 Fifty percent of the slaves worked either alone or in groups of fewer than 20 on small farms ranging from the Nueces River to the Red River, and from the Louisiana border to the edge of the western settlements of San Antonio, Austin, Waco, and Fort Worth.Some slaves lived among the cattlemen along the southern Gulf Coast and helped herd sheep and cattle.Rarely, a slave also broke horses, but generally only white men were used for that dangerous task.