Primary Sources, Black History

Vicente Guerrero, Mexico’s first black president Texas President Sam Houston lamented  that " two valuable negro boys for which I had paid in cash $2100 previous to my visit to Nashville, ran away last spring to Mexico. Thus you can see I am in bad luck." Just two and a half months after Mexico abolished slavery, officials were uneasy about the numbers of new Americans settling within Mexico and they attempted to curb the number of newcomers. In 1830, Mexico decreed that foreigners could not cross the border without obtaining a passport issued by Mexican agents.Texans did not respect the MEXICAN border in their pursuits of Freed Blacks. In 1855, Captain James Callahan of the Texas Rangers entered Mexico in an attempt to recapture self-emancipated Africans. Callahan insisted that the purpose of his excursion was to pursue Indians rather than recapture fugitive slaves. The Mexican government with the help of Native Americans, however, forced him to retreat and withdraw without any Freed Blacks. Consequently