Editing Underground Railroad (section)

====Background====
[[File:1888-view-Old Stone Fort-Harby-illus-American Magazine.jpg|thumb|"[[Old Stone Fort Museum (Texas)|The Old Stone Fort of Nacogdoches]]", by Lee C. Harby, ''The American Magazine'', April 1888 edition]]

Beginning in the 16th century, Spaniards brought enslaved Africans to [[New Spain]], including [[Mission Nombre de Dios]] in what would become the city of [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]] in [[Spanish Florida]]. Over time, free [[Afro-Spaniards]] took up various trades and occupations and served in the [[Military of New Spain|colonial militia]].<ref name="UTSA - AAT">{{Cite web |date=2019 |title=African American Texans |url=https://texancultures.utsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/TOA_African-American_Revised_VI.pdf |website=Institute of Texan Cultures, University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) |access-date=July 7, 2021 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709185719/https://texancultures.utsa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/TOA_African-American_Revised_VI.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> After King [[Charles II of Spain]] proclaimed Spanish Florida a safe haven for escaped slaves from British North America, they began escaping to Florida by the hundreds from as far north as [[Province of New York|New York]]. The Spanish established [[Fort Mose Historic State Park|Fort Mose]] for free Blacks in the St. Augustine area in 1738.

In 1806, enslaved people arrived at the [[Old Stone Fort Museum (Texas)|Stone Fort]] in [[Nacogdoches, Texas]] seeking freedom. They arrived with a forged passport from a Kentucky judge. The Spanish refused to return them back to the United States. More freedom seekers traveled through Texas the following year.<ref name="Barnes" />

Enslaved people were emancipated by crossing the border from the United States into Mexico, which was a [[Territorial evolution of Mexico|Spanish colony]] into the nineteenth century.{{sfn|Crable|2021}} In the United States, enslaved people were considered property. That meant that they did not have rights to marry and they could be sold away from their partners. They also did not have rights to fight inhumane and cruel punishment. In [[New Spain]], fugitive slaves were recognized as humans. They were allowed to join the Catholic Church and marry. They also were protected from inhumane and cruel punishment.<ref name="Barnes" />

During the [[War of 1812]], [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] general [[Andrew Jackson]] invaded [[Spanish Florida]] in part because enslaved people had run away from plantations in the Carolinas and Georgia to Florida. Some of the runaways joined the [[Black Seminoles]] who later moved to Mexico.<ref name="Barnes" /> However, Mexico sent mixed signals on its position against slavery. Sometimes it allowed enslaved people to be returned to slavery and it allowed Americans to move into Spanish territorial property in order to populate the North, where the Americans would then establish cotton plantations, bringing enslaved people to work the land.<ref name="Barnes" />

In 1829, Mexican president [[Vicente Guerrero]] (who was a mixed race black man) formally abolished slavery in Mexico.{{sfn|Hudson|2015}}{{sfn|Little|2021}} Freedom seekers from Southern plantations in the [[Deep South]], particularly from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, escaped slavery and headed for Mexico.{{sfn|Hudson|2015}}<ref name="Barnes">{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Michael |date=April 13, 2021 |title=One route of the Underground Railroad ran through Texas to Mexico |language=en-US |work=Austin American-Statesman |url=https://www.statesman.com/story/news/history/2021/04/13/slaves-moved-through-texas-freedom-mexico/7141742002/ |access-date=2021-07-07 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709185249/https://www.statesman.com/story/news/history/2021/04/13/slaves-moved-through-texas-freedom-mexico/7141742002/ |url-status=live }}</ref> At that time, Texas was part of Mexico. The [[Texas Revolution]], initiated in part to legalize slavery, resulted in the formation of the [[Republic of Texas]] in 1836.{{sfn|Little|2021}} Following the [[Battle of San Jacinto]], there were some enslaved people who withdrew from the Houston area with the Mexican army, seeing the troops as a means to escape slavery.{{sfn|Burnett|2021}} When Texas joined the Union in 1845, it was a [[slave state]]{{sfn|Little|2021}} and the Rio Grande became the international border with Mexico.{{sfn|Burnett|2021}}

Pressure between free and slave states deepened as Mexico abolished slavery and western states joined the Union as free states. As more free states were added to the Union, the lesser the influence of slave state representatives in Congress.{{sfn|Crable|2021}}<ref name="Barnes" />