Thread by @brfranklin4

Historians are dunking on the Project 1836 Law signed by @GregAbbott_TX & fairly so. It's pure culture-wars inflaming rhetoric, a response to a virtually non-existent threat of Critical Race Theory. But if we only trash it, we're missing the good news of *opportunity.* A thread/1

https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1401978575054684175

We're historians. We specialize in reading & interpreting primary documents. The Project 1836 law promotes "patriotic education" in "Texas values" through "knowledge of the founding documents" of TX History." This is *opportunity* to read w/ students! /2 capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/bi…

We *get* to read the TX Dec. of Ind. w/ our students. We get to discuss the Mexican constitution & colonization laws: how Santa Anna suspended the constitution AND how Anglos consistently broke/bent Mexican laws, esp. Mexico's abolition of slavery. /3 tsl.texas.gov/treasures/repu…

We get to discuss *why* Stephen F. Austin was "incarcerated in a dungeon" - because Mexican officials *rightly* suspected a bunch of Anglo Texans of starting an illegal revolution. /4

We get to discuss Anglo Texans' general view of Indigenous peoples as "savage" & ask *why* there were massacres on the frontiers. We get to discuss the constant state of revolutions in Mexico, including those led by illegal Anglo immigrants. /5

Let's take the opportunity to read the 1836 Constitution of the Republic of Texas together! We'll find all kinds of Texas values: divided government, a strong congress, no religious establishment, the right to bear arms. /6 tarlton.law.utexas.edu/c.php?g=815580…

We'll also find these values in the Constitution:
-slaves must remain slaves.
-slaveholders *must* be allowed to emigrate to TX
-It is *illegal* to emancipate a slave
-Free Black people *may not live in TX* w/o specific consent /7
tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/…

We get to talk about the sheer honesty of the Republic's citizenship restrictions - that "all persons (Africans, the descendants of Africans, and Indians excepted)...shall be considered citizens of the Republic." /8

We *get* to discuss President Mirabeau Lamar's message to the Texas Congress in December of 1838, where he openly calls for the extermination or expulsion of ALL Native peoples, even those with whom Texas had treaties (like the TX Cherokee) /9 digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.…

How about this founding document: President James K. Polk's special message to Congress in May 1846, calling for war against Mexico, after he pulled a bait-and-switch on the border, and then ordered an invasion of Mexico. /10 teachingamericanhistory.org/library/docume…

Finally, we *get* to read the original "Declaration of Causes" from 1861, in which Texas explains exactly why they are seceding from the U.S. They're not shy about it. /11 loc.gov/item/95139713/

Texas secedes b/c the U.S. isn't protecting them from the "Indian savages." Why are these Indigenous peoples attacking Texans? They want power & land, just like Texans do. And they're responding to Texans' attempts to *exterminate* them. /12

Texans leaving the U.S. held these "undeniable truths":
-U.S. established "exclusively for the white race"
-That Black people had "no agency" in establishing TX
-Black folks were an "inferior & dependant race*
-"the servitude of the African race" was good, right, & just /13

So yes, this 1836 Project Law is partisan, unnecessary, & ahistorical. BUT, after teaching TX history for a few years now, I can attest: this is *opportunity.* When you read these founding documents w/ students, they will see: freedom, slavery, & everything in between. /fin