Stephen F. Austin and the Empresarios

Nacogdoches

San Antonio Goliad

Saltillo

• San Antonio

• Goliad

• Nacogdoches

• Saltillo (captial of CyT)

Why didn’t Mexico have the Mexicans move into Texas? Why did they bring in Americans?

• They would have been too far from Mexico City and “civilization”

• The Natives were hostile… it was safer to stay home

Towns already in Texas when Moses Austin showed up

EmpresarioEmpresario

• A land agent who sells Spanish Land to foreigners

Moses Austin (Stephen F. Austin’s Father)

Stephen F. Austin

• 1820 - The first American to get permission from Spain to bring American settlers to Texas

• Lived in Missouri until a depression hit the U.S. and he lost all his money

• Went to Texas to ask the Spanish government if he could have a contract to bring Americans to settle Texas

• The Spanish were suspicious that Austin was really there to grab land until Baron de Bastrop convinced the Spanish officials otherwise

Ok Dad… I’ll carry out your plans for

settling Texas.

Moses Austin

MOSES AUSTIN BEGINS COLONIZATION IN TEXAS

• Believing his petition was going to be approved, Moses Austin headed east to start recruiting colonists for Texas.

• He became ill and was dying when he learned that his petition was officially approved by the Spanish officials.

• On his deathbed, Austin asked his son, Stephen F. Austin, to carry out his dream of colonizing Texas.

www.dallashistory.org/.../ texas/colonization.htm

• Moses Austin land claim was approved in August 1821

• Stephen F. Austin was 27 yrs old when his father died. He quit his legal career to carry out his father’s colonization plans.

• The Spanish sent Erasmo Seguin to help him and pick land for his settlement.

Stephen F. Austin

• “Father of Texas”

• Founded the first Anglo American Colony in Texas

• 1821 – 1st American to settle in Texas and eventually brought 300 families to settle in Texas

Erasmo Seguin

• Tejano Rancher

• Represented Texas at Mexican Constitutional convention

• Located land for the Austin Colony

• Supported Texas Independence

photo at http://www.texas.discodesigns.com/texas/austin/index.shtml

• Where would Austin put these colonists he was bringing to Texas?

• Austin’s first job was to choose a site for his colony.

• He chose the area between Lavaca and San Jacinto Rivers.– area easy for settlers to clear– received enough rainfall for crops– area good to grow sugar cane, cotton,

corn, and other familiar crops

REQUIREMENTS FOR SETTLING IN TEXAS:

How It Worked…

Each empresario would sign a contract with the government of Mexico whereby they promised to settle a certain number of families (in Austin’s first contract he was supposed to settle 300 families)

•You had to become Catholic

•You had to become a citizen of your new country (Spain, and later Mexico)

•You had to be of good moral character

Advertising for Colonists• Austin advertised for settlers in newspapers read in the

southern states.

• Ads gave the rules:

– “No drunkard, no gambler, no profane swearer, no idler”

Every man would receive:

640 acres for himself

320 acres for his wife

160 acres for each child

80 acres for each slave

Persons with useful skills other than farming and ranching received more.

Austin interviewed the settlers and chose the people he thought would be the best for a settlement. If you had an especially useful job (merchant, doctor, mill and ferry operators) they would get extra land)

Each settler paid Austin $0.12 an acre

The Old Three HundredThe Old Three Hundred

• Brought to Texas in 1824• First Anglo Colony in Texas• Brought by Stephen F. Austin

Austin’s First ColonyAustin’s choice for his first colony

was between the Colorado and the Brazos Rivers.

Austin’s colony included a port because he knew he would need it to get settlers and supplies to the colony.

Everything went mostly well until 1822:

• The Lively shipwrecked and Austin lost a lot of supplies and colonists

• Mexico won it’s independence from Spain in 1821… so now Austin had to get permission to colonize Texas from the new Mexican government.

Austin got a ship, the Lively to take people and supplies to the new colony from New Orleans.

While you could come to Texas without the help of an empresario, most families didn’t. Why not?

1. Most settlers could not speak Spanish and needed the empresarios help getting the title to their land

2. Most of the desirable land was held by the empresarios

After Austin opened the door… many more men came to Texas to make money as an empresario… these men brought hundreds of American families to Texas…

Population of Texas in 1821 (When SFA started): 7,000

Population of Texas in 1833 (around the end of empresarios) 20,000

HOW DO YOU THINK THIS CHANGE IN POPULATION AFFECTED THE HISTORY OF TEXAS?

Problems!• The “Lively” sank.

• Drought

• Karankawa attacks

• Mexican Independence from Spain

1823-1825 Mexico’s New Colonization Laws

Effects on Settlement in Texas

State ColonizationLaw of 1825

National ColonizationLaw of 1824

-allowed each Mexican state to set its own colonization policies

-restricted new U.S. immigrants from establishing colonies near the borders or the coast

-Empresarios received 67,000 acres of land for every 200

families

- heads of household received

4,428 acres of land for $30 and exempt from paying taxes

for 10 years

-huge wave of immigration, particularly U.S. immigration to Texas

-several new colonies established

State Colonization Law of 1825State Colonization Law of 1825

• Law set up guidelines to colonization of Coahuila y Texas• Allowed Stephen F. Austin & other empresarios to receive

land grants in Texas

1825 – 1830 Empresario Contracts

• In 1825 the new Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas passed a colonization law.

• This allowed other empresarios to get land grants in Texas.

• By 1830, 30 empresarios had done so and Texas had a population of 20,000 people.

Martin de Leon

• Mexican Empresario• Settled 200 Mexican families in South Texas

(between the Lavaca & Guadalupe River)• He and his wife founded the town of Victoria in

1824

Green DeWitt

• American Empresario

• Founded a colony in Gonzales– settled 166 families there

G.T.T. – “Gone to Texas”

• Written above abandoned cabins to let others know where to find them (if they went looking, of course)

Settlers came to Texas for many reasons:

•Seeking adventure

•Escaping problems in the U.S.

•Attracted by plenty of cheap land ($1.25 vs. $0.25)

• Colonists came on horseback, covered wagons, boats, and even on foot! (Limited supplies)

• Early Texas colonists were mostly from MEXICO and EUROPE by way of the U.S.

• African American population grew as settlers brought slaves. Even though Mexico made slavery illegal in 1829, it was not enforced.

• Mexican law did protect free African Americans….which would come back to haunt them!

Reasons for migration to Texas

Spanish, later Mexican reasons:

• Needed land to be populated

• Wanted more agriculture, towns, trade and the arts

• Set up system of empresarios (Contractors) to encourage settlement

American reasons:

• Land cheaper in Texas

• Got more land, better opportunity for prospering

• good land available

• Crop practices exhausted soil