Final answer:
Initially, some African Americans arrived in the early English colonies as indentured servants, but the situation in Texas was different as many were forcibly brought as slaves.
Step-by-step explanation:
While some African Americans initially came to the Virginia colony as indentured servants, the institution of slavery rapidly evolved. In Texas, not all African Americans arrived as indentured servants; instead, many were forcefully brought as slaves by American immigrants from southern states. In the early 1800s, Mexico, which included Texas at the time, had abolished slavery. Nevertheless, the government allowed American settlers to classify their slaves as indentured servants to bypass the law and attract settlers with cheap land incentives. The settlers' discontent with Mexican abolition of slavery was one factor that led to the push for Texas independence and its transformation into a U.S. state where slavery was legal.
The slave trade in Texas expanded rapidly as the region's fertile land was ideal for cotton farming, a labor-intensive crop, leading to a significant increase in the number of enslaved African Americans. By 1840, approximately twelve thousand enslaved Africans had been brought there. Even after achieving freedom post-Civil War, freedmen often found it difficult to acquire fertile land, leading to the formation of freedom colonies, though many of these settlements were not successful and failed to become organized towns due to numerous socio-economic challenges and systemic racism.