The Journey South Toward Freedom: Slavery and the Border Between Mexico and the United States
The history of the border between Mexico and the United States is not only rooted in the U.S.-Mexican War, but also in conflicts within the nations themselves. At first glance, it may seem as though borderlands history would not coincide with the American Civil War, but it is indeed entrenched in it. The policies adopted by the Spanish government, and later the Mexican government, would influence the actions pursued by U.S. policymakers in both the North and the South regarding territorial expansion, the admission of states to the nation, and the institution of slavery. The histories of California, Florida, and Texas are testaments to this claim.
In South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War, Alice Baumgartner delves into these topics by weaving the individual stories of Mexican officials, U.S. politicians, and runaway slaves to convey the broader story of the American Civil War. The complexities of each story woven by Baumgartner contribute to a greater understanding of the history between both nations in the nineteenth century. South to Freedom helps fill a gap in the historiography regarding the formation of borders in North America.
The development of policy regarding slavery in the United States was heavily influenced by the U.S.-Mexican War. An 1849 decree from Mexico’s Congress would ignite this. The Congress declared:
“the slaves of other countries would be free by the act of stepping on the national territory” (Baumgartner 2020, 128).
This decree, also referred to as the freedom principle, inspired many slaves from the United States to journey to Mexico in hopes of freedom. Mexico’s tradition of abolition extended years back, even prior to independence, and Spanish policies including Las Siete Partidas solidified this. The Partidas were “with very few modifications, the oracle, the criterion legal rule for all civil rights…” (Vance 1928, 221). Slave owners in the American South recognized the magnitude of the freedom principle and would avoid moving to areas too close to the Mexican border. “No man ‘in his senses’ risked ‘a large gang of negroes south of the Colorado’” (Baumgartner, 140).
So too did slave owners avoid moving to U.S. territories that had been newly acquired from Mexico. California, formerly slave-free under Mexican rule, espoused those same principles once admitted to the United States, much to the dismay of the southern slave states (150). Seeking to prevent slaves from escaping, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed by the American Congress. Despite this, slaves continued their brave treks toward freedom, whether it be to a free state, Canada, or Mexico.
“A dozen slaves reached Matamoros, in Mexico, each month. In a single year, 270 arrived at Laredo, Tamaulipas, a border town on the Rio Grande” (Baumgartner, 154).
Southern slave owners could not stop the espousal of freedom by Mexico or its former territories that were now a part of the United States.
References
Baumgartner, Alice L. South to freedom runaway slaves to Mexico and the road to the Civil War. New York: Basic Books, 2020.
Vance, John T. “THE OLD SPANISH CODE OF ‘LAS SIETE PARTIDAS’ IN MEXICO.” American Bar Association Journal 14, no. 4 (1928): 219–24. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25707403.
