Sam Houston

Stephen, despite being in shock but wanting to honor his dad, went anyway to San Antonio to give the loan for the enterprise. He arrived in August 1821, and the governor allowed Stephen to colonize under his dad’s grant. Stephen headed back to New Orleans where he got the terms published and was telling colonists where his colony would be located (on the Brazos and Colorado rivers). In the month of December of the same year, Stephen found out that Mexico did not approve the grant, because it did not fall under the general immigration law. Hearing this, Stephen went to Mexico City to fulfill the law. On January 3,1823 the law was fulfilled, and within the years 1825-1828, Stephen had settled 900 families in addition to his 300. In the year of 1830, congress prohibited immigration. Stephen tried to tell colonists about the evils of slavery but failed. Under the law of 1833, Texas had to be a slave state, and because Texas was now a slave state, it had problems with Mexico. Stephen F. Austin then held the Convention of 1833 in hopes of fixing the problems with Mexico. Much happened at the Convention of 1833, because Texas wanted its own independence, but Mexico refused. This led to a fight for independence. On October the 2nd, 1835 the battle of Gonzales took place. Stephen F. Austin was elected to command the volunteers there to help Texas go into battle. Texas won in the

Santa Anna was elected President of Mexico in 1833. In 1834 he repealed the constitution and established himself as a dictator, which played a major factor in the Texas Revolution. With the constitution repealed, the Texians did not have the same benefits as they did when they first settled in Mexico. Under the oppressive rule of Santa Anna, the Texians began to rebel (Callcott, 2010).

The book explores a life story of Sam Houston from this beginning in Tennessee to joining school, then the military, up to when he became a political leader. The book also focuses on expressing ideas that present his impact on Texas, since he had become an influential person. The book explains that he managed to establish a War against Mexico. The book focuses on characterizing Sam’s influence on Texas, through a focus on the political environment in the region during the early days as a Republic.

Sam Houston played a monumental role in sparking the Texas revolution. He believed that independence from Mexico was necessary saying that “war inevitable” and “urging volunteers to come to the aid of their Anglo brethren” (p. 60). Also, Houston’s role as commander-in-chief of the army was very important in winning the war for Texas Independence. After the capture of Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, many of the soldiers in the Texas Army wanted to execute him on the spot. But because of Sam Houston’s level head, he knew that “his prisoner was the key to removing all Mexicans soldiers from Texas without further bloodshed”, and “Jacinto became his password to Texas heroism forever” (p. 85-87). Furthermore, Houston’s leadership as the president of the Republic of Texas “kept the republic alive until it became a part of his mother country” (p. 198).

As a military and political figure, Houston’s decisions were not popular at times. Elected as commander in chief of the Texas Army, while most preferred a direct confrontation with Santa Anna’s army, Houston knowing the limited size, funding and lack of training of the Texas Army, preferred what seemed to be a plan of retreat on the surface but actually was a plan of patience and timing for the right place and the right time to attack. Small victories by Santa Anna’s army inflamed Anglo Texans who began questioning Houston’s technique to the point even President David Burnet began questioning as well. However, victory was Houston’s as the opportunity presented itself for a prepared Texas Army to strike an

In the 1830’s, Texas fought for their independence from Mexico. This sparked the Mexican revolution. There were three main reasons why Texans wanted independence: Mexico outlawed slavery, high taxes, and the Mexicans wanted everyone to join the Catholic Church. One of the major players in Texas was Stephen Austin. He had 300 land grants which he gave to the Texans. After some time, Stephen Austin went all the way to Mexico to present petitions for a greater self-governing government for Texas. Even though Stephen Austin was known as the father of Texas, the President of Mexico harshly denied his request.

On March 1, 1836, the Convention of 1836 met at Washington-on-the-Brazos and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence (Hardin, 1994). On March 4, 1836, General Houston was given military authority of all land forces to include regular, volunteer, and militia forces (Moore, 2004).

The battle for Texas’ independence was a hard battle. Many lives were taken, home destroyed, and families were torn apart. Texas residents wanted to break away from Mexico and become a self-governing republic inside of Mexico because they did not like Santa Anna’s laws. Mexico did not allow slave immigration, so Texas wanted to be a part of the United States that allowed slavery. But the main reason was that Mexico would not change or consider any government ideas that the Anglos and Mexicans had for Texas, and resulted in Santa Anna ruling and making all the laws and decisions. Santa Anna also overthrew the Mexican government and made himself the Mexican dictator. Stephen Austin came to try and settle the trouble caused by the suggestion of Texas’ constitution, but instead Santa Anna imprisoned him for a year.

Incidentally, a few years later the discussion of the annexation of Texas to the United States had begun, but required years of debate before the final decision came in December of 1845 where Texas joined the Union as a slave state. This issue of slavery caused much of the debate in whether or not to accept Texas into the Union as doing so may have further disrupted the status quo by upsetting the political balance in Congress and in the country. All the while, Mexico remained another source of concern as people thought the annexation of Texas would cause some sort of trouble with them. Despite all of this, Texas was eventually annexed with its own new state government and constitution to go along with it. Although it had already been defeated by Texas in their revolt, Mexico remained angry at the annexation of Texas and began the Mexican-American War spanning all of 2 years, from 1846 to 1848 bested by the American army. This resulted in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, establishing the Rio Grande as the United States-Mexican border. Along with the establishing of set borders, Mexico accepted the United States annexation of Texas and it agreed to sell California and the rest of the territory north of the Rio Grande to the U.S.

Contrary to the typical stereotypes of Texans, Sam Houston was much more than a drunkard and an excellent gunslinger. Although, he possessed these traits as well, Houston displayed a certain level of maturity, honor, and critical thinking that most men, or even women, at the time did not own. To assume Sam Houston was a one trick pony, or only skilled in one aspect merely because of his heritage and place of birth would be an understatement, as his father was a major . The tall, handsome troublemaker did not fit in with the standard expected of boys or men during his time, however, he is one of the most revered political figures not only in Texas’s history, but also the history of the nation as a whole. Houston held numerous political

Sam Houston was a prominent political figure in the 19th century whose fame is attributed to his role of bringing Texas into the United States. Even though he was a life-long slave owner, Houston was opposed to the expansion of the institution of slavery into the west. Despite that his attitude seemed contradictory, Houston had good reasons for his resistance of the expansion of slavery.

the House of Representatives. Near the close of the session for that year, Adams made a three weeks’ address in opposition to annexation. He is quoted in his diary for saying “The annexation of Texas to the Union is the First maritime, colonizing, slave-tainted monarchy, and of extinguishment of freedom”(Wharton).

General Sam Houston did not see San Antonio as an area worth holding because most of the Anglo settlements were in the eastern section of the region. Because of the General Houston sent Jim Bowie to San Antonio with orders to destroy the Alamo and return with the rebels and their weapons. Bowie along with William B. Travis disregarded the general’s orders and took refuge

Mexican President Jose Herrera refused to negotiate (Stevenson 2009). After failed negotiations with Mexico, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to position his troops in the disputed territory, north of the Rio Grande River. Mexico, seeing this as an act of aggression struck first and killed several of Tyler’s men. After receiving word of the skirmish, President Polk petitioned congress, claiming Mexico “has invaded our territory, and shed American blood upon the American soil” (Tindall & Shi 2010, p. 401). In response, congress unanimously passed the resolution and on May 13, 1846, the United States declared war (Tindall & Shi 2010).

In 1845 Texas was annexed as a state, however disputes between America and Mexico remained concerning where the border would be located. President Polk at the time had no choice but to send troops due south to defend Texas and the Thornton affair, won by the Mexicans, would force congress to declare war on Mexico.