20, in to 53, in , advancing from second largest to largest among the cities of the state as a result of South Texas railroads and cattle. Houston, a major rail center for East Texas agriculture, grew from third to second in size, as it more than doubled from 16, to 44, Dallas, the commercial center of North Texas, progressed from fifth to third with its growth from 10, to 42, The Gulf port of Galveston increased from 22, to 37, but fell from first to fourth in size.

Fort Worth, with its 26, people in , replaced Austin among the five largest Texas towns, as it became a railroad shipping point for West Texas cattle. The emerging towns and cities also provided focal points for social and cultural developments.

Religion influenced many aspects of life, with evangelical Protestants dominant in much of the state. In Baptists, with , members, and Methodists, with ,, led numerically.

The 99, Catholics ranked third in the state and were most influential in South Texas. Disciples of Christ, Presbyterians, and Lutherans were the next most numerous Christian groups. Differences between religions emerged most clearly over the prohibition issue. Yet churches provided a degree of stability in a changing world. One major area of church activity continued to be support for education through several denominational colleges.

These institutions received students from a public-education system that expanded from , students in to , in As a result literacy increased from That advance resulted in part from the establishment in of the office of state superintendent of instruction and school districts, which could tax to fund public education.

Churches and schools also sponsored such social events as picnics and concerts. Fraternal organizations as well as local cultural and social clubs provided opportunities for relaxation. Women's groups began to appear, first missionary societies within the churches, then chapters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union , and finally the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs , which stressed education and social reform. Recreation became more organized in urban areas, as baseball, circuses, and theaters joined hunting and horse racing.

Artists and writers also contributed to the leisure enjoyments of Texans. Duval , as well as popular histories including Indian Depredations in Texas by J. The Texas State Historical Association was formed in and soon initiated a journal later entitled Southwestern Historical Quarterly. In novelist Mollie E. Moore Davis published Under the Man-Fig. The first of the original 13 states to ratify the federal Constitution, Delaware occupies a small niche in the Boston—Washington, D.

It is the second smallest state in the country and one of the most densely populated. Montana is the fourth largest U. Located on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, the state was an important hub of transportation and commerce in early America, and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is a Arizona, the Grand Canyon state, achieved statehood on February 14, , the last of the 48 coterminous United States to be admitted to the union.

Originally part of Spanish and Mexican territories, the land was ceded to the United States in , and became a separate Live TV. The population and the economy was largely sustained by the Spanish military, which had sent garrisons to defend the territory from encroaching Anglos and hostile natives. After independence a period of relative tranquility settled over Texas as the new Mexican government focused on establishing a constitution, laws and state-level administration.

The territory of Texas was joined with Coahuila to become the state of Coahuila y Tejas. Meanwhile, immigration from the United States--mainly from Tennessee--continued to swell the Anglo population. The settlement founded by Moses Austin in and later managed by his son Stephen grew steadily.

Stephen sought and won approval for a law under the newly independent Mexican government that promoted the development of settlements by granting large tracts of land to agents who recruited colonists to the territory.

This was known as the empresario system, and the agents were called empresarios. Approximately 30 or more six-year empresario contacts were awarded beginning in , providing compensation to the empresarios for up to 9, immigrant families.

The empresario contracts covered vast areas of Texas territory, effectively denying the state government the authority over disposition of these lands for the six-year period of the contracts. These empresario contracts represented the main legal mechanism by which property in the public domain was put into private hands.

Still, because they provided land to settlers at very low cost, and required that the individual acquirers inhabit and cultivate the land, they had a broad democratizing effect. Concentration of land ownership and land speculation--common in other parts of the frontier in the United States--was largely absent in Coahuila y Tejas. The late s and s were characterized by growing political tension despite--and perhaps because of--the deepening economic development in the territory.

The population of Texas in was about 7,, not much greater than it was in the first years of the century. But, during the colonization period after Mexican independence from Spain the population of Texas grew at a considerable rate, if admittedly from a very low base. The non-native population grew more than ten-fold from about 2, at the time of Mexican independence to an estimated 20, in Population growth through immigration primarily from the United States seemed to accelerate in the early s despite the considerable political turmoil caused by factional struggles over political control of the huge expanse of territory that constituted the state of Coahuila y Tejas.

By the Texas population including slaves was estimated at 24, Just two years later in the year of Texas independence from Mexico--the non-native population was estimated at about 38, Including the estimated 14, natives brought the total population to well over 50, Many factors on both sides of the U. Still, it seems that the much lower cost of land in Texas than in frontier areas of the United States, combined with the formal land grant system, were major factors.

Census in Most of the new immigrants came from southern states, especially Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia. Representatives of these three states alone formed a majority in the constitutional convention that produced the state Constitution of Reflecting the Jacksonian political culture and agricultural economic interests of these settlers, that first state constitution prohibited banking and made the formation of private corporations very difficult.

These southern immigrants also brought with them their preference for and expertise in growing cotton.