Several historians have identified North Texas as constituting a unique cultural region in antebellum Texas, due to the more limited cotton and slave economies and greater opposition to secession. Different settlement patterns have been put forward as an explanation for the distinct "character" of North Texas, with North Texas being portrayed as being settled largely by migrants from the Upper South while the rest of the state was primarily settled by Lower Southerners. The argument rests on the assumption of differing economic and political cultures between Upper and Lower Southerners. This study investigates migration into North Texas counties and the economic life and secession vote in those counties. It challenges the simplistic dichotomy between migrants from the Upper and Lower South by demonstrating the similar rates at which these two groups grew cotton and owned slaves. It also illustrates how geographic considerations better explain the apparent distinctions between North Texas and the rest of the state. Transportation limitations are likely the reason for the more limited cultivation of cotton and, consequently, the lowered importance of slavery in North Texas. Concerns about Indian depredations following the removal of federal troops in the case of secession also seem to have promoted Unionist …