FREE BLACKS. Free blacks in Texas experienced freedom under four
different governments-those of Spain, Mexico, the Republic of
Texas, and Texas as the twenty-eighth state of the Union. Free
blacks were never a large population in Texas; in the 1860
census they numbered less than 400, but may have been twice that
many. Free blacks, nevertheless, made a significant contribution
to the early history of Texas. Blacks often accompanied Spanish
expeditions to the Texas area. It was not uncommon for
succeeding expeditions to find people of African and mixed
ancestry living within Indian communities. In permanent
settlements established in Texas by the Spanish, blacks and
persons of mixed ancestry constituted a large segment of the
outposts. As of 1792 the black and mulatto population
constituted 15 percent of the 2,992 people living in Spanish
Texas. Within the Spanish empire, the legal status of free
blacks resembled that of the Indian population. The law required
free blacks to pay tribute, forbade them to carry f