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Contributor
Van Hoy, Teresa (Faculty Mentor)
Digital Publisher
Digital Commons at St. Mary's University
Publication Date
Spring 2026
Keywords
Texas Rangers, Slavery, Student scholarship, Underground railroad, Texas
Description
01. Introduction: Rangers Policed & Profited in Slavery The Underground Railroad did not lead only north. It also led south into Mexico, where slavery had been abolished since 1829. Enslaved Texans risked the perilous journey, hundreds of miles, across unforgiving terrain. Even more dangerous than the harsh elements were the slavecatchers. Enslavers offered generous bounties, advertised in newspapers, for the recapture of their human “property.” Among the slavecatchers profiting from and policing slavery were many members of the infamous Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers have been commemorated for heroism on the western frontier and honored for upholding the law and protecting growing settlements. However, this narrative obscures the reality of the Rangers. They also participated in, and profited from, slavery in Texas. Their largest role was capturing (and sometimes killing) runaways. Beyond slavecatching, they served several other roles: as slave jailors and sellers, and as illegal raiders into Mexico to recapture Blacks granted sanctuary. A few Rangers even enslaved Black Texans themselves. This research challenges the portrayal of the Texas Rangers as valiant heroes by examining their major commitment to policing slavery and profiting personally from it. This analysis of documented cases of Texas Rangers pursuing runaway slaves has uncovered the dual nature of these frontier legends and argues for a more complete and critical understanding of their legacy.
Format
Size
1 poster
City
San Antonio, Texas
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Politics and Social Change Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, United States History Commons