Editing Harrison County, Texas (section)

===Early history===
Settlement by immigrants from the United States (US) began during the 1830s in the territory of present-day Harrison County. In 1835, the Mexican authorities granted a dozen land grants to U.S. immigrants. After the [[Texas Revolution]], the Congress of the Texas Republic established Harrison County in 1839, formed from [[Shelby County, Texas|Shelby County]]. Harrison County was named for Texas revolutionary Jonas Harrison. The county was organized in 1842.

The county's area was reduced in 1846, as territory was taken to establish [[Panola County, Texas|Panola]] and [[Upshur County, Texas|Upshur]] counties. [[Marshall, Texas|Marshall]] was founded in 1841, and was designated as the county seat in 1842.<ref name="campbell"/>

The area was settled predominately by planters from the Southern United States, who developed this area for cotton plantations and brought enslaved [[African Americans|African American]]s with them for labor, or purchased them at regional markets. The planters repeated much of their culture and society here. [[East Texas]] was the location of most of the cotton plantations in the state and, correspondingly, of most of the enslaved African Americans.

Most of the fourteen Black-majority, plantation counties were located in East Texas. By 1850, landowners in Harrison County held more slaves than in any other county in Texas until the end of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. The census of 1860 counted 8,746 slaves in Harrison County, 59% of the county's total population.<ref name="campbell"/>

In 1861, the county's voters (who were exclusively white males and mostly upper class) overwhelmingly supported [[secession]] from the United States.