Stephen F. Austin and the
Empresarios
Towns already in
Texas when Moses
Austin showed up
• 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
Nacogdoches
San
Antonio
Saltillo
Goliad
Empresario
• A land agent who sells Spanish Land to
foreigners
Moses Austin
Moses Austin
(Stephen F.
Austin’s Father)
Ok Dad… I’ll
carry out your
plans for settling
Texas.
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
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
• 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
photo at http://www.texas.discodesigns.com/texas/austin/index.shtml
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)
REQUIREMENTS FOR SETTLING IN TEXAS:
•You had to become a citizen of your new
country (Spain, and later Mexico)
•You had to become Catholic
•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 Hundred
• Brought to Texas in 1824
• First Anglo Colony in Texas
• Brought by Stephen F. Austin
Austin’s First Colony
Austin’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.
Austin got a ship, the Lively to take people and supplies to the new
colony from New Orleans.
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.
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
National Colonization
Law 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
State Colonization
Law of 1825
-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
Effects on Settlement in Texas
-huge wave of immigration, particularly U.S.
immigration to Texas
-several new colonies established
State 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