29 December 1845
Texas enters the United States as a slaveholding state
Texas; enslaved Black people, Mexican residents and Indigenous nations
Texas entered the United States after the annexation process of 1845. Admission incorporated a republic that protected slavery and whose territorial claims conflicted with Mexico’s. The disputed region between the Nueces River and Rio Grande became central to the confrontation that preceded the U.S. invasion of Mexico.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
This date marks state admission, distinct from the March annexation resolution and Texas independence in 1836. Admission did not settle the boundary dispute with Mexico or establish Indigenous consent to U.S. sovereignty. The slavery context is supported by the Texas State Library’s history; precise constitutional provisions remain a separate source question.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 8, pp. 149–151; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- U.S. Senate, Texas timeline, December 29, 1845 ↗
- Office of the Historian, Texas annexation and the Mexican-American War, 1845–1848 ↗
- Texas State Library, Texas Annexation: How did slavery affect Texas’s future? ↗