Who Settled 297 American Families on the Brazos River?

Tejas

For nearly 300 years, Spanish-speaking people had called much of the Due west their home. They raised vast herds of cattle in the fertile valleys of California, built cathedrals and towns of adobe along the Rio Grande in New United mexican states. And in the sprawling northern province of Tejas , where Comanches and Kiowas controlled the open plains, they clustered around a handful of Catholic missions. But wherever they lived, they felt neglected by Mexico City, more than a yard miles away.

"The people of the borderland were mostly anti-government, anti-institutional church building. They were very happy being left on their ain to defend their belongings, to live their own lifestyles without intervention of a far off government. The Spanish colonists' motto was: God is in Heaven, the Pope is at the Vatican, the King is in Madrid, the Viceroy's in Mexico Urban center, and to hell with you. I'one thousand in San Antonio."
Richard Santos

For generations, foreigners had been kept out of the isolated northern provinces. Then, subsequently the Republic of Mexico won its independence in 1821, it announced that Americans were at present welcome in Tejas -- Texas.

"United mexican states had what seemed similar a good program... to go settlers and colonists into Texas, to make sure it was a settled territory that the U.s. would have to back off from. The Mexican population doesn't really accept a surplus that could provide that kind of settlement. So, it seemed like a good thought. It's ane of those moments of retrospect where you recall, 'Oh, sentry out for this one.'"
Patricia Nelson Limerick

This village has been settled by Mr. Stephen F. Austin, a native of the United States of the North. Its population is almost ii hundred persons, of which but 10 are Mexicans... The Americans are... in my opinion, lazy people of vicious character. Some of them cultivate their pocket-sized farms, but this chore they unremarkably entrust to their Negro slaves, whom they care for with considerable harshness... In my judgment, the spark that volition start the conflagration that will deprive u.s. of Texas, will start from this colony.
Lieutenant Jos� Maria Sanchez

In 1821, an ambitious ex-newspaperman from Missouri named Stephen F. Austin settled 297 American families -- and their slaves -- on the Brazos River in east Texas. In commutation for the land, they agreed to convert to Catholicism and swear allegiance to the Republic of Mexico.

Under the same terms, Mexico granted others the correct to settle in Texas. Simply soon, the plan began to backfire. Thousands of American squatters now came, etching out their own homesteads without anyone's permission.

"I recollect information technology was an opportunity for take a chance for them. A lot of people came to Texas considering they were running from the constabulary or running from a bad family situation, a bad spousal relationship. Texas was filled with, shall nosotros say, fringe society. But it was besides filled with a lot of people who actually did want something more than what they had and thought they might find it on the frontier."
Ann Richards

Dirt-poor debtors came. So did state speculators, fugitives, lawyers -- and a tall 39-year-old Tennessean with a decidedly mixed reputation. Raised by his widowed mother and informally adopted by the Cherokees, he had distinguished himself in the War of 1812, served in Congress and was now Governor of Tennessee. Many assumed that he, like his mentor Andrew Jackson, would ane solar day be President. His proper noun was Sam Houston.

I think that he was one of the most difficult, the about irascible, the near principled , the most opinionated men in American history. He was flamboyant; he wore vests that were hirsuite, or he would have on a jacket and on superlative of that an Indian blanket. He was the first man to article of clothing beads on the floor of the United states Senate. I like that."
Ann Richards

But afterwards his young wife abruptly left him, Houston resigned the governorship without caption, began drinking heavily, and fled to alive with his Cherokee friends. His career in the Usa seemed over. Sam Houston headed for Texas.

An eagle swooped down near my head, and then, soaring aloft with wildest screams, was lost in the rays of the setting sun. I knew that a great destiny waited for me in the Westward.
Sam Houston

There were now virtually 35,000 American-built-in immigrants and their slaves in Texas -- ten times the number of Spanish-speaking tejanos. Despite their many differences, both groups agreed on one thing: they resented taking orders from far-off United mexican states Metropolis.

And so in 1835, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was elected president of Mexico. At beginning, he promised greater autonomy for Texas. Instead, Santa Anna alleged himself dictator, the "Napoleon of the Westward," and when Texans rebelled and talked of independence, he led an army north -- 5,300 men, flying a blackness flag that meant no quarter.

Allow each human come with a skilful burglarize and one hundred rounds of ammunition -- and come soon.
Sam Houston

Considering of his past war machine experience, Sam Houston was put in command of Texan forces. He called for more than men -- from Texas and from the U.s.a.. In Washington, President Andrew Jackson ordered a policy of strict neutrality: he wanted to buy Texas, not fight a war over it. But "Texas meetings" were held all over the state. Eager young men signed up by the battalion.

In San Antonio, 1 hundred and 40-half dozen men gathered at an old Spanish mission called the Alamo to stop Santa Anna's army. Houston believed the Alamo was impossible to defend, and ordered information technology blown upwardly. Merely the men within -- including an alcoholic adventurer named Jim Bowie and a one-time Tennessee congressman named Davy Crockett -- decided on their own to stay and fight.

On February 24th, 1836, Santa Anna reached San Antonio, and demanded that the Alamo'south occupants give up or be annihilated. Its commander, William Barret Travis, answered with a cannon shot. The Mexicans settled in for a siege. Travis scribbled out an urgent plea for reinforcements and entrusted information technology to a xxx-year-former captain of the Texas army, a tejano named Juan Seguin, who slipped through the Mexican lines and delivered the call for help.

Meanwhile, in a rundown farmhouse in the tiny settlement of Washington-on-the-Brazos, 59 men, including iii tejanos, declared Texas an independent democracy and hammered out a constitution modeled afterwards that of the The states. Just there would exist no reinforcements for the Alamo. Houston withal considered it folly for his outnumbered army to fight Santa Anna at that place.

At five A.Yard. , on the morning of March 6th, 1836, later on xiii days of siege, Santa Anna'due south bugler blew the Deguello, the point for death in the bull band. Twenty-six hundred Mexican soldiers charged the Alamo -- into a hail of Texan gunfire. At least 600 Mexican soldiers died that morning -- though Santa Anna would officially admit to just lxx deaths among his men. Only the odds proved overwhelming. In a matter of hours, the Alamo was taken, and in the end all its defenders -- Americans and tejanos alike -- lay dead.

"What is important about the Alamo is not the number of men or who they were or the various personalities, only the fact that this small group of men chose to defend an impossible position, against a superior number, and held it for thirteen days. They chose this place knowing that information technology would mean certain death."
Richard Santos

The killing went on. Santa Anna took a second fort, called Goliad. Its defenders were "pirates," he said, foreigners intent on stealing Mexican territory. He ordered 300 men -- most of them Americans -- to be shot and their corpses burned.

Our garrison... was taken and massacred. If such comport is not sufficient to arouse the patriotic feelings of the sons of freedom, I know not what will.... Rather than be driven out of this country , I will leave my bones to blanch on the plains of Texas.
Private Yard.A. Giddings

Santa Anna pushed on. Now, all that stood between him and the defenseless settlements in east Texas was a modest, poorly trained army of volunteers -- and their erratic and unpredictable commander, Sam Houston.

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Source: http://www.shoppbs.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/two/tejas.htm