Where enslaved people in Texas came from
32,476 registrants in the 1867 to 1870 Texas voter registration named where they were born. The largest group, 3,301, reported Alabama; Virginia (3,256) and Tennessee (2,497) followed. The register asked each registrant for a native country or state and recorded the answer given.
Enslaved people came into Texas from across the South between 1800 and 1870, the western end of the domestic slave trade. The register names each man's birthplace: this is where they came from.
Reported birthplaces, ranked
| Birthplace | Registrants | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 3,301 | 10 percent |
| Virginia | 3,256 | 10 percent |
| Tennessee | 2,497 | 8 percent |
| Georgia | 2,427 | 7 percent |
| North Carolina | 2,100 | 6 percent |
| Texas | 1,962 | 6 percent |
| Mississippi | 1,891 | 6 percent |
| South Carolina | 1,738 | 5 percent |
| Kentucky | 1,227 | 4 percent |
| Louisiana | 908 | 3 percent |
| Missouri | 495 | 2 percent |
| Arkansas | 424 | 1 percent |
| Maryland | 399 | 1 percent |
| Florida | 136 | fewer than 1 percent |
| Africa | 45 | fewer than 1 percent |
| District of Columbia | 41 | fewer than 1 percent |
When they arrived in Texas
Decade each registrant reported arriving in Texas, across every Texas county in the register.
| Decade | Registrants |
|---|---|
| 1800s | 2 |
| 1810s | 18 |
| 1820s | 144 |
| 1830s | 908 |
| 1840s | 6,011 |
| 1850s | 10,830 |
| 1860s | 13,112 |
Sources
Figures come from the 1867 to 1870 Texas voter registration held by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Each figure counts one entry in a handwritten register, and a registrant who moved between counties is counted once, in the county where the board of registrars entered him. Spellings are grouped, so “Va.” and “Virginia” count together.
Questions about birthplaces
Where did enslaved people in Texas come from?
Of the 32,476 registrants named here, the largest groups reported Alabama (3,301), Virginia (3,256), Tennessee (2,497) as their birthplace. These are the states registrants themselves named in 1867 to 1870, counted from the register; the table on this page ranks all of them.
What does "United States" mean in the birthplace column?
9,333 registrants gave United States as their birthplace rather than a state. The register asked each man for a native country or state, and the boards of registrars wrote the answer given; these men are counted in every total on this page and are searchable by name and county.