BROWNSVILLE "PILLARS"; SLAVE OWNERS, CATCHERS, BUYERS

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Following our post yesterday concerning the ownership of slaves by Brownsville "founder" Charles Stillman and William Neale's "trade" of hiring our to slave owners to chase their runaway slaves into Mexico to return them to bondage, we were alerted to a post in a local historical blog.

This one was related to Manifest of Slaves on a ship from New Orleans to Port Isabel which included an 11-year-old slave girl that was to be delivered to her new owner, Brownsville "co-founder" Samuel A. Belden.

Yup, the same Samuel Belden who partnered with Stillman to dispossess legal owners of Spanish land grants and build huge fortunes by trading with both Union and Confederates, switching sides as it suited their commercial needs. In other words, profiteering from the war and amassing fortunes by pitting brother against brother.

In fact, one of the hike and bike trails is named after Belden.

In then photo above, city commissioner Rose Gowen – who has pumped millions of city and grant dollars to build the rarely used trails in her drive to have local residents defeat diabetes and lose weight through biking and hiking – cuts the ribbon to the trail.

 Brownsville received a $151,274 grant (plus untold city funds) from Texas Parks and Wildlife to turn a former railway right of way into a hike-and-bike trail.

The slave, named Rebecca, was listed at 4 feet, 4 inches and as the blog's (Brownsville Station, May 2015) describes it in the post: Manifest of Slaves, on board the [Schooner?] Fanny of ___ ... whereof Forte [Captain?] is at present Master, bound from the Port of NEW ORLEANS for the Port of Point Isabel
Name: Rebecca Sex: female Age: 11 Stature: 4 ft 4 in Class: Gulf [?] Shippers or owners: Samuel A. Belden Residence: Texas

District of New Orleans - Port of New Orleans, the 9th day of July 18__
Samuel A Belden ___ Owner of the Slaves named and particularly described in the above Manifest , and Forte Master of the Steamship Fanny [?] do solemnly, sincerely and truly Swear [?] according to the best of our [?] knowledge and belief, that the persons above described were not imported into the United States since the first day of January, 1808 and that under the laws of the State, they are held to service and labor.

So Help us [?] God
Samuel Belden Daniel Forte Master Steamer Ship Fanny

https://bronsbilestacion.blogspot.com/2015/05/slavery-in-south-texas.html

The support of slavery – and owning and hunting them down – seems to have been a recurring fact that has been documented in historical journals and through local research. 

Despite that, these men have been held as the spiritual, historical and moral pillars. Neale's claim to fame is outlined in "The Twin Cities of the Border," Lt. W. H. Charfield written in 1893. The city has set aside $190,000 to restore his house, now falling apart in a corner of the UTB campus.

Plans to use the money and restore it to place it on Linear Park next to Stillman's Laurel Ranch house are apparently under debate after some city commissioners – notably Roy de los Santos – objected to place it there. 

Another reader, a former newsman, says that "I did early research with the help of the late Eddie Valent and found many slave bills of sale in the Cameron County archives. Charles Stillman had a teenaged girl slave, Richard King had some as did – if I recall correctly – Mifflin Kenedy. To Stillman's credit, he manumitted (freed) his slave before Emancipation."