Would Texas even exist if not for slavery?

In the beginning, the Father of Texas himself had his doubts. Of course, Mexican Texas already existed when Stephen F. Austin took over his late father’s colonizing efforts in 1821, but as one-half of a dual state called Coahuila y Tejas it was a thinly populated wilderness backwater, its future less than promising. Slavery existed, as well, on a small scale, but it would soon grow larger. When the Mexican government recognized the younger Austin as heir to his father’s contract, the agreement made each settler eligible for 80 acres of land for every enslaved person they brought with them.