The Hidden History of Texas

Previously I talked about the world in the 14 and1500s and how the early Spanish explorers while looking for a path to India bumped into Texas, and a little bit about the Native peoples they encountered.  Today, I will further explore some of the trials and Tribulations of The Early Spanish Explorers of Texas.  I'll also touch on the geography of Texas because that plays a major role in how Texas was explored, and it affected the lives of those who lived here.  There is an old Texas saying, “the sun has rose, the sun has set, and I ain't out of Texas yet”  Texas is huge, if you are going to drive from Louisiana through Texas to New Mexico, you will travel at least 982 miles (or 1,580 km for our non-American listeners).  When you look at a map of Texas, you can see it does take up a whole bunch of the middle of the country; in fact, it takes up over 250 thousand square miles, and that's a lot of real estate.  Texas has four distinct physical or geographical regions and, in my opinion, those regions played an important role in the exploration and early settlements in Texas.  How the early Spanish explorers dealt with the physical conditions and the people who were native to the various regions often decided if they lived or died.  The four regions are the Gulf Coastal Plains, the North Central Plains, the Great Plains, and the Basin and Range Province. Not a complete trancript

(Partial Transcript) Episode 64 -Texas isn't Texas, Mexico isn't Mexico and Europeans go exploring and bump into a continent and are surprised to find people already there. When Europeans first encountered Texas, the world was a very different place. Well, maybe not too different because countries were fighting over land, gold, religion, natural resources, and political power much like we do today.  However, it was still different; there were no cars, planes, trains, buses, electricity, fast food joints, and certainly no TV, Radio, and Internet. Moreover, without modern technology, it took a whole lot more courage to go exploring than it does today. In the late 1400s, around 1488 Portugal became the first country whose sailors were brave enough to sail out into the Atlantic Ocean. Actually they weren't, the Vikings were. Vikings sailed the  Northern Atlantic around 1100 AD; but for the sake of this story, we'll give the Portuguese some credit. The Portuguese exploration was primarily along the coast of Africa.  Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was the first to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, which is the southern tip of Africa and made it to Asia.  OK, remember that most of the history you learned in school was originally written by Europeans and then turned into something that Americans could relate to so it is all very Americanized. It turns out that the Chinese admiral Zheng He, sailed all around Africa and Asia around 1404. Still though Dias' trip was important because otherwise, to travel to Asia for trading purposes to pick up all the goods that society wanted required a lengthy overland trip.   His success lead mariners from other nations to wonder if there might be a shorter way to Asia that did not encroach on Portuguese routes.  Even though people wondered about a shorter route, there were few nations with the capability to send ships out into the Atlantic to find an answer.  Things changed when Isabella of Castille and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon succeeded in driving out the Muslims who had ruled Southern Spain for over 300 years and united the country under a Catholic flag.  The conquest was complete by 1492 and it was at that time, Christopher Columbus convinced the monarchs that by finding a Western route to India, Spain would have increased military, economic, and just as important, religious power.  As many remember from American history classes in grade school children are taught that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America. In truth, while he was one of the first Europeans (right now I won't talk about the Vikings who landed on the Coast of Canada 300 years earlier) to reach what, in his time, was the “New World”.  The islands he encountered are the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola in 1492 and in 1493; he landed in our current Puerto Rico.  All islands inhabited by people as they had been for thousands of years.  Columbus claimed all the land he encountered for Spain, and three years later in 1496, the Spanish put their first settlement in Santo Domingo in what is now the Dominican Republic.  From those early arrival points and settlements, the Spanish began to explore the region, usually going up and down the coast and mapping the shorelines, still looking for a short cut to India.  By 1501, Spanish sailors had explored all the way, up to what is now Newfoundland and Labrador in present day Canada.  To reach North America from the islands, it was inevitable that the ships would bump into Florida, and they did. However, they thought that Florida was just another island.  In 1519, the governor of Jamaica, Francisco de Garay, sent out an expedition to explore what was considered an unknown country between the Río Pánuco of Mexico (which empties near current day Tampico, Mexico) and the "island" of Florida.  Lt. Alonso Álvarez de Pineda set out with four ships and 270 men to explore, and he sailed into the current Gulf of Mexico. Upon reaching the west coast of Florida and sailing nort...

This is Episode 63 – They were known as the “black Codes” . Remember now in the decade that followed the Civil War, Texas was in as much confusion and chaos as it had ever seen in its short history as a state. Not only were Texans faced with political, social, and economic issues that had been caused by the war but the issues that had caused the war in the first place were still around. It is true, that emancipation freed the slaves and that act actually dramatically altered the labor system that many of the wealthy landowners and economic power brokers had come to rely on. It also forced a new dynamic between the white and Black populations. Not only did these changes have the potential to wreak havoc on the plantation owners' economic power, but it also threatened both their social and political status. If we're being honest if you look around today, you'd swear there are people who want to take us back to those days, people who are still threatened by any and all minorities. Why do I say that, well, it's because of two things that took place in America after the civil war and actually weren't undone until the mid-1960s. And even though laws have been passed, the prejudice that existed before the mid-60s still exists today, because today's boomers were raised and lived under what was known as Black codes and many of them passed their old prejudices down to their children. So, what were Black Codes?  After the war, white southern leaders were in no mood to give their newly freed slaves any rights. Now they couldn't just re-enslave them, so they did what legislators do, they passed laws that severely restricted the rights of their black citizens. For example, here in Texas the Eleventh Legislature produced a series of laws in 1866 whose sole purpose was to reaffirm the inferior position that slaves and free blacks had held in the south and to regulate black labor. In Texas, the codes clearly reflected the unwillingness of White Texans to accept blacks as equals and also their fears that freedmen would not work unless coerced. To ensure this happened, the codes were written so that the state was able to continue legal discrimination between whites and blacks. One measure they took, was to amend the 1856 penal code in which they emphasized a definite line between whites and blacks by defining all individuals with one-eighth or more African blood as persons of color, subject to special provisions in the law. The basic cornerstone of the codes was an "Act to define and declare the rights of persons lately known as Slaves, and Free Persons of Color" passed in 1866. Which some did declare that it was a ‘civil rights' law, and while this law did give blacks, some basic property rights; for instance, they could make and enforce contracts; sue and be sued; make wills; and lease, hold, or dispose of real and personal property. The state further guaranteed blacks the rights of personal security and liberty and prohibited discrimination against them in criminal law. Some people then, and even some politicians today claim that what they passed was a civil rights bill, but was it? Actually, no it wasn't. Why? It specifically left in effect a multitude of legal restrictions that had been passed in earlier bills. For example, blacks were not allowed to vote or hold office, they could not serve on juries. Now they could testify in court, but only if the case involved another black person. Interracial marriage was specifically outlawed. In case, these restrictions weren't enough to ‘as the saying went' keep them in their place, other restrictions were added through different laws. Railroads were required to keep blacks separate from whites and that gave an opportunity to create segregated facilities in almost all public buildings. What about education, after all it is the cornerstone for a strong society. Texas created an education law that specifically excluded blacks from sharing in the public-school fund. Well,

The Hidden History of Texas. Episode 62 – The civil war has ended part 1. We are wrapping up talking about the history of Texas during the Civil war. As I've mentioned in earlier episodes there isn't an exact count of how many battles and skirmishes were fought in Texas. Most of the Texans who fought for either the confederacy or the union took part in battles in Tennessee, Virginia, or elsewhere in the South.  Today I want to talk about Texas after the civil war, and folks it's not a pretty picture. The Civil War is generally thought to have ended on April 9th, 1865, when General Lee surrendered the army of Virginia to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. However, it was not officially ended until over a year later when President Johnson on August 20th, 1866, declared "And I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority now exists in and throughout the whole of the United States of America."  President Johnson's belief that since the war was over then “peace, order, and tranquility” would be seen throughout the United States was soon to be dashed. In the decade that followed the Civil War, Texas was in as much confusion and chaos as it had ever seen in its short history as a state. Not only were Texans faced with political, social, and economic issues that had been caused by the war but also by the issues that had caused the war in the first place. It is true, that emancipation freed the slaves and that act actually dramatically altered the labor system that many of the wealthy landowners and economic power brokers had come to rely on. It also forced a new dynamic between the white and black populations. Not only did these changes have the potential to wreak havoc on the plantation owners' economic power, but it also threatened both their social and political status. The period of Reconstruction provided a massive challenge to the old establishment. Texans always took pride in their independence so when in 1865 the U.S. Army moved into the state, tensions arose. The Army felt it was their duty to ensure that the State government stayed loyal to the Federal government. Additionally, they were there to protect the rights of the recently freed slaves. Gen. George A. Custer, (later to die at the battle of the Little Big Horn) was stationed at Austin, declared that the army should have complete control of the state until such times, as the Federal Government was "satisfied that a loyal sentiment prevails in at least a majority of the inhabitants." This was of course unacceptable to the locals and continued insistence upon loyalty was a threat and promised an indefinite loss of power among antebellum and wartime political leaders. To make matter worse, in September of 1865 the federal government created the Freedman Bureau. The bureau was led by Maj. Gen. Edgar M. Gregory. The bureau's primary responsibility was to take control and make certain that freedmen (that is former slaves) were able to transition from slavery to freedom. While this was a laudable goal Gregory, and his successors failed miserably in implementation. They believed that they had to make certain that former slaves were able to work were-ever they desired. Since the same people who had owned the slaves still owned the plantations, which were almost the only place work was available, that meant that many Blacks had to work in places they had once been slaves. Due to black codes, they were unable to own land, and were forced to sign contracts that paid low wages or gave them shares in the harvest. Even though many of the while planters complained about how hard their new employees worked most of them were privately happy with the new system, since it lowered their cost even below what owning slaves cost. This also insured that their “tenants” remained in dept to them, much like peons or serfs. The bureau also attempted to provide educational opportunities ...

This is Episode 61 – Battle of Galveston, the battle of the Sabine Pass, and the battle of Palmito Ranch - I'm your host and guide Hank Wilson We are wrapping up talking about the history of Texas during the Civil war. As I've mentioned in earlier episodes there isn't an exact count of how many battles and skirmishes were fought in Texas. Most of the Texans who fought for either the confederacy or the union took part in battles in Tennessee, Virginia, or elsewhere in the South. There were however four notable battles that did take place in Texas, well the first actually was in New Mexico, but it started in Texas. They are on March 28, 1862, Battle of Glorieta, which I talked about last episode, and today I want to look at the Battle of Galveston October 4, 1862. the battle of Sabine Pass, on September 8, 1863, The Battle of Palmito Ranch, was the last battle of the civil war on May 13, 1865.---- Next time I want to talk about Texas after the civil war, and folks it's not a pretty picture. If you get a chance, please subscribe to the podcast. If you want more information on Texas History, visit the website of the Texas State Historical Association. I also have four audiobooks on the Hidden History of Texas, The Spanish Bump Into Texas 1530s to 1820s,  Here Come The Anglos 1820s to 1830s, Years of Revolution 1830 to 1836. And A Failing Republic Becomes a State 1836-1850. You can find the books pretty much wherever you download or listen to audiobooks. Just do a search for the Hidden History of Texas by Hank Wilson and they'll pop right up. Or visit my website https://arctx.org. By the way if you like audiobooks, visit my publisher's website there's an incredible selection of audiobooks there. In addition to mine you'll find the classics, horror, science fiction, mental-health, and much more. Check it out visit https://ashbynavis.com Thanks for listening y'all

Episode 60 – –The Civil War and Texas – The Battle of Glorieta I'm your host and guide Hank Wilson and as always, the broadcast is brought to you by Ashby Navis and Tennyson Media Publishers, Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. We are smack dab in the middle of telling about the history of Texas during the Civil war. There's no exact count of how many battles and skirmishes that were fought in Texas. In fact, most of the Texans who fought for either the confederacy or the union took part in battles in Tennessee, Virginia, or elsewhere in the South. There were however four notable battles that did take place in Texas, well the first actually was in New Mexico, but it started in Texas. They are on March 28, 1862, Battle of Glorieta, the Battle of Galveston October 4, 1862. the battle of Sabine Pass, on September 8, 1863, The Battle of Palmito Ranch, was the last battle of the civil war on May 13, 1865. What I want to talk about today is one of what many historians consider to be a key (while not necessarily a major battle) is known as the Battle of Glorieta, which occurred on March 28th, 1862. Now it actually took place, not in Texas, but in New Mexico at Glorieta Pass which is in Far West New Mexico. The Confederate force, named Brig. Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley's Army of New Mexico, actually consisted primarily of men from Texas. The “army” invaded New Mexico, which was Union Territory and captured Fort Fillmore which was located close to the  settlement of Mesilla. The “army” then won another skirmish at Valverde in February of 1862. After that they moved northwest, moving along the banks of the Rio Grande, and by early March they occupied Albuquerque and Santa Fe. After their successful mini invasion, they stopped to gather supplies and rest while they planned their attack on Fort Union which was the Federal Supply Center. It was about 100 miles northwest of Santa Fe and was a major stop for travelers who were on their way to the gold fields in Colorado. Meanwhile, Colorado attorney Colonel John Slough put together a group of volunteers from the gold fields and joined together with detachments of cavalry and infantry from Fort Union to create a force of about 1,300 men. Then on March 22nd, Slough led the group on a march to engage the Texans near Santa Fe. Simultaneously, Sibley moved his main column of men towards Fort Union. Meanwhile, a confederate force of men led by Major Charles Pyron who stayed in Santa Fe, decided to move towards the east along the Santa Fe trail.in an attempt to find and engage with the union forces. He led his troops from Cañoncito in the early morning hours of the 26th of March and almost immediately ran into Slough's advance guard. Slough guard had just about 420 men and was led by Maj. John M. Chivington.  The two forces see each other, the Texans decide to form a traditional straight ahead battle line that blocked passage. The Union forces simply outflanked them by climbing up the hills that bordered the trail. Seeing they were about to lose, the confederate forces retreated back towards a small valley that is known as Apache Canyon. This valley had multiple fields that had been cultivated for farming and it was there they decided to setup another similar battle line, much like the one they had abandoned. Once again Chivington simply ran a flanking action and  this time, since it was more open, he also had his cavalry charge the Texans. As a result, at least 70 Confederates were captured, it is estimated that 4 others were killed, and about 20 were wounded. After this setback, Pyron retreated back to his main camp at Cañoncito from where he dispatched a messenger asking the main Texan force to send him reinforcements. Meanwhile Major Chivington, who also suffered some casualties, 5 men killed and 14 wounded, decided to return to the main Union camp which was 12 miles away at a station known as Koslowski's Ranch. A couple of days later,

Episode 59 –Tejanos during the civil war The Rio Grande, since it was the border between Texas and Mexico was important to both the Confederacy and the Union. The Confederacy wanted to use it to bring in supplies and the Union wanted to keep it bottled up. Regardless of their reasonings, both the North and the Sount did their best to recruit and draft Mexican Texans. The confederates set up camps in Laredo, Brownsville, Victoria, and Corpus Christi and trained approximately 2,550 Mexican Americans from Texas. They primarily served inside the state with the regular confederate army or with various companies of the state militia. José Agustín Quintero, who was actually a Cuban American and hailed from New Orleans, joined the Quitman Guards of Texas. That group saw action in Virginia and Quintero was later appointed by President Jefferson Davis to serve as the confidential agent (a sort of ambassador) of the Confederate government in Mexico. While the majority of those who joined were either in their teens or early twenties, there were some who were in their sixties. The majority did join the confederate army, still an estimated 960 joined the Union army. In many cases, their reasons for joining came about partly because they or their family members remember how they had been treated during some of the events of the Texas Revolution and in particular how Mexican were treated after the revolution. (Check out my books Years of Revolution 1830 to 1836. And A Failing Republic Becomes a State 1836-1850. For more about those time periods and what took place.)     One such union group was the Second Texas Cavalry (U.S.), which was comprised largely of Texas Mexicans and Mexican nationals; not sure why, but this unit suffered a high desertion rate.    Much like people everywhere Mexican Americans of Texas (Tejanos) were divided over the whole issue of secession. Before the war even started there were accusations of subversion and disloyalty being thrown about, which made many reluctant to even become involved. Part of the reasons that almost everyone who signed up to serve in a militia unit, especially from South Texas or from the frontier,  was a healthy fear of being sent to serve in the deep south and thus away from their families. Several people avoided conscription simply by claiming that they were actually residents and citizens of Mexico. There were at least 2,500 Mexican Texans who actually signed p to serve in the Confederate Army. Santos Benavides was perhaps the most famous of them, and he was eventually put in charge of the 33rd Texas Cavalry with the rank of colonel. The 33rd Texas Cavalry was never defeated in battle even though they did not have the best equipment or supplies. In fact, Colonel Benavides, and his Refugio and Cristóbal, put together what can only be thought of as an incredible record in defending the border. In May of 1861, they became folk heroes to southern sympathizers, after they defeated a band of anti-Confederates who were led by Juan N. Cortina at Carrizo (Zapata) . They also led incursions into northern Mexico seeking revenge for Unionist-inspired guerilla raids into Texas. In March of 1865, they also succeeded in repulsing a small group of Union solders that attacked Laredo. A few of the Tejano's who joined Hood's Texas Brigade actually were sent into Virginia where they fought in the battles of Gaines' Mill, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Appomattox Court House. Some Thirty Tejanos from San Antonio, Eagle Pass, and the Fort Clark area signed up and joined Trevanion T. Teel's artillery company, and thirty-one more joined Charles L. Pyron's company, and ended up marching across West Texas to help in the fight to secure the Mesilla valley. Some Tejanos from San Antonio served in the Sixth Texas Infantry and fought in several of the eastern campaigns, including the battles of Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Atlanta,

Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas. This is Episode 58 – Texans Join The Confederate Army I'm your host and guide Hank Wilson, As always, the broadcast is brought to you by Ashby Navis and Tennyson Media Publishers, Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. Remember how, I talked about how prior to the actual vote for secession Texas created what was called the Committee of Public Safety? Well, in 1861 from late February through March, they authorized the recruitment of volunteer troops, to go fight for the confederacy. This was in addition to all the troops that had been recruited by Ben McCulloch, and the regiments of cavalry that were signed up by Ben's younger brother, Henry E. McCulloch, and longtime ranger captain and explorer John S. Ford. Once the war really began with the confederates firing on Fort Sumter in April of 1861 Confederate president Jefferson Davis put out a call for volunteers. This spurred Texas authorities to begin to raise more  troops for the confederacy. Then Governor Clark initially officially divided the state into six military districts which was later raised to eleven. This was designed to help encourage recruiting efforts and also to organize all the troops requested by Confederate authorities. As 1861 drew to a close there were just about 25,000 Texans in the Confederate army. Of those, almost two-thirds of the ones who signed up served in the cavalry, which made sense due to how many Texans rode horses. In fact, it is noted that Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle of the British Coldstream Guards, who visited Texas during the war, observed this, he said, "…it was found very difficult to raise infantry in Texas, as no Texan walks a yard if he can help it." Governor Clark even noted "the predilection of Texans for cavalry service, founded as it is upon their peerless horsemanship, is so powerful that they are unwilling in many instances to engage in service of any other description unless required by actual necessity." That love of horses is still evident today, and many Texans will either ride a horse or drive a truck rather than walk. As the war expanded, Francis R. Lubbock, who became governor by defeating Clark by a narrow margin, worked closely with Confederate authorities to meet manpower needs. As it often is during any conflict, recruitment became more difficult as some of the early enthusiasm began to fade. Most historians agree that the primary driving force behind the secession movement and the desire for war was the upper economic echelon of the old south. Those were the plantation and slave owners and not the regular people, much like today, it was the rich and powerful who wanted to have their way. One of the results of this was, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, there wasn't much enthusiasm for signing up and thus in April 1862 the Confederate Congress passed a general conscription. The conscription act declared that every white male who was between the age of 18 and 35 had an obligation to serve in the military. There was still a shortage of bodies and so in September they raised the upper age limit to 45. Then again in February of 1864, they had to expand the age limits to 17 and 50. There were few exemptions, but one of the most contentious was that if a man was conscripted then he could hire someone to serve in his place. It is estimated that between 70,000 to 90,000 Texans served in the military and they were involved in every major skirmish except for First Manassas and Chancellorsville.  At least 37 Texans also served as officers, In November of 1863, then Governor Lubbock reported to the legislature that 90,000 Texans were in the Army. However, many historians doubt the accuracy of that number and deem it to be high. In fact, the 1860 federal census only listed 92,145 White males between the ages of 18 and 45 as state residents. Even if an allowance is made for a population increase during the war years, there may have been somewhere between 100,

Welcome to Episode 57 – The Civil War starts and Texans Start Killing Each Other In the previous episode I talked about the path to secession. How Texas called a convention to consider the issue and how, even though some resisted the whole idea, it still went through. In fact, President Lincoln did tell then Governor Sam Houston that if he wanted to resist the convention, then Lincoln would be willing to send in Federal troops. However, Houston rejected that idea because he did not want to turn what was already a tense situation into an outright violent conflict among Texas citizens. Remember that during  the convention, the Civil War Committees of Public Safety was formed. Even though secession had not formerly been approved by the rest of the citizens, the committee  started to negotiate with Maj. Gen. David E. Twiggs, who was the commander of United States troops stationed in Texas. Twiggs, originally from Georgia was in poor health and at the end of his career. On the morning of February 16, Benjamin McCulloch, a veteran Texas Ranger and Mexican War hero, led a force of about 500 volunteers into San Antonio. Once there, they surrounded the garrison at their headquarters and demanded Twiggs surrender. Twiggs did not put up any resistance and readily agreed to the  surrender of all federal property in Texas. He also agreed to evacuate all 2,700 Union troops that were stationed in the various frontier forts. This resulted in Camp Charlotte, Camp Colorado, Camp Cooper, Camp Davis, Camp Del Rio, Camp Montel, Camp San Saba, and Camp Verde all becoming forts for Texas Confederates. It's important to remember that even though a significant majority of Texans approved of the efforts of Texas politicians to support and join the Confederacy there were Texans who were loyal to the Union. After all, more than 14,000 Texans voted against secession. Who were those opposed? Members of various political parties including the Whigs, Know-Nothings, Democrats, and others all maintained some degree of support for the Union. Texas had also seen a very steady stream of German immigrants and from those who originated in the northern (or free) states. These were people who were inclined to support the union. In fact, as 1860 came to a close German immigrants who lived in the Fredericksburg and New Braunfels areas formed the Union Loyalty League. To become a member a person had to swear loyalty to the United States, of course, over the next several years members of the league faced violent reprisals from Confederate sympathizers. In 1862 then Governor Lubbock declared martial law for several counties in the Hill Country (which is where this program originates from and where my ancestors settled) and the confederate legislature passed the Confederate Conscription Act that specifically targeted German Unionists. These actions had the effect of increasing desertions and draft dodging as people did their best to get out of the confederate army. While some German immigrants from the Austin County region did join up and helped to form three companies of Waul's Texas Legion, once they were captured at the battle of Vicksburg, they  quickly took the oath of allegiance to the United States. However, certain of the early Texas Union supporters such as James W. Throckmorton (I spoke about him in the previous episode), and Ben H. Epperson, who was once one of the leaders of those in East Texas who opposed secession, did in fact accept and endorse the Confederacy after Fort Sumter.  Others, such as David G. Burnet, E. M. Pease, and Sam Houston, rather than stay in the public eye, withdrew from public life and did their best to avoid controversy. Some of those opposed to secession either left the state or tried to leave. There were some, such as S. M. Swenson, the man who led or started the immigration of Swedes to Texas and William Marsh Rice, who came to Texas from Massachusetts and who made a fortune in the mercantile busi...

Episode 56 - Texas Votes and it's War Remember from the last episode that those who wanted to leave the union forced the state to call a special convention. In that election the separatists pushed through their agenda and quite frankly ignored any semblance of legitimacy. The procedures they followed were not even remotely close to having any type of standards.  Many delegates were elected by a simple voice vote at a public meeting, and since there was so much fervor for secession, those who supported the union often didn't even attend. The delegates they selected were much like the folks around them. They averaged 40 years old, and virtually every one  of them had originated from one of the states in the south where slavery was accepted. Some of them had more money than most Texans, but you can't say the extremely wealthy dominated things. However, about 40 percent of them were lawyers and about 70 percent of them were slaveholders. The convention opened on Monday afternoon, January 28, and the presiding officer offered these words, "All political power is inherent in the people. That power, I assert, you now represent." The next day, January 29 John A. Wharton made a motion "that without determining now the manner in which this result should be effected, it is the deliberate sense of this Convention that the State of Texas should separately secede." His motion was seconded by George M. Flournoy, and needless to say it passed 152 to 6. Over the next 2 days, the delegates wrote out the formal ordinance of secession, which called for a popular vote. This was different from the lower southern  states, who simply passed a resolution and declared they had seceded. Of course, there was opposition to having a popular vote, but that motion was easily defeated, 145 to 29. Since Texans had held a referendum before they joined the union, most of the delegates insisted that the same procedure should be followed if they were to leave the union. Because he knew the significance of what was taking place Governor Houston and other members of the legislature asked for a referendum. They believed that a popular vote would end all doubt and questions over the legality of secession. The final vote was taken in the morning of February 1st. It was a roll-call vote taken in alphabetical order. The final vote was 166 for secession and 8 against. One of the first steps the convention took after the vote was to form the Civil War Committees of Public Safety. They also sent delegates to Montgomery, Alabama, who took part in officially establishing the Confederate States of America. On February 4th, they adjourned. Before the popular vote took place, the Committee on Public Safety, using power it had been given by the convention authorized the seizure of all federal property in Texas. This included the arsenal at San Antonio, which would later become the headquarters for the H.E.B. grocery chain and that sits on the bank of the San Antonio River. This order resulted in the evacuation of almost 3,000 federal troops from Texas. These actions essentially made the secession referendum itself an afterthought. However, there were some people and counties in the state that did not consider the referendum to be insignificant. Those opposed to secession were primarily situated along the northern border of the state and in the counties that surrounded Austin. Some leaders such as Throckmorton and Benjamin H. Epperson in North Texas and Elisha M. Pease, Svante Palm, and George Paschal of Austin led the local fights against secession. Sam Houston continued to question whether it was necessity or wise to leave the Union. Federal United States representative Andrew J. Hamilton, who was also a resident of Austin, campaigned against secession. What were some of the common features of those opposed to secession? The areas it was most prominent in were culturally, geographically, and economically unlike the lower South.

In any discussion of Texas history, we have to understand how and why Texas Argued for Secession. So, it's about time to talk about the one subject that is almost guaranteed to make someone, somewhere angry. Somone will absolutely tell me I'm wrong, or that I'm some kind of fanatic. What is the subject? Today the subject is what were the reasons Texas joined the Southern states to secede from the Union In 1861 the southern cotton-growing and slaveholding states decided to leave the union and to form the Confederate States of America. Texas was the seventh state to secede and the last to officially leave before the rebels opened fire on Fort Sumter.   Let me start with reading from the official “DECLARATION OF CAUSES” put forth by the Texas state government on February 2, 1861 "A declaration of the causes which impel the State of Texas to secede from the Federal Union. In view of these and many other facts, it is meet that our own views should be distinctly proclaimed.” We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); That in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding States.” Those are the official words put forth, but what caused them to put slavery ahead of their previous oath to the union?  When Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president, the slaveholding states, feared that the executive branch would threaten their rights to own slaves. As an ancillary thought, they also did believe that if the federal government would outlaw slavery that meant they might also infringe on other rights. Some Texans were slow to accept secession, however, or never accepted it. They did not simply react to the election of Lincoln and emulate South Carolina. Indeed, the timing of the secession of Texas and the motivation behind it are of continued interest because they open up a series of questions about the nature of the Texas economy, the population, political parties, local needs, the role of such Unionists as Sam Houston, and the effects of public pressure to conform. Regardless, a common thread running through all of these questions is the role of slavery. As I have mentioned in previous episodes, in the 1850s, there were many Texans who were absolutely convinced that the institution of slavery was not only important, but it was also vital to keep the Texas economy going. It had become such an important part of the Texas economy that in the 15 years after Texas became a state, by 1860 approximately 30 percent of the total population were slaves. However, slaves were not dispersed equally throughout the state. In fact, the vast majority of them were concentrated in and along the rivers in East Texas and along the Gulf Coast near Houston and Galveston. The primary reason for this was something we mentioned in an earlier episode, they had easier access to markets. That concentration of slaves in a narrow geographic region, while economically powerful, meant that other parts of Texas had economies that depended upon livestock,

This is Episode 54 - Antebellum Texas - Ready to Secede. – the state and stage is set for secession.  We are getting closer to Civil War. In the previous episode I discussed how important slaves and slavery was to the economic engine of Texas during the antebellum period. However, it is interesting to note that the majority of Texans did not own slaves and had no participation in the cotton or cash-crop industries. It's estimated that about only one in four families actually had even a single slave and most had fewer than five. The planters who owned more than ten slaves actually held over half of all those people that were held in bondage in the state.  A percentage of these people also made large profits from their investments in land, labor, and cotton and they played a major role in driving the Texas economy.             Antebellum Texas gave birth to what would become agricultural Texas.  Agriculture began to develop quickly and steadily with an ever-increasing number of farms being established. Those farmers worked hard to expand  the land that was tillable, which in turn helped to increase the value of their livestock and the total yield of their crops. Of course, slave labor was an important asset and contributor to that economic growth. Unfortunately, during this same time period, industry, finance, and urban growth stagnated. During the decade of the 1850s approximately 1 percent of the heads of households in Texas worked in manufacturing. In 1860, Texas industries produced a meager 6.5 million dollars' worth of goods, as opposed to the northern state of Wisconsin which produced close to 28 million dollars' worth of manufactured goods. Due to the Texas constitutional prohibition on banking, the finance or commerce industry also lagged behind other states and less than 5 percent of the citizens worked in it. Due to the limitations on industry and commerce, the urban areas of Texas were sparsely populated and in 1860 only San Antonio, Galveston, Houston, and Austin could actually be considered cities. Their combined populations of about 23,000 was less than Milwaukee's. When we look at antebellum Texas and wonder why there was a failure to create a more diversified economy we find several valid reasons. Geography is one, Texas has a great climate and in both Central and East Texas the soil is very suitable for crop production. The continued reliance on slaves also served to slow down the growth of any type of manufacturing, since plantation production was much more profitable due to lower labor costs. With the plantations being profitable there was no real incentive to expand outside of agriculture. Because the plantation owners were some of the richest most powerful people in Texas, they would have had to lead Texas in any move to diversify the economy. They could see no possible return on their investment that would make them more money than their current system, so they made no effort to change. The one part of the Texas experience the plantation owners did have a vested interest in seeing improved was transportation. The early settlers of Texas had always used the rivers as their primary transportation routes. While the rivers could be an excellent way to travel during most of the year, heavy rains, or the opposite drought and low levels which helped to expose sand bars, made the rivers very unreliable. The roads, which were nothing but dirt trails turned into massive mud pits during the rainy season, (even now they still become  that way in some parts of Texas)  and so wagon transportation was slow and cumbersome.  In fact, I was often told of how my great-grandfather William Ollie Wilson who was born in 1860 and drove a freight wagon in the 1880s, would normally make the trip from Johnson City Texas to Marble Falls Texas in about 3 days, yet in the rainy season it could easily take him more than a week to cover the same 23 miles. The obvious solution to the transportation problem would ha...

Episode 53 - Antebellum Texas – Headed To Civil War Part 1 We call it the antebellum period in  American History, but exactly what is that?  The Antebellum Period in American history refers to the time leading up to the Civil War, specifically from the late18th century through 1861. The term "antebellum" means "before the war" in Latin, and it is often associated with the Southern United States. This era was marked by significant economic, social, and political changes, particularly in relation to slavery and the expansion of the U.S. territory. Some of the main or key features that help us to recognize the Antebellum Period are: Slavery and Tensions: I've talked about this issue and how prevalent slavery became in the state of Texas. How it served as an economic engine for Texas. The increase in slaves and slavery led to intense moral, economic, and political conflicts between the Northern and Southern states. One of the primary reasons for this tension was the North had begun moving toward industrialization and abolitionist movements were gaining strength. Westward Expansion: Remember I talked about manifest destiny and the role that played as the nation acquired vast new territory in the West. As a result, there were conflicts over whether new states should permit slavery, further heightening regional tensions. Economic Development: This was a big driving force and source of tension. The North and South developed distinct economies, the North focused on industry and urbanization while the South remained largely agricultural, relying on cotton production and slave labor. Social Reform Movements: The period saw the rise of various social reform movements, including abolitionism, women's rights, temperance, and educational reform. Key figures like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and others became prominent advocates for change. Needless to say, these types of movements caused great concern in southern states. Political Conflicts and Compromises: Efforts to balance the interests of slave and free states led to significant legislation, such as the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854). However, these efforts ultimately failed to resolve the underlying tensions. The Antebellum Period ended in 1861 when the Southern states seceded from the Union, and the outbreak of the Civil War. Last episode I spoke about the crisis of 1850 and how it proved there was strong positive feelings for the union in Texas, but it also revealed that in spite of its location in the southwest, many of its citizens still proudly identified with the Old South. During this period, especially during the first few years of statehood, more people started coming to settle in Texas. The census of 1847, which was a state census showed the population was 142,009. Only 3 years in 1850 later the official U.S. census showed a population of 212,592 people. Almost 70 percent of the state's 212,592 inhabitants were white, and the vast majority of them were settlers from other states. About 28 percent were black slaves and the rest were Hispanic or Indian. Native peoples were not counted in the official census of the U.S. until 1890. Those new Texas arrivals originated from the upper South and states that at one time were considered the frontier, primarily in the Northwest such as Illinois. They arrived by traveling through the Marshall-Jefferson area, those who travelled through the Nacogdoches area were largely from the lower South. Meanwhile the Gulf Coast, Galveston and Indianola were the main entry points for many from the lower southern states; along with a large percentage of foreign-born immigrants, especially Germans, who arrived in the late 1840s. For the most part, even though most historians don't think of these settlers as “true frontiersmen” they were true pioneers, because Texas was truly a frontier state.

This is episode 52 of the Hidden History of Texas - The Compromise of 1850 and some Texans are already angry and ready to leave the union This is episode 52 of the Hidden History of Texas - The Compromise of 1850 and some Texans are already angry and ready to leave the union In the past few episodes, I've talked about relations between Texas and Mexico, Anglos and Mexicans, and how slavery was part and parcel of life in Texas. The fact that there was, and in reality, still is racial animosity and other types of bigotry towards non-whites and non-protestants among the Anglo citizens of Texas isn't, or at least shouldn't be a surprise. The earliest Anglo settlers primarily came from the Southern states and carried with them their culture.  They were very much like a large percentage of those who resided in many of the States, including some in the north. At the same time America was flexing its muscles and trying to expand its territory. From 1845 to 1865, America operated under the concept of Manifest Destiny as put forth by John L O'Sullivan when in 1845, he wrote,  “…the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions”.  Although originally written as a defense in the argument for admitting Texas into the Union, the article laid the foundation for justification of government actions that consequently had a negative effect on those who fell outside of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant group. By 1850 one outgrowth of this belief was the birth of  a secretive society known as the American Order. The group stood firmly against Catholics, foreigners, and supported restrictions on immigration. They came to be known as the “National American Party' or more commonly labeled the “Know-Nothing” political party. In Texas, they were known as the “American Party” and as a whole they argued that any foreign-born citizen be barred from voting or holding public office. In Texas, the party was anti-Mexican, pro-slavery, and they pledged to vote only for native-born Protestants for public office. Remember from last episode, after the Mexican and American war ended, Texas wanted to annex the eastern part of New Mexico. Texas was also insistent on making certain that slave owners were not only allowed to keep their slaves but also to acquire more. Southern states who identified with  the Texas political views also wanted to make certain that Texas was a slave state.  It was not only Texas that the Southern leaders were concerned with; they also began to insist that ALL of the territory that was acquired as a result of the treaty of Guadalupe-Hildago that ended the war be opened to slavery. Needless to say, this did not sit well with those in the north who were abolitionists, and they were determined to prevent this from taking place.   Meanwhile Robert S. Neighbors, who had been sent to New Mexico by then Texas Governor Peter Bell to organize the 4 eastern counties of New Mexico into a part of Texas failed in his mission.  As a result of his failure in June of 1850 there was a public outcry where some called for the use of military force to take the territory and still others called for secession from the Union. Governor Bell chose to call a special session of the legislature (in Texas the legislature only meets every 2 years, usually it keeps them out of trouble) to deal with the issue. However, even before the session began, things managed to get worse. The government in New Mexico put forth a proposed constitution for a future state and the citizens easily approved it. In their constitution, they declared the state's boundaries to include the land claimed by Texas.  At this point, President Fillmore decided to become involved, and he ordered that the army should reinforce their contingent that was stationed in New Mexico. He also publicly proclaimed that if any militiamen from Texas entered the area,

This is Episode 51 – Texas Politics as we start the 1850s Texas politics is a contact sport, and Texas Politics as we start the 1850s was almost a blood sport and today's Texas politics and politicians often seem like they still are set in 200 years ago. What was Texas and America like in 1850? Frankly, it was a mess, the country was mired in controversy after controversy, especially when it came to the issue of slavery. Texas itself, after lowering the flag of the Republic in 1846 struggled to find its footing. After the war with Mexico in 1848 the state government was bound and determined to make the Rio Grande river, especially the far western part, the state's boundary. Well, this meant that most of Eastern New Mexico, including an area that reached all the way to Santa Fe would become a part of Texas. In fact, in 1848 the state legislature declared that part of Eastern New Mexico to be named Santa Fe County and the governor, George T. Wood, sent Spruce Baird there to set up a county government.  Needless to say, the proud people of Santa Fe, refused to accept the Texans and with the help of federal troops forced Baird and the other Texans with him to depart. Baird was only able to stay until July 1849 at which time he left the region. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C. a major controversy was brewing between legislators from the North and those from  the South. Of course, this was over the issue of slavery and especially if it was to be allowed in the newly acquired territories that had recently been acquired from Mexico in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the Mexican-American war. This necessarily drew Texas into the dispute on the side of the South, remember the early Anglo settlers of Texas were mostly southerners and their allegiance was to the south and to the slave owners. Why does this matter? Simple, because when President Zachary Taylor, took office in March of 1849,  he suggested that the  best way to handle adding the new territories of California and New Mexico would be to bring them in directly as states and just bypassing the whole you have to be a territory first thing.  While that sounds like an easy thing to do, not so fast, because most people knew that both California and New Mexico were most likely going to prohibit slavery. Well, this set off alarms in the South, Texas and the Anglo Texans. It also angered Texans  because it effectively stopped Texas from ever claiming Santa Fe and Eastern New Mexico and more importantly to the southern states, it would effectively stop the expansion of slavery at Texas. Diehard southern slave holders vowed they would break up the union before they accepted President Taylor's proposals.  Not only did they urge Texas to stand strong and demand the boundaries they wanted, but the Mississippi state legislature actually called for a convention to take place in Nashville in 1850 whose purpose was "to devise and adopt some means of resistance" to what they labeled as Northern aggression. Needless to say, this was warmly greeted by the passionate Southern spokesmen in Texas, and they  took up the argument. They demanded that the state send delegates to Nashville to prove that Texas would not meekly submit to the union. As my mother used to say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease and in 1849 the Texas Legislature gave in to the pressure and passed an act that created new boundaries. Once again, they proposed to create Santa Fe County and this time they sent Robert Neighbors to organize the government.  Since this was a very active legislative group, they also declared that there would be an election in March of 1850 to send 8 delegates to the Nashville convention, so that they might provide "consultation and mutual action on the subject of slavery and Southern Rights." Neighbors, as Baird before him, discovered the residents of Santa Fe had no desire to be a part of Texas. Well, being the stubborn folks they were,

This is Episode 50 – Slaves and Slavery in Texas Part 3 Treatment of Slaves and Slave Insurrections In this episode I'm going to continue my discussion about a topic that often makes some folks a tad uncomfortable and that's because I'm talking about the history of slaves and slavery in Texas. In the last episode I covered how the early Anglo settlers of Texas had roots in the deep south and brought with them  their prejudices and social customs and one of those customs was slavery. I looked at how even though Mexico and Spain eventually outlawed slavery, Texas was exempted from those laws. Government officials were so eager to profit from the production of cotton that they ignored the slavery issue. Steven F. Austin, said, “The primary product that will elevate us from poverty is cotton and we cannot do this without the help of slaves.”  As a result, Anglo-Americans where able to bring their family slaves with them to Texas. Until 1840, they were also allowed to buy and sell them.  As I mentioned, it's important to understand that Texas was actually the last frontier of slavery in the United States. Between the years of 1821 and 1865, slavery spread over the eastern two-fifths of the state. The reality of slavery tightly bound Texas with the Old South. I realize that there are some who refer to it as the “peculiar institution” because even though slavery was a reality in many other countries, how large it was and how it was so tightly woven into Southern society made it unique or  "peculiar"  only to the South. Over decades Southern politicians and writers used the term to defend the practice of slavery. One thing we need to keep in mind when it comes to the issue of slavery is that it was and is an absolutely barbaric practice. In the past Hollywood made movies that sometimes-showed images of scenes of “happy” slaves, sitting around singing and generally in good spirits. The reality is slaves lived a life that was totally under the control of their owners. They were whipped, not a childish misbehavior spanking, but a brutal ripping of the skin off the back of the person being whipped. They could be hung. They could be beaten. They could be and were often sold. Female slaves could be and were raped by their masters. Families were torn apart. Slaves were considered to be less than  human. There were no happy slaves. As it was elsewhere, in Texas how slaves were treated did rely on who their owner was. One story about how slaves were treated is the story of Lavinia Bell, a Black woman who had been kidnapped when she was a child and sold into slavery. She eventually escaped and part of her story was how she had been forced to work naked in the cotton fields near Galveston. She had made multiple attempts to escape and after her first failed attempt she was physically mutilated and beaten severely by her owner. Hers is not the only such story, many others who were enslaved in Texas told similar stories of violence and cruelty by their owners. Hundreds sought to escape, especially to Mexico where they knew they would be safe from being returned. Now of course, there are the outliers, such as Joshua Houston. He was owned by Sam Houston, actually he was  owned initially by Houston's second wife, and he became an important part of Houston's family. He was treated well, taught to read and write, and actually the Houston family helped to prepare him for his eventual emancipation. After the Civil War he became a politician, and, at one point, offered to lend money to Sam Houston's widow when she faced financial difficulties. While the treatment of slaves in Texas may have varied on the basis of the disposition of individual slaveowners, it was clear that Anglo Texans in general accepted and defended slavery. There was also one undercurrent of reality that existed for all slave owners, and that was the fear of a revolt or insurrection by the slaves. Actions by the Texas legislature provide an apt illustratio...

Slaves and Slavery in Texas Part 2 - After the Anglos Arrive This is Episode 49 – Slaves and Slavery in Texas Part 2 - After the Anglos Arrive.  I'm your host and guide Hank Wilson. And as always, brought to you by Ashby Navis and Tennyson Media Publishers, producers of  a comprehensive catalog of  audiobooks and high-quality games, productivity, and mental health apps. Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. In this episode I'm going to continue my discussion about a topic that often makes some folks a tad uncomfortable and that's because I'm going to talk about slaves and slavery in Texas. In the last episode, I focused on slavery in what we call New Spain. That is the territories that were colonized by the Spanish in the 1500s up through the mid to early1800s. Slavery was a fact of life in the Spanish colonies, and then after Mexico declared their independence from Spain in 1810, and a rebel congress took control. In 1813 under the leadership of Father José María Morelos, they met at Chilpancingo  they declared an end to slavery and to the casta or class system in New Spain. Now we have no records of whether or not the declaration of the Congress of Chilpancingo ever reached Texas. Mexico achieved independence in 1821 and there were still about 3,000 slaves in the country and a several of those lived in Texas. In the summer of 1822, the new Mexican congress met and established a constitutional government for the nation. That congress quickly set out to promote the ideals of Chilpancingo and on September 17 issued a law abolishing racial categorization in official documents. In a correspondence to the city council of San Antonio, Father Refugio de la Garza, a native Texan who represented the province in which he referred to the new social and political relations of the Spanish regime: “all that is over. We are all equal, and without this equality, our rights would not be inviolate and sacred.”  After that date, Texas census reports drop all mention of casta data, showing that Mexico's leaders accepted the new “race-free” society. However, slavery still existed and the fact that it did caused race relations to take a new and dangerous direction for Mexican and Spanish residents of Texas, with the arrival of the Anglo-American settlers in the course of the 1820s. For the most part, those early settlers had roots in the deep south and brought with them  their prejudices and social customs. One of those customs was slavery. While Mexicans generally objected to slavery, especially as it was allowed and implemented in the United State, many politicians turned a blind eye to the system. They were eager to profit from the production of cotton that Texans produced. Steven F. Austin, said, “The primary product that will elevate us from poverty is cotton and we cannot do this without the help of slaves.”  As a result, Anglo-Americans where able to bring their family slaves with them to Texas. Until 1840, they were also allowed to buy and sell them. One concession the Anglos made was to agree that the Grandchildren of those original slaves would eventually be gradually freed upon reaching certain ages. When, in1827, the provincial government hinted it might emancipate slaves earlier, many of the immigrants made their slaves sign indenture contracts binding them for ninety-nine years. This was ostensibly to work off the purchase price, upkeep, and transportation to Texas of the slaves. Mexican officials thought of this as the same as the tradition of debt peonage, and as a result Black slaves continued to arrive in Texas. As the 1820s came to a close, the most serious threat to Anglo slaveholders took place when on September 15th, 1829, Mexico President Vicente Ramón Guerrero, in commemoration of Mexican Independence, emancipated all slaves. The powerful friends that Austin had in Mexico's government quickly secured an exemption from the law for Texas and slavery was permitted to continue in the province.

This is Episode 48 – Slaves and Slavery in Texas Part 1 the early years -  I'm your host and guide Hank Wilson. And as always, brought to you by Ashby Navis and Tennyson Media Publishers, producers of  a comprehensive catalog of  audiobooks and high-quality games, productivity, and mental health apps. Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. In this episode I'm going to talk about something that might make some folks a tad uncomfortable and that's because this will be the 1st of 2 parts where I'm going to talk about slaves and slavery in Texas. Slaves and slavery is a historical  reality, not only in Texas but around the world. This program is focused on the history of Texas, so I won't go into the world-wide history of slavery, or the fact that it still takes place around the world. I will also not discuss how the indigenous people who were on the continent before the Spanish bumped into it also made slaves out of their conquered enemies. That is for another episode that is in the planning stage that I'm working on about the history of the Americas before they became the Americas. No in this episode I will concentrate on the issue of the slaves and slavery of African people's first by the Spanish, Portuguese, and English, and in the next episode I'll discuss the issue as it took place under the Anglos who  took over Texas. The first slaves brought into what the Spanish called New Spain, now Mexico were in fact Africans taken from their homelands and brought to the continent as part of the 1519 invasion led by Hernán Cortés. After Cortes opened the door, after 1580 there was a steady stream of African slaves that were brought over because Portugal gave Spain easy access to the Portuguese slave network. By 1640 more that 275,000 Africans had been taken from their homelands and sent to New Spain. Since the slaves were considered commodities once it became less profitable the importing almost completely came to an end.  By 1646, in a total population of over 1.7 million, New Spain's African population, both native born and those born in New Spain, outnumbered Europeans 35,089 to 13,830. That's enough about what happened in Mexico now let's talk about Texas. The first slave brought into Texas was Esteban, or Estevanico. He was one of four survivors of the failed Pánfilo de Narváez expedition to Florida, remember from earlier broadcasts, they were heading to Florida but took left instead of a right and ended up wrecking on the Texas coast in 1528. Estaban was the slave of Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, and was described by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, who kept track of what happened to the survivors' as they traveled through Texas and the Southwest, as a “Black Arab from Azamor.” Azamor is a Moroccan town on the coast that had been captured by the Portuguese in 1513.... To find out more, you have to listen to the broadcast...thanks Want to reach me - use this form Visit Ashby Navis & Tennyson for some great Audiobooks

Forts part 2 Mexican – Anglo Relations Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas. This is Episode 47 – Mexican Anglo Relations -  I'm your host and guide Hank Wilson. And as always, brought to you by Ashby Navis and Tennyson Media Publishers, producers of  a comprehensive catalog of  audiobooks and high-quality games, productivity, and mental health apps. Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. Relations between the Anglo settlers and Mexicans or Tejanos (Tejanos are those of Mexican or Spanish decent who were born in Texas, either when it was a province of Mexico or as a Republic) have almost always been strained. The Anglo settlers who immigrated into Texas were primarily from the South and as such they carried with them all of their innate prejudices. While some of the earliest settlers did learn to adapt to a Spanish way of life and to live in peace with their Mexican neighbors, many of the newcomers had no such desire. One area of conflict concerned itself with the issue of slavery.  Mexico began to restrict slavery during the 1820s and finally completely outlawed it in 1829. However, the Mexican government exempted Texas from this law in order to appease Anglos. Initially that didn't seem like very important because it is estimated that in 1825 there were only about 400 slaves in Texas. However, by 1835 and the real beginning of the battle for Texas independence it is believed that there were more than 5,000 slaves in the region.   In 1836 after Texas won at the Battle of San Jacinto, and claimed to be an independent republic there was still trouble. Because there was no formal treaty solidifying Texas status as independent. Mexico refused to recognize Texas' independence and considered it a rebellious territory. The Mexican government believed that Santa Anna had no legal authority to sign the Treaties of Velasco while a prisoner, and that the Mexican government had no obligation to honor the agreements. Now  because of that, there was the very real fear that Mexico would invade and try to take Texas back. Then when in 1837, Mexico abolished slavery, this time without any exceptions, the Anglo residents of Texas began to fear that their slaves would start to side with Mexico in any type of dispute. And since many of the Anglos already distrusted the Mexican people in the state as the Texas Republic took shape, officials placed more and more obstacles before the non-Anglo population. For example, In the world of politics,  Anglo leaders excluded Tejanos from almost every type of meaningful political participation. For example, Juan Seguín, one of the most influential Tejano political leaders, an Alamo defender, and who played an important role in the development of the Republic, and who fought for and stood side by side with those opposing Mexico and Santa Ana, was forced to flee to Mexico after a white mob chased him out of San Antonio.  When it came to education, well Texas wasn't big on public schools as a way of insuring equality. In fact, from 1836 to 1900 private individuals, such as the Catholic Church, Protestant groups, and public officials all regarded schools as critical to preserving the social order. They saw them not only as ways to increase literacy, but also as vehicles to perpetuate existing class, sex, and ethnic roles. After Texas became a state, Mexican children often had no access to public schools. As the decades passed, that began to slowly change and  by the 1880s the children did increasingly have access to rural schools. By the 1890s Mexican working-class children in urban areas were admitted to city schools. In both cases access was limited to segregated classes in the elementary grades. No secondary or postsecondary facilities were available to them. Only the children of wealthy families attended colleges and universities. The decision to segregate elementary schools in Texas was due to racial prejudice, residential location,

Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas. This is Episode 46 – Frontier Forts 1850 - 1856Frontier Forts 1850 - 1856 -  I'm your host and guide Hank Wilson. And as always, brought to you by Ashby Navis and Tennyson Media Publishers, producers of  a comprehensive catalog of  audiobooks and high-quality games, productivity, and mental health apps. Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. Following the death of Maj. Gen. George Mercer Brooke in 1851, his successor, Brevet Maj. Gen. Persifor F. Smith, added Forts Ewell and Merrill in South Texas. Pushing the military line further west, Smith authorized construction of Forts Clark, Terrett, Mason July 6, 1851, McKavett March 1852, Chadbourne, Phantom Hill November 14, 1851, and Belknap June 24, 1851. To help plug gaps in the northwest, Camp Cooper was erected in 1856. A double line of forts now protected Texas' southern and western frontiers. Let's take a look at four of these forts, and I'm going to start with Fort Belknap. Fort McKavett - Quarters Fort Belknap was established at the site of what is now Newcastle in Young County Texas. Newcastle is located in what is known as North Central Texas and is very near the headwaters of the Brazos River. In June of 1851, Brigadier General William Belknap established the fort in the area because there was adequate water. The fort was what is known as a four-company post, there were members of the 2nd  unit of the U.S. Dragoons, the 7th U.S. Infantry, the 2nd U.S. Calvary, and the 6th U.S. Calvary. Fort Belknap was the northern anchor of the central Texas chain of forts which had been established to protect the Texas frontier from the Red River to the Rio Grande. It had no defensive walls or works and the troops that inhabited it were used to pursue raiding bands from the various tribes that inhabited the area. At times, troops from the fort trailed into Kansas to do battle with their enemies. One of the results of the fort's presence, was the creation  of a centralized hub of roads that made travel throughout the region easier, including the Butterfield Overland Mail route from St. Louis to San Francisco. At the start of the civil war, troops were moved and union troops finally returned in April of 1867. It was finally abandoned for good in September of 1867. In the 1970s the citizens restored and rebuilt some of the buildings and today it is open to visitors.  One other frontier fort that was opened in 1851and did not receive the same care and consideration from latter generations, was Fort Mason. Fort Mason was established in July of 1851 in Mason Texas. Mason is one of the most picturesque towns in perhaps the most picturesque regions of the  State. It's about 60 miles from where I currently live and while the town itself is well worth a visit, the remains of the fort, not so much. There's only one  building left and it's very disappointing if you're interested in Texas history. Fort Martin Scott in Fredericksburg or Fort Croghan in Burnet are both much more informative and easier to visit. Anyway, Fort Mason was established in 1851 atop a hill that offered the soldiers an expansive view of the land around. Maj. Hamilton W. Merrill and companies A and B of the Second Dragoons were the first solders to occupy the fort. There is no clear record of who the  post was named after, and it appears that it most likely was named either for Lt. George T. Mason, who was killed at Brownsville during the Mexican War, or for Gen. Richard Barnes Mason, who died only a year before the fort was established. The fort was occupied on and off until 1861 at which time it was taken over by secessionist forces of Texas. A couple of notable officers who served at Fort Mason when it was in Union hands was Robert E. Lee and John Bell Hood. After the civil war the union took  control of the fort and was finally abandoned in 1869.  One fort that was never officially a fort is known locally as  Phantom Hill which was established on November 14,

Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas. This is Episode 45 – Texas Frontier Forts 1848-1849 -  I'm your host and guide Hank Wilson. And as always, brought to you by Ashby Navis and Tennyson Media Publishers, producers of  a comprehensive catalog of  audiobooks and high-quality games, productivity, and mental health apps. Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. After and actually during the War with Mexico, the United States began the process of establishing Army posts or forts in Texas. The first of these  Fort Polk and Fort Brown had been established during the war against Mexico, almost at the mouth of the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico.  In 1849 Maj. Gen. George Mercer Brooke,  assumed command of the Military Department for Texas and  began working on ensuring that Mexico understood the United States was claiming authority along the southern border of Texas. To do so, he placed Ringgold Barracks, Fort McIntosh, and Fort Duncan along the Rio Grande. After those forts were in place, he then moved to protect the western frontier. In order to accomplish that he established Fort Inge, Fort Lincoln, Fort Martin Scott, Fort Croghan, Fort Gates, Fort Graham, and Fort Worth. In this episode I want to look at 4 of those forts, Fort Martin Scott (December 1848), Fort Inge (March 13, 1849), Fort Croghan (March 16, 1849), and Fort Worth (June 6, 1849). The first of those, Fort Martin Scott, my favorite of all the forts, because my great-great grandfather was actually stationed there and it's how part of my family came into existence in Texas. Located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country just outside of Fredericksburg Texas, is Fort Martin Scott. It was founded on December 5, 1848, when Captain Seth Eastman of the 1st U.S. Infantry, one of the 1st U.S. Army post on the western frontier and named  it  Camp Houston. This fort served as protection for the mostly German settlers in the area and also helped protect the Fredericksburg – San Antonio Road. Eastman stayed at the camp until February of 1849 when he was sent to establish what was to become Fort Inge. Fort Martin Scott, then  Camp Houston,  started with 2 companies of infantry and one of dragoons. In 1847 Germans who had settled the area had entered into peace treaties with the Comanches; however, those treaties were in danger as more Anglo settlers moved into the region. The camp was formally renamed to Fort Martin Scott in December of 1849 in memory of Major Martin Scott who was killed in action at the battle of Molina del Rey in 1847.  Over time the influx of white settlers led to an increase of tension between the parties and in 1850 several tribes met near the San Saba River. At that time Indian agent John Rollins, with an escort provided by Captain Hamilton W. Merrill met with the tribes and drew up the Fort Martin Scott Treaty. Due to people moving further west Fort Martin Scott began to lose its tactical value and finally in 1853 Colonel W.G. Freeman recommended the fort be closed and in December 1853, the 8th Military Department ordered that it be closed. The preserved fort can be visited and is now the property of the Fredericksburg Heritage Association. Next to come into existence was Fort Inge, located on the east bank of the Leona River south of Uvalde. The area's primary natural  identifier is a 140 foot volcanic plug of phonolite basalt. Some archeologists believe the area has been occupied by one group or another since around 6,000 BC. Several ranches also existed in the region during both the Spanish colonial and the Mexican periods of Texas. On March 13,  1849, Captain Seth Eastman along with some 56 soldiers of the 1st United States Infantry established a base camp on the Leona. In December of that year, the post was renamed Fort Inge in honor of Lt. Zebulon Inge, a West Point graduate who served in the U.S. Second Dragoons and had been killed during the Battle of Resaca de la Palma.

War With Mexico Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas. This is Episode 44 – War With Mexico -  As always, brought to you by Ashby Navis and Tennyson Media Publishers, producers of  high quality games, productivity, mental health apps, and  a comprehensive catalog of  audiobooks. Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. The 1846-1848 conflict known in the United States as the Mexican-American War was called the U.S. Invasion by Mexico. It was fueled by the expansionist views of President James Polk and was an example of his belief in the ‘Manifest Destiny'. He firmly believed that the United States was destined by God to own all the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific. After he became President and oversaw the annexation of Texas into the union as a State, he realized that since Mexico controlled everything west of Texas, it  was standing in his way. Initially he  tried to have Mexico agree to several small issues. After the Battle of San Jacinto, even though Texas and the United States claimed Texas was independent the fact was that Mexico had never officially signed a peace treaty. Polk wanted Mexico to recognize that the boundary between the United States and Mexico was the Rio Grande. He also wanted Mexico to sell Northern California to the United States. He did his best to pressure Mexico into accepting these terms, but he failed because nobody in Mexico would agree to giving up any territory to the United States and that especially included Texas. Polk was not a person to take no for an answer, and he grew increasingly frustrated by Mexico. On January 13, 1846, he ordered the army that was under the control of Gen. Zachary Taylor's, which was in Corpus Christi, to move to the Rio Grande. Needless to say, the Mexican government took this to be an act of war. The Mexicans responded by crossing the Rio Grande on April 25 at Matamoros and  ambushed an American patrol. Much like President Johnson would do later with the Gulf of Tonkin incident to justify further involvement in Vietnam, on May 13th, Polk used this to convince Congress to declare war on Mexico. He claimed that this was because "American blood had been shed upon American soil."  On May 8 and 9, even before the official declaration of war Taylor's army defeated a force of 3,700 Mexican soldiers under Gen. Mariano Arista in the Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma Initially the American forces tried to use the time-honored plan of blockading Mexican coastal cities and also occupying the Mexican states that bordered Texas. These plans were based on a very unrealistic belief that this would somehow coerce Mexico into giving up territory. In September General Taylor, accompanied by a significant number of volunteers that included many Texans, seized Monterrey. He then declared that General Arista had agreed to an armistice. Taylor succeeded in large part due to the role that  Col. John Coffee Hays's Texas Mounted Rifles played during the attack on the city.  Polk, however, was not satisfied with the armistice and he denounced it, forcing Taylor to drive further south to Saltillo and then east to Victoria. Meanwhile Gen. John E. Wool lead more troops from San Antonio with the initial intention of threatening Chihuahua, instead he turned and ended up joining Taylor's forces. Not content with just Texas and Mexico, President Polk sent Gen. Stephen W. Kearny from Fort Leavenworth with instructions to seize New Mexico. Finally in July, as Taylor's forces were gathering, the navy sent its Pacificsquadron under Commodore John D. Sloat to occupy Monterey and San  Francisco, California. From that post they joined a force of Anglo settlers who  at the urging of the explorer John C. Frémont had established their own government. Although an August incursion into southern California failed, the area was eventually secured by a joint army-navy expedition under Kearny and Commodore Robert F. Stockton in January 1847. Meanwhile,

This is Episode 43 – Texas finally becomes a state -  I'm you host and guide Hank Wilson. There is a major misconception among people today  about exactly what Texas and Texans wanted when they rebelled against Mexico. Some of today's Texas citizens believe the reason was the settlers wanted to be an independent country. That's not true, while wanting to be free of Mexico, the vast majority of those who were living in Texas at the time wanted to be a part of the United States. That was a major source of conflict among the early politicians, and that's why there was not a major push for statehood until the mid-1840s. In 1844 Texas held its final presidential race. The citizens elected Secretary of State Anson Jones. Due to his backing by Sam Houston, Jones easily won the election. He was inaugurated on December 9, and his administration's policies included economy recovery, trying to establish peaceful relations with the Indians, and a policy of nonaggression against Mexico. Perhaps most importantly, he began to tackle the idea and process of having Texas annexed by the United State. He, more than anyone else is known as the "Architect of Annexation." (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The thing he and those who were in favor of annexation knew was important was timing. He wasted no time in beginning his effort and he instructed Isaac Van Zandt, Texan who was the official chargé d'affaires to the United States, to not negotiate any treaty until they could be assured the United States Senate would ratify it. Almost simultaneously President John Tyler reopened negotiations on annexation and Mexico began expressing interest in becoming an ally of Texas. Meanwhile, Mexico told the United States that she would declare war if the United States approved annexation. Two events, both of which were embarrassing to Texans,  would help spur American interest in annexing Texas. In 1841, then Texas president Lamar, as part of his dream to have Texas expand all the way to the Pacific Ocean authorized what is known as the Santa Fe expedition. This was one of those grand adventures that was doomed from the start. The group got lost, they were attacked by almost every tribe along the route, and when they actually reached New Mexico they were met with armed resistance. The entire expedition surrendered without firing a shot, were imprisoned in Mexico City, and eventually released in 1842. Also in 1842, Mexico invaded Texas. A force of 700 lead by Gen. Rafael Vásquez entered Texas and seized San Antonio. They only stayed for two days before travelling back over the Rio Grande and returning to Mexico, but their presence in Texas caused many Anglos to become very nervous. Since Sam Houston had taken office from Lamar, in March of 1842, he instructed the Texas representative to Washington, James Reily, to begin to explore the possibility of annexation. The federal government was receptive because the British had indicated they wanted to help mediate the Texas-Mexico issues. Of course, this would have provided England with an opening to establish their influence in Texas affairs. Meanwhile President Tyler, a Whig who adhered to the traditional Southern support of slavery, was a proponent of annexation and by October discussions that would lead to the eventual annexation of Texas by treaty had begun. The treaty was completed on April 12, 1844, and signed by Secretary of State John C. Calhoun, Isaac Van Zandt, and Van Zandt's assistant, J. Pinckney Henderson. Texas was an issued during the U.S. presidential election of 1844. Democrat James K. Polk, of Tennessee, ran under the slogan "the Re-Annexation of Texas and the Re-Occupation of Oregon.," He was trying to capitalize on the growing belief among Americans that it was their destiny to control the entire continent. He won by a very significant amount. Since Polk would not take office until March of 1845,

Episode 42 – Texas becomes a Nation – well sort of and not a very successful one. As soon as the provisional government heard about the victory at San Jacinto, government officials headed to the battlefield. Once there they began negotiating with Santa Anna to end the war. May 14 at Velasco, Santa Anna signed two treaties, one for public consumption and the other one was signed and kept secret. The public treaty officially ended hostilities with Mexico and restored settlers private property. Prisoners on both sides were to be released, and the Mexican forces would move south of the Rio Grande. All very popular with everyone. The secret treaty, which would have caused an uproar if the details were made public agreed that Santa Anna would be taken to Veracruz and released. In return, he agreed to have the Mexican government approve the two treaties and to negotiate a permanent treaty. That treaty was to acknowledge that Texas was to be independent of Mexico. It was to also recognize the national boundary as the Rio Grande. Even though the two treaties had been signed, things were not exactly peaceful. In fact, military activity continued along the Gulf Coast. On June 2 Maj. Isaac W. Burton, who was in charge of a company of twenty mounted rangers, noticed the vessel Watchman at anchor in Copano Bay. He grew suspicious and had his men capture it. Once they boarded it they discovered that it carried supplies intended for the Mexican army. On the seventeenth of June, Burton then seized two more vessels, the Comanche and the Fannie Butler. They were also carrying supplies for the Mexican army which had a value of $25,000.  Meanwhile the Mexican Congress renounced Santa Anna, refused to honor his treaties, and demanded that the war with Texas continue. Once word of the Mexican government's actions reached Texas, people began to demand that Santa Anna be put to death. Santa Anna, his secretary Ramón Martínez Caro, and Col. Juan N. Almonte had already been put aboard the Invincible to be returned to Veracruz, but the ship had not yet set sail. Gen. Thomas Jefferson Green, a recent arrival from the United States demanded that President Burnet remove the Mexicans from the vessel and put them into confinement.  Which he agreed to temporarily do. Santa Anna was not executed, instead he was sent to Washington D. C. where he met with President Andrew Jackson. Jackson did send him back to Mexico where Santa Anna discovered he had been deposed as President.  Meanwhile back in Texas, Thomas Jefferson Rusk who had been a general during the battle of San Jacinto and was appointed to the position of Secretary of War, asked President Burnet to relieve him of his command. To succeed Rusk on June 25 Burnet appointed Mirabeau B. Lamar to the post of secretary of war.  BUT word arrived that Gen. José de Urrea was moving Mexican army troops towards Goliad, (remember the Goliad Massacre, which took place during the revolt? Texans were still very angry over the slaughter that took place) Rusk changed his mind about retiring. But since Lamar was now officially the Secretary of War, Burnet was hesitant to do so. At that point Thomas Jefferson Green and Felix Huston, who had come into Texas with a contingent of  volunteers from Mississippi, began to agitate against Lamar. This caused the soldiers to turn against Lamar and Rusk returned to command. Urrea failed to show up at Goliad so Rusk once again vacated his command and the army chose Huston to replace him. More unrest continued in the ranks of the Army as many of the officers openly defied the government. They even threatened to impose a military dictatorship. Internal squabbles were not the only problems the government faced. On May 19th, a force of Comanche and Caddo Indians attacked Fort Parker, in what is known as the Fort Parker Massacre, and captured two women and three children. One of those children was a nine-year-old girl by the name of Cynthia Parker.

Los Diablos Tejanos - The Texas Rangers Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas. this is Episode 41 – Los Diablos Tejanos - The Texas Rangers The Rangers actually came into existence in 1823, when Stephen F. Austin hired ten experienced frontiersmen, that he wanted to send on an expedition to punish a band of Indians. However, it took another 12 years, in 1835, for Texas lawmakers to create the Texas Rangers actually officially. The initial group consisted of fifty-six men that were broken into three companies. Each company was lead by a captain and two lieutenants, and who an immediate superior who held the rank of major. The major was subject to the commander-in-chief of the regular army and was responsible for recruiting, rule enforcement, and discipline. The officers each were promised the same pay as United States dragoons and privates- a total of $1.25 a day.  Out of that pay, they had to supply their own mounts, and all other equipment including arms, and food rations. They were on call and had to be ready to ride, equipped "with a good and sufficient horse...[and] with one hundred rounds of powder and ball." In the beginning the Rangers did not do well. During the Texas Revolution they served occasionally as either scouts or couriers, plus any other task the government wanted them to do. On March 6, 1836, the Alamo fell and with it came the runaway scrape. I've talked about it in earlier episodes, but this was when the Rangers were really called into action. They were tasked with retrieving cattle, helping refugees get past trails covered with mud and streams swollen with rain. They also performed a scorched earth policy and to keep the Mexican army from benefitting from what was left, they destroyed produce or equipment they found. While these duties were important, the reality is, that during the actual battle of San Jacinto they were relegated to nothing more than escort duty. After independence, their status didn't really change because President Sam Houston had a well-known friendship with the Indians and the Rangers had been used to raid and attack the various tribes. When Mirabeau B. Lamar succeeded Houston as president of the republic in 1838 he put into place completely different frontier policies. Part of  his changes was to convince congress to give him more Rangers. He was able to grow the force to eight companies of mounted volunteers and also keep a standing company of fifty-six Rangers. A month after that he was able to build an additional 5 companies in both Central and South Texas. These proved to be instrumental over the next three years as they waged all-out war against the Indians. They participated in multiple pitched battles, including, the July 1839 Cherokee War in East Texas, the 1840 Council House Fight at San Antonio against the Comanches,  and again in 1840 a fight against 1,000 Comanche warriors at the battle of Plum Creek. If the purpose of the Lamar administration was to eliminate or at least drastically reduce the power of the tribes of Texas, he was successful. Lamar favored the actual expulsion of all native peoples from Texas and was able to force many of the tribes to relocate and give up their historic land. When Sam Houston was reelected to the presidency in 1841, he changed his opinion on the Rangers and believed they were the least expensive and the most efficient way to protect frontier settlers. In 1842 Captain John Coffee Hays lead a group of  150 Rangers that played an instrumental role in helping to repel a Mexican invasion. Over the next three years, they also worked to defend the settlers against attacks by various tribes.  Hays was responsible for creating several Ranger traditions and esprit de corps and focused on bringing in men who were skilled in frontier warfare. In 1845 Texas was annexed by the United States and in 1846 war broke out with Mexico. This was when the Rangers became known for their fighting skills on a worldwide basis.

Episode 40 - The Cherokee - the "Principal People" Conclusion Welcome to Episode 40 of the Hidden History of Texas, this episode concludes my discussion of the Cherokee. Before I get started, just a quick reminder that I have 3 audiobooks based on this series. You can find information about them at my  website https://arctx.org. On the menu, under Digital Products -> Audiobooks. Check them out, thanks, Now back to the Cherokee. Ever since Europeans had landed on the continent, the Cherokee had done their best to coexist. Unfortunately, their desire to live in peace on their ancestral lands conflicted with the new settlers desire to own that same land. As a result, they were forced off their land and as I mentioned in the last episode they arrived in what is now East Texas where they lived in relative peace for a few years. They did their best to maintain neutrality when conflict started between the Anglo Texans and the Mexican Government. After Texas achieved independence in 1836, Texas Republic President Sam Houston was a strong advocate for peace with all Texas tribes. He spent many hours working to keep the Cherokees as allies as he tried to negotiate treaties with the Apache, Comanche, and the Kiowa. This even included the Cherokees agreeing in 1836 to send a company of 25 rangers to help patrol the land west of their settlements. In 1837 Cherokee leader Duwali agreed to be the republic's emissary to the Comanches. However, in 1838 relations began to fall apart after a raid on settlers in East Texas was blamed on a combined Cherokee and Mexican force. As he was getting ready to leave office, Houston once again tried to keep the peace between Texans and the Cherokees. He established a boundary that could have served as a boundary separating the groups. This line upset the Anglos who wanted the land and who believed the Cherokees were actually allies of the Mexicans. Mirabeau B. Lamar who took Houston's place as Republic President was an ardent foe of the Cherokees and wanted them completely out of Texas. He initiated his campaign of elimination by sending troops to the Neches Saline (a small community in East Texas). When Chief Duwali had his people block the Texans and in response Lamar told the chief that the Cherokee would be relocated beyond the red river. His words to the chief were, "peaceably if they would; forcibly if they must." Lamar then put together a commission who were told they could compensate the Cherokees if they left their land.  The Cherokees said no, and the result was what is known as the Cherokee War. The war, although it was really more of a pitched battle took place in the summer of 1839. That was when Chief Duwali led several hundred of his warriors in a fight that took place near present day Tyler Texas. The result was a disaster for the Cherokee as more than a 100 warriors including the chief were killed. The Texans then drove the remaining Cherokees across the Red River into what was then labeled Indian Territory. Not all Cherokee were exiled to the territory, some stayed and lived as fugitives in Texas and still others moved into Mexico. There were some Cherokee who conducted raids and fought for their lands, but they had little to no success. In 1841 Sam Houston was elected to another term as president and he instituted a policy that he thought would help end future hostilities between the tribes and the settlers. This policy gave two  treaties with the Cherokees who remained in Texas in 1843 and 1844. After the Cherokees who had been moved north of the Red River they were able to reunite with the much larger group of Cherokee who had been settled in the northeastern corner of the territory. In 1846, the Cherokee signed an agreement with the U.S. that specified that all the Cherokee, those from Texas and those who were already in the Territory had equal rights to the  lands of the Cherokee nation. This union lasted until the Civil War.

Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas. this is Episode 39 – The Cherokee – The  "Principal People” Forced out of their ancestral homes in what is now the American Southeast by pressure from Anglo Europeans, the Cherokee, or as they call themselves the Ani-Yunwiya, or the principal people, came  to settle in what is now East Texas. Used Under Professional License via Vecteezy Their ancestral lands included a large percentage of the southern Appalachian highlands, which included segments  of Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. They were an agricultural people and the similarities between their Iroquoian language and tribal  migration legends tend to indicate that the tribe originated further to the north of their traditional settled homeland. It was approximately 1540 when Europeans first encountered the Cherokees, that was when Hernando De Soto's party traveled through their lands. After that 1st and brief encounter it would be more than a hundred years before they had any additional significant interactions with Europeans. It was in the 1670s that prolonged contact between the Cherokees' and the Europeans took place. The Cherokees  quickly adapted many of the basic and fundamental material elements of European culture to their own society. This tendency in turn led the Anglo Europeans  to call them, the "Five Civilized Tribes." In response to their, what was a successful attempt to adapt to their Anglo-European neighbors, they established a constitutional government with a senate, a house of representatives, and an elected chief. In 1821, Sequoyah, AKA George Gist or George Guess, took the tribe's spoken words and created a written language. The Cherokee placed a high value on education and in many instances-maintained schools for their children. While it is true that the Cherokees did derive some advantages from interaction with Europeans, those advantages were far outweighed by the negative effects of that contact. Due to the European desire for territory and empire building, the Cherokee were often decimated by wars, epidemics due to the new diseases introduced by the Europeans, and food shortages. Put together these all caused the population to decline, the area of their territory reduced, and a general weakening of their  group identity. In an attempt to maintain their culture, between the years 1790 and 1820, many Cherokees voluntarily migrated west of the Mississippi River. These peoples selttled in what is now Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. Eventually those who had tried to remain on their ancestral land in the Southeast were ultimately forced to move west due to the implementation of  the 1830 United States Indian removal policy. Between the years 1838 and 1839, 16,000 to 18,000 Cherokees were forcibly marched to their new home in northeastern Indian Territory. An estimated 4,000 individuals died on the march, which we now know as the Trail of Tears. It was in 1807  when Cherokees were first reported in Texas, that took place when a small band, probably from one of the Arkansas settlements, established a village on the banks of the Red River. In the summer of that year, a delegation of Cherokees, Pascagoulas, Chickasaws, and Shawnees sought permission from Spanish officials in Nacogdoches, to permanently settle members of their tribes in that province. Hoping to use the group as a buffer against further expansion by the Americans, the Spanish authorities approved the request. For the next few years a small number of Cherokees drifted in and out of Texas. Between 1812 and 1819, the population of Arkansas began to increase and once again the Cherokees were forced to migrate and more of them migrated into Southern Arkansas. But by 1820,  they could no longer avoid American competition for the land. At the same time Anglo-Americans had established seven settlements in the valley of the Red River, and the Cherokees decided to move even further south.

Episode 38 – The Kiowa  – Nomadic Warriors of the Plains (Not a Complete Transcript) According to their traditions, the Kiowas originally lived at the mouths of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers in present day Montana. As it is now, then it could have very cold winters and the ground covered by a deep layer of snow. As hunter-gatherers, they primarily used a bow and arrow along with their only domesticated animal the dog, which pulled their travois after being attached to it with poles that hooked to a harness. Close neighbors of the Kiowa were the Flatheads and several Athabascan tribes lived to their north and west.  Now according to legend the people had a quarrel over the udders of a doe which were the spoils of a hunt. The group that won the delicacy headed to the southeast and went to live with friends, the Crows. Those left behind were never heard of again. The Crows essentially helped change the Kiowas and made them much more mobile. They taught the Kiowas ride horses and hunt buffalo which was something they had never before been able to do. There was some intermarriage with the Crows but they had much more in common with and joined together with the Kiowa Apaches. The first time they were written about was in 1682 by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who had knowledge of them from one of a Pani slave boy at Fort St. Louis. That boy called them Manrhouts and Gattacha. When they were in the Yellowstone region in1804, Lewis and Clark heard of them but did not meet them. Moving out of the north and their previous mountainous home, the Kiowas had taken the first steps towards becoming a real part of  the Plains Culture by learning to ride horses. This enabled them to hunt buffalo on horseback, and it became their main foodstuff. Of course, with the horse came mobility and they moved steadily towards the south.  This mobility also turned the Kiowa into a completely nomadic lifestyle which consisted of predation, pillage, and warfare. They excelled at it until they became one of the most feared and hated of the Plains tribes. Part of their success was how they constantly had the largest number of horses of all the Plains Indians. Around the year of 1790 the Kiowas made a lasting peace with the Comanches and together they traded horses and captives east via the Wichitas and Taovayas to the French and English. In exchange they  received guns, ammunition, and metal for points and vermilion for face paint. In 1840, with the encouragement of trader and negotiator William Bent, the Kiowas, Kiowa Apaches, and Comanches joined with the Southern Cheyenne and Arapahos at Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River and agreed to an inter-tribal peace that was never broken. Together the five tribes in union created a formidable barrier that was able to prove an obstacle to those who wished to cross the southern plains. Finally, the U.S. sent the First Dragoons to protect wagon trains on the Santa Fe Trail. In later years, both the Second Dragoons and the Mounted Rifles made an effort to defend and protect the southwest and Texas from Indian raids. In the 1850s the Second United States Cavalry sought to reduce the number of attacks on the frontier settlements but like those before they had little success. For more articles on History - read my column on Medium.

Episode 37 – The Apache warriors of the Southwest Who were the Apaches? As I've talked about in the past, if your idea of the indigenous peoples of the Americas is based upon movies and television then it's most likely not accurate. If you do a quick google search on movies about the Apaches, you'll find at least 24. Shoot, there have been numerous white actors who have portrayed Apaches such as Burt Lancaster in the movie “Apache”. The reality is often quite different than what has been portrayed, because honestly Hollywood didn't really care to get it right. This was especially true in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. So who really were the Apache? They are part of the southern branch of the Athabascan group. That group encompasses a very large family of people, and  whose languages are found in Alaska, western Canada, and the American Southwest. Several branches lived in a region that went from the Arkansas River to Northern Mexico and from Central Texas to Central Arizona. Mostly they were divided into Eastern and Western, with the Rio Grande serving as the dividing line. There are two groups, the Lipans and the Mezcaleros, that lived partially or entirely within the borders of Texas. The Apaches were known by multiple names. As a nomadic people, it is likely that several names were actually identifying the same band.  Some of the Apache bands in Texas were Limita, Conejero, and Trementina. However, only the Lipan and Mescalero names survived into the nineteenth century.  Most likely the name we know and use, Apache, came from the Zuñi word apachu, meaning "enemy," or possibly Awa'tehe, the Ute name for Apaches. When they referred to themselves the words they used are Inde or Diné, which simply means  "the people." Apaches migrated into the Southwest sometime between A.D. 1000 and 1400. Separated from their northern bands, they created  a home for themselves in the Southwest. They seemed to have migrated south along the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, then spread west into what is now the states of New Mexico and Arizona. Once the Comanche began moving into the same area, they had to relocate further south and west. Both the Lipan and Mescalero Apaches social unit was the extended family. Several families would usually stay together, and the leader was their most prominent member. This individual acted as chief advisor and director of group affairs.  Several groups would live close to one another, so they were able to come together for both defense, offense, and the occasional social or ceremonial occasions. The Lipan Apache apparently had no formal organization larger than the band. While being flexible for the immediate members, this type of  loose organization did cause issues when it came to establishing relations with the Spanish, and later with the Mexicans, Texans, and Americans. For example while one band might make peace with its enemies, another was free to remain at war with the same group. The band leaders were males; however, females held a central place within the tribe. Once married, the groom would move in and live with his wife's family. He was also required to hunt and work with his in-laws. If the wife should die, the husband was required to stay with her family,  and most of the time they would furnish him with a new bride. In contrast, the wife had little to no  obligation to the husband's family. However, if he died, his family could provide a cousin or brother for her to marry. Men were allowed to marry more than one woman, but few besides wealthy or prestigious leaders did so. Now since they were required to live with their wife's family, that meant that any other wife would have to be either a sister or cousin of their current wife. As a nomadic people who subsisted almost entirely on the buffalo, they usually covered much territory. The buffalo provided clothing, and coverage for their tents, which whenever they moved were broken down and loaded onto sleds which were then pu...

Episode 36 – The Comanche - strong warriors with fine horses. Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas. I'm your host Hank Wilson and this is Episode 36 – The Comanche - strong warriors with fine horses Before I get started, I want to introduce y'all to a set of books called ‘the Music is Murder saga'. These novels by Heather O'Brien, follow the lives and loves of the O'Conners, the Grants, and the Lockhardts. Something—or someone—ties these three families together and you'll be caught up in the drama of their situations. The books are set in the world of Rock ‘n' roll and you'll be hooked from page one. The 1st book you'll want is Lockhardt Sound, and as someone who has worked in the music industry, let me tell you, the story could and does happen. Check out her site, booksbyheather.com, you won't be disappointed. As her site says, long live rock ‘n' roll. Last time I spoke about the 3 main groups of peoples, the Caddo, Karankawa, and the Jumano who were living in Texas when the Spanish first came into Texas. They did their best to adjust and live with the Spanish but unfortunately they were not prepared to deal with the diseases and frankly the violence they were often met with. There are 3 other groups who more people are probably familiar with due to tv and the movies. They are the Comanche, the Kiowa, and the Apache. All three played a significant role in the early history of Texas and all 3 were involved in conflict with the newcomers, both Spanish and Anglo. Now a word, a quick word about the use of the word tribe when it comes to talking about these groups of peoples. We often substitute  “tribe” for “people,” but tribe is probably one of the most inexact-nonspecific terms that we can use. I try to avoid it because not all of the natives of Texas spoke the same language, had the same customs, shared the same clans, or saw themselves as separate and distinct from their neighbors. The Indians of Texas often remade themselves and did so with people who had different languages, customs, and families. So I will do my best to refer to the people by the name they currently use, occasionally using the word tribes or clans or peoples and if anyone knows of more appropriate words, please let me know. In this episode I want to talk about the Comanche. Most folks are familiar with them due to shows such as Lonesome Dove, Last of the Comanche, Comanche Station, the Comancheros, and the Searchers. Historically accurate? Yeah, not so much, except for their depiction of the Comanche as being master horsemen. They were indeed known to many as some of the finest horsemen ever seen.  But who were they? Initially, the Comanche lived in the Northern Great Plains and were a branch of the Northern Shoshones. They, like most of the clans at that time travelled by foot and were hunters and gatherers. It appears that sometime in the late 17th century, (i.e. mid to late 1600s) they acquired horses. Once that happened, the game changed and so did their lives. But what caused the Comanche to migrate from their ancestral homelands? As I mentioned, the Comanche acquired horses and once they achieved mobility they were able to leave their traditional mountain home range and then moved onto the plains of eastern Colorado and western Kansas. As with the majority of hunter-gatherer peoples they followed the food. They also learned that if they travelled south they would be able to gather the wild mustangs who roamed the southwest. When this was coupled with a warm climate and buffalo moving made even more sense. Once they began their move, they also began to trade with the Wichita who lived around the Red River. This gave them access to French goods, including firearms. Even though they had arms and were excellent horsemen, they were also under pressure from the Blackfoot and Crow people in their north and east. As a result of their migration, a large swatch of the South Plains, much of North Central and West Texas became Comanche ...

Episode 35 – The Republic and Relations With The Tribes Before I get started, I want to introduce y'all to a set of books called ‘the Music is Murder saga'. These novels by Heather O'Brien, follow the lives and loves of the O'Conners, the Grants, and the Lockhardts. Something—or someone—ties these three families together and you'll be caught up in the drama of their situations. The books are set in the world of Rock ‘n' roll and you'll be hooked from page one. The 1st book you'll want is Lockhardt Sound, and as someone who has worked in the music industry, let me tell you, the story could and does happen. Check out her site, booksbyheather.com, you won't be disappointed. As her site says, long live rock ‘n' roll. When I wrapped up the last episode, I had begun talking about how Republic President Sam Houston had wanted to establish better relationships with the Indians of Texas. Today I'm going to dive deeper into that whole concept and try to get a better understanding of the relationship between the Anglos and the Native tribes. It was very messy, and it became very bloody. Again, I have to bring up the thought, that based on the morality of today, what happened back then is today considered genocide. I'm not going to try and justify what took place. It doesn't do any good to get angry over the actions that took place, it might serve as a warning of what can, and in many places, still does happen to others. Before I go into the relationships in 1836 and beyond, I want to go back over some of the history of the native people prior to this time. Remember, how in early episodes I talked about how when the Spanish arrived in Texas there were multiple groups or tribes of indigenous people in all parts of Texas. Now I'm not going to go back 10,000 years ago and talk about the Clovis people, there are several excellent books out there that discuss the people and how they evolved, and it does make for fascinating reading. I want to start with those who were here when the first Spanish explorers bumped into Texas. November 6, 1528, is the day when the lives of the native peoples of what is now Texas began to change, and not for the better. That was the day when the Karankawas met Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and the remnants of his crew on Galveston Island. At that time, the Karankawas were one of many tribes or bands of native people who lived in Texas. The Karankawas were a hunter gatherer group who lived mostly on the Texas coast. They were hunter-gatherers, and they necessarily lived a somewhat nomadic life because they had to travel to find food. There were approximately 5 bands that are historically associated with them, one such group were the Cocos who lived the furthest east between Galveston Island and the Colorado River. They were the group that de Vaca's band of survivors lived with. And that proved to be a disaster for the Cocos, because Cholera hit and killed nearly half of their band. These groups were the first to encounter the Spanish and the first to suffer from those encounters. The native people's simply were not equipped to handle the germs and diseases that the Europeans brought with them. Another group that suffered from their encounter with the Europeans where the Caddos.  Around 1500, the Caddos had already built a complex political system that consisted of alliances between different bands and tribes. In addition to their lands in Texas, they  were also located in the Great Plains, Eastern Woodlands, and present-day Arizona and New Mexico. They had built extensive trading networks where they exported salt, pottery, and wood for making bows, and they imported seashells, copper, and flint. It was natural that once the French and Spanish merchants arrived in Texas and the surrounding areas, that the Caddo's would trade with them as well and that began their downfall. As with the Karankawas the Europeans brought new diseases that had devastated the people.

Episode 34 - The New Republic and Sam Houston becomes President. The program is brought to you by Digital Media Publishers Ashby Navis & Tennyson. Download our audiobooks at Spotify, TuneIn, Apple, Google,  Barnes and Noble, and stores around the world. Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. As I've talked about, the early Anglo settlers in Texas primarily came from the South. This means that they brought many of their southern traditions and biases with them. Now even though the term Manifest Destiny, wasn't actually coined until 1845, the idea that formed it, which is that the United States was destined by God, to expand its control and to spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent was part of what built Texas. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 was an example of the United States trying to expand, to fulfill what many thought was destiny. Texas was also seen as being part of that fulfillment, now one of the byproducts of that concept, was how it affected any person who was non-white. I have already spoken a little about the animosity between the Anglo newcomers and the Mexicans who had lived in Texas for decades and also about how the real native Texans, that is, the indigenous tribes had been changed and decimated. Well, this new republic would have an even more dramatic effect on both of those populations. The Republic had been born and by July Interim President Burnet and his cabinet began shifting responsibilities. The ad interim president called an election for the first Monday in September to set up a government under the constitution. The voters were asked to (1) approve the constitution, (2) authorize Congress to amend the constitution, (3) elect a president, other officers, and members of Congress, and (4) express their views on annexation to the United States. So far so good, but as with everything about Texas, it was not all peaches and cream. The choice of a president especially was a concern. Henry Smith, the governor of the provisional government, was most likely the first to announce his candidacy for the office. Stephen F. Austin (who many now consider to be the father of Texas)  also entered the race, but he had accumulated enemies because of the land speculations of his business associate Samuel May Williams and, remember this was in the time when it was difficult to communicate with others, many newcomers to Texas didn't really know Austin.  Some of the newcomers thought he had been too slow to support independence. Finally, just eleven days before the election, Sam Houston became an active candidate. On election day, It was determined that Houston won by  a landslide, with 5,119 votes, Smith 743, and Austin 587. Remember Mirabeau Lamar, the "keenest blade" at San Jacinto, he was elected vice president. Lamar becoming vice president will play a major role in the future, especially when it comes to relations with both the Mexican and Native tribes. I'll talk about that in the next episode, anyway... Houston benefited from strong support from the army and from those who believed that his election would ensure internal stability and because of his reputation, help Texas receive recognition from various world powers and, probably more important, help Texas get annexed by the United States. Remember, most of the Anglos in Texas at that time weren't really interested in being their own country. Yes, they wanted independence from Mexico, but they also wanted to be part of the United States. Houston was expected to stand firm against Mexico and while waiting for the United States to act seek recognition of Texas independence from Mexico. The people voted overwhelmingly to accept the constitution and to seek annexation, but they denied Congress the power of amendment. And actually to this day, the legislature cannot amend the State's constitution, it can only be done by a vote of the citizens. On October 22, before a joint session of the Texas Congress,

Episode 33 Independence and a Republic is born (sort of) Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas. I'm your host Hank Wilson and this is Episode 33 - Independence and a Republic is born (sort of) The program is brought to you by Digital Media Publishers Ashby Navis & Tennyson. Download our audiobooks at Spotify, TuneIn, Apple, Google,  Barnes and Noble, and stores around the world. Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. Time to start discussing the actual founding of what was to be known as the Republic of Texas. While it is true that most Anglo Texans and many of the Mexican Texans believed that Texas began working to become a nation after the victory over Santa Anna at San Jacinto, the reality is quite different. In earlier episodes, I talked about the various declarations that had been passed during the 1830s. The actual convention that was to declare that Texas was independent began in March, prior to the falling of the Alamo. The convention was held at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 1, 1836, and it was very different from the Consultation or any of the pervious gatherings. There were 41 delegates present and another 59 people who periodically stopped by or attended the meetings. An interesting fact about the makeup of the convention is that two delegates (José Francisco Ruiz and José Antonio Navarro of Bexar) were native Texans, one (Lorenzo de Zavala) had actually been born in Mexico. Of the rest of the delegates only 10 had been living in Texas before 1835. The majority were late arrivals who came from either the United States, or from Europe. While about 2/3 of the delegates were not yet forty, several of them already had political experience.  For example, Samuel P. Carson of Pecan Point served in the North Carolina Legislature and Robert Potter of Nacogdoches in the U.S. House of Representatives. On March 1 George C. Childress, who had returned from a visit with President Jackson in Tennessee, presented a resolution calling for independence. It was quickly adopted, and Childress was appointed to lead a committee of five in drafting a final declaration of independence. Childress must have been expecting this because when the committee met that evening, he pulled out a statement he had brought from Tennessee. That document followed the outline and contained the main features of the United States Declaration of Independence. On March 2nd, the delegates unanimously adopted his suggested declaration. After 58 members signed the document the Republic of Texas was unofficially born. Upon receiving the news about the fall of the Alamo and that Santa Anna's army was marching eastward, the convention hastily adopted a constitution, signed it, and elected an interim government: David G. Burnet, was elected president; Lorenzo de Zavala, vice president; Samuel P. Carson, secretary of state; Thomas J. Rusk, secretary of war; Bailey Hardeman, secretary of the treasury; Robert Potter, secretary of the navy; and David Thomas, attorney general. Immediately after this the delegates fled Washington-on-the-Brazos and headed towards  Galveston Island. Upon hearing of Houston's victory at San Jacinto they quickly headed to the San Jacinto battlefield and began negotiations to end the war. At Velasco on May 14, they had Santa Anna sign two treaties, one public and one secret. The public treaty ended hostilities and restored private property. Texan and Mexican prisoners were to be released, and Mexican troops would retire beyond the Rio Grande. The secret treaty included the provision that Santa Anna was to be taken to Veracruz and released. In return for this, Santa Anna agreed to seek Mexican government approval of both treaties and to negotiate a permanent treaty that acknowledged Texas independence and recognized its boundary as the Rio Grande. Texans demanded that Santa Anna should be put to death, but on June 4, the dictator, his secretary Ramón Martínez Caro, and Col. Juan N.

The Goliad Massacre Welcome to Episode 32 of the Hidden History of Texas. This one is slightly out of sequence. It's about the Goliad Massacre. The Alamo has fallen, and Santa Anna is moving through Texas and that brings me to what has been known historically as the Goliad Massacre. While not as well known today, at least outside of Texas and among historians, at the time it is virtually impossible to measure how much support was generated for the cause against Mexico both within Texas and in the United States. One thing is certain, without a doubt, the news of the massacre contributed to the Texan victory at the battle of San Jacinto and helped in sustaining the independence of the Republic of Texas. While Texans and Americans were horrified and angered by the execution of those in James W. Fannin, Jr.'s command, there was precedent for the massacre itself. Additionally, the order of the exterminations by Santa Anna, was permitted by Mexican law. Since this is the case, any discussion of the massacre must take the events and legislation that preceded it into consideration. We must remember that one of the major concerns of Santa Anna was that the colonists would receive help from the United States. His order to treat the colonists and those who resisted as pirates was first tested after November 15, 1835, when Gen. José Antonio Mexía attacked Tampico and three companies who were from New Orleans. One company, which had poor leadership, immediately broke ranks and half of them, along with some wounded were captured by Santa Anna's forces the next day. Twenty-eight of the men were tried as pirates, convicted, and, on December 14, 1835, shot.  Almost a month passed before they were executed, and this gave Santa Anna more than enough time to see the reaction from the United States, over Americans being executed. When there was no immediate reaction from New Orleans, Santa Anna felt he was within his rights to do so. This lead him to believe that he had found an effective deterrent to any American support or aid for Texas. Santa Anna then asked the Mexican Congress for an official decree which directed that all foreigners taken in arms against the government should be treated as pirates and shot. He received that degree in December of 1835. His main army took no prisoners; and Gen. José de Urrea, commander of Santa Anna's right wing was responsible for carrying out those orders. Urrea's first prisoners were survivors of Francis W. Johnson's party, captured near San Patricio on February 27, 1836. According to a report from Reuben M. Potter, Urrea "was not blood thirsty and when not overruled by orders of a superior, or stirred by irritation, was disposed to treat prisoners with lenity." The general reported to Santa Anna that he held the San Patricio fighters as prisoners, Santa Anna ordered him to carry out the decree of December 30. Urrea complied, issuing the order to shoot both the prisoners and prisoners from the battle of Agua Dulce Creek. Urrea though, had no stomach for such actions, and took advantage of the protests of Father Thomas J. Malloy, who was the priest of the Irish colonists, to send the prisoners to Matamoros. He asked Santa Anna to forgive him and essentially washed his hands of the prisoners fate. However, Urrea was faced with the same dilemma in Refugio on March 15, 1836. This time 33 Americans had been captured in the fighting at Nuestra Señora del Refugio Mission, with most of them coming from Capt. Amon B. King's company.  When King and his men burned local ranchos and shot eight Mexicans who were sitting around a campfire this action inflamed their enemies who wanted revenge. Urrea satisfied both his conscience and those around by executing King and fourteen of his men, while "setting at liberty all who were colonists or Mexicans." He faced a more complicated on March 20 after James W. Fannin's surrendered at the battle of Coleto.

Episode 31 -The Runaway Scrape, the Battle of San Jacinto, and Independence It's the spring of 1836 and the Alamo has fallen, folks are scared, and many people have no idea what's going to happen. As a result, what has become known as the Runaway Scrape is taking shape. But what was the Runaway Scrape and why isn't it talked about? Many Texans aren't exactly proud of the Runaway Scrape, because it was created by the Texas settlers who fled from their homes when Santa Anna began his drive into Texas starting in February of 1836. Now looking back in time, you can't really blame the settlers for leaving, after all Santa Anna was determined to crush any semblance of independence or revolution. If you look at a map of Texas it's easy to see the first communities that were affected. Those where those who were in the south central portions of the state. This area centered around San Patricio, Refugio, and San Antonio. Those folks actually began to leave in mid January of 1836 when they heard that the Mexican army was gathering on the Rio Grande. Things intensified once Sam Houston arrived in Gonzales on March 11 and learned about the fall of the Alamo. At that time he decided to retreat inland and east towards the Colorado River, and he ordered all local inhabitants to accompany him. Houston sent riders out from Gonzales to spread the news of the fall of the Alamo. Of course, upon hearing this news and knowing there was nothing between themselves and Santa Anna's troops, people began to leave everything and make their way to safety. As a result, this became an extremely large scale evacuation and the temporary capital Washington-on-the-Brazos was deserted by March 17. By April 1 Richmond and settlements on both sides of the Brazos river were  evacuated. As Houston continued to retreat eastward towards the Sabine River he left every settlement between the Colorado and the Brazos defenseless. For their own safety, those settlers began making their way toward Louisiana or Galveston Island. East Texas areas of Nacogdoches and San Augustine ended up abandoned just before April 13. One of the facts that often goes unreported about the flight was how because of the panic there was little or no preparation. There was also significant fear not only because of the Mexican army but also by the frontier Indians. The refugees traveled by any type of transportation they could find, or they walked. They experienced diseases, the weather was cold, wet, and many of them suffered from a lack of food.  Added to the discomforts of travel and their fear were all kinds of diseases, intensified by cold, rain, and hunger. Many of them died and those who did were buried where they fell. The evacuation continued up to and until they received news of Houston's victory in the battle of San Jacinto. The battle of San Jacinto was the final battle of the Texas Revolution. Due to Sam Houston's constant movement to the East, many Texans thought it would never take place. The army left Gonzales on March 13, 1836, crossed the Colorado River on the 17th, and then pitched camp near present day Columbus on the 20th. During the march Houston had been trying to recruit volunteers and with reinforcements from other groups, the army increased its about 1,200. While this was an improvement, scouts reported that there was close to 1325 Mexican troops west of the Colorado. Then on the 25th, they learned that Fannin had been defeated and his men slaughtered in Goliad. and at that point many of the men left to go join their families on the Runaway Scrape.  Houston was not deterred and led his troops to San Felipe de Austin by the 28th and by the 30th they arrived at the Jared E. Groce plantation on the Brazos River. At this time, interim President David G. Burnet ordered Houston to stop his retreat; Secretary of War Thomas J. Rusk urged him to be more decisive in his defense of Texas. Meanwhile Santa Anna decided to take control of the Texas coast and ...

In this episode, I discuss perhaps the most famous of all battles, the Alamo. In previous episodes, I've discussed the battles that took place Gonzales, Goliad (La Bahia), and the Siege of Bexar (or San Antonio) which took place from October through December of 1835. I've discussed a group of Texans who were very important in the revolution, the Tejanos, the Mexican Texans. Now it's time to look at the actual battle of the Alamo. Before I get too much into the actual story, I need to mention that there have been at least 8 movies made about the alamo, with the 1st being produced in 1915. It was a silent movie called Martyrs of the Alamo and it was produced by D.W. Griffith. Now, let's be honest and fair. Most of the movies about the battle of the Alamo are nonsense. The first of them, the one by D.W. Griffith was total garbage. Griffith, whose contributions to the movie industry cannot be denied,  was a well-known white supremacist  whose movies all reflected that.  Now the 2004 version is probably the most accurate of the movies made about the battle, but even it took what we call literary license with the events that took place, especially in the use of dialogue. So what really happened? One thing that the movies do get correct is there were some big-name folks who fought there. One of them was David Crockett, from Tennessee,  (by the way his actual fiddle is in the Witte Museum in San Antonio, and I once had a chance to hear it played during a recording session that took place in the Alamo Chapel). On different sides of the battle were two men who had once been friends adventurer James Bowie, and Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna. For a large number of Americans and almost all Texans, the battle for the Alamo has become a symbol of patriotic sacrifice and bravery. The men and women who were in the battle were indeed brave and as I mentioned in the beginning, the traditional popular novels, stage plays, and motion pictures, obscure the actual historical event. To understand the reality of the battle, we have to look at why San Antonio and the Alamo itself was strategic. Remember how in December 1835 a Federalist army of Texan (or Texian, as they were called) immigrants, American volunteers, and their Tejano allies had captured San Antonio from the Mexican Army, or the Centralist forces that were there  during the siege of Bexar. As I said in the episode about the Siege of Bexar after the victory, a majority of the Texan volunteers of the "Army of the People" left service and returned to their families. Even though the siege itself was over many members  of the provisional government feared the Centralists would mount a spring offensive. The main issue with that is there were only two main roads leading into Texas from the interior of Mexico.  The first was the Atascosito Road, which stretched from Matamoros on the Rio Grande northward through San Patricio, Goliad, Victoria, and finally into the heart of Austin's colony. The second was the Old San Antonio Road, a Camino real that crossed the Rio Grande at Paso de Francia (the San Antonio Crossing) and wound northeastward through San Antonio de Béxar, Bastrop, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, and across the Sabine River into Louisiana. Each of these roads were blocked by forts. Presidio La Bahía at Goliad and the Alamo at San Antonio. Each spot served almost like an early warning system, ready to alert the Texas settlements of any enemy advance. The Bexar garrison, or the Alamo was commanded by James Clinton Neill. While James Walker Fannin, Jr., took over the forces at Goliad. Many of the settlers had returned to home and that meant that some newly arrived American volunteers made up a majority of the troops at Goliad and Bexar. Both Neill and Fannin were determined to stall the Centralists on the frontier and not let them easily move inland, but they were not delusional. Without speedy reinforcements,

Episode 29 (Los Tejanos) In Today's episode I want to discuss Los Tejanos. In previous episodes, I've discussed the battles that took place Gonzales, Goliad (La Bahia), and the Siege of Bexar (or San Antonio) which took place from October through December of 1835. After the siege of Bexar Texans are in control of San Antonio. Today before I delve too deeply into the actual battle, I want to talk about a segment of the Texas population that played a very important role in the revolution, los Tejanos. Who are the Tejanos? Simply put they are Mexican Texans; they are the descendants of the Spanish who first colonized Mexico and then moved north into Texas. Through this period they were Mexican citizens. And just as it was among the Mexicans living South of the Rio Grande, there were those who supported the strong central government of San Anna and those who opposed it. They wanted more autonomy for what was then known as the Mexican state of Texas. In that respect, they were very much like the Anglos who were very early settlers. Those very early Anglo settlers were quite different from the ones who flooded in during the 1830s. The majority of these later Anglos came from the deep south and they held the same prejudices as most of those in the south. Regardless of that, and I will talk more about the divide between the races and ethnic groups in later episodes, both the siege and battle of the Alamo involved a considerable number of Tejanos. They served as defenders, couriers, and noncombatants. In fact, the vast majority of survivors of the final assault in the early morning hours of March 6, 1836, were Tejanos. There were some Tejanos who participated in the events of the siege and final assault as people loyal to the federal government, either as government officials or members of the Mexican military. There is no way to give an exact number of Tejano defenders, in spite of folklore and Hollywood, there is also no way to give an exact number of Anglo defenders. Why is this? Because there no battle muster rolls and casualty lists, therefore, historians have had to rely on a wide variety of sources to arrive at some idea of a total number of defenders. The problem is exacerbated in the case of Tejanos, because some sources completely dismiss them. An example of this is,  William Barret Travis's letter of March 3 to the president of the Convention of 1836, in which Travis stated that the citizens of San Antonio were all enemies, except for the ones who entered the Alamo with the Texians, and that there were only three “Mexicans” in the fort with him. However, after examining the available reliable information, scholars have compiled a much longer list of Tejano participants. This includes events beginning with the arrival of the Mexican army on February 23, 1836, through the final assault on March 6, 1836. In fact, Juan N. Seguín, the senior Tejano military officer, and who the city of Seguin is named after, entered the Alamo with other defenders on February 23. This troop included, approximately fifteen men, most of whom left sometime after Seguín himself was sent out as a courier on February 25. Also entering the Alamo on the first day were Carlos Espalier, Gregorio (José María) Esparza, and Brígido Guerrero, the latter a Mexican army deserter who, like Espalier, appears to have been among James Bowie's men rather than part of Seguín's command. Along with Espalier and Esparza, the other Tejano defenders recognized as having died in the final assault include Juan Abamillo, Juan Antonio Badillo, Antonio Fuentes, José Toribio Losoya, Andrés Nava, and Damacio Jiménez (Ximenes), whose death in the final assault was only discovered in 1986. San Antonio resident Pablo Díaz, who would have been twenty years old at the time of the battle, claimed in a 1906 newspaper interview that he saw the body of one other Tejano defender, a man he identified simply as Cervantes.

Today iI take a closer look at the Siege of Bexar. We're still in 1835 and I'm taking a closer look at each of the early battles skirmishes that took place as the year comes to a close. In previous episodes, I've discussed the battles that took place Gonzales and Goliad (La Bahia) It was in Goliad that we first met General Cos, who would play a significant role in the next skirmish I want to talk about. The Siege of Bexar (or San Antonio) which took place from October through December of 1835. Without a doubt the siege of Bexar (San Antonio) was the first major campaign of the Texas Revolution. A group of Texan volunteers laid siege to the Mexican army that was headquartered in San Antonio de Béxar. After Texans drove off Mexican troops at Gonzales on October 2, the Texan army gathering outside of San Antonio grew to 300 men. To bring unity to the group they elected Stephen F. Austin commander. On October 12 they advanced closer to San Antonio, where Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos recently (remember our old friend from Goliad) had concentrated a Mexican force of around 650 men. He fortified the town plazas west of the San Antonio River and he also fortified the Alamo, which lay east of the river. In mid-October the Texans, now with a force numbering 400 men,  camped along Salado Creek east of San Antonio. In this group were legendary names such as James Bowie and Tejano leader Juan N. Seguín. Seguin brought with him a company of Mexican Texans who fought on the side of the settlers. In late October Bowie and James W. Fannin, Jr., led an advance to the missions below San Antonio, while Cos brought in 100 reinforcement men. On October 25 the Texans had a debate over strategy. Sam Houston, who had come from the Consultation government, urged delay for training and for cannons to bombard the fortifications. However, the desire of Austin and others who wanted to continue efforts at capturing San Antonio won the day. On October 27, from another of the missions around the San Antonio area, San Francisco de la Espada Mission, Austin sent Bowie and Fannin forward Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña Mission with ninety men. Their task was to locate a position nearer the town of San Antonio that would be suitable for an army encampment. It was there on the morning of the 28th that the Texans scouting party was attacked by a force of 275 men lead by Col. Domingo de Ugartechea. The Texans took a position along the bank of the San Antonio River from where they were able to drive off the assault. In doing so, they inflicted over fifty casualties on the Mexican force and captured a cannon. General Cos took up more defensive positions in San Antonio and the Alamo, and the Texans established camps on the river above and below the town. The Texans army grew to about 600 with reinforcements from East Texas that were led by Thomas J. Rusk. For the next several days Texas and Mexican cavalry skirmished from time to time as the Texans scouted to capture Mexican supplies and to warn of any reinforcements for Cos. Finally, on November 8,  Travis led a force that captured 300 Mexican mules and horses grazing beyond the Medina River. On the 12th, Ugartechea left San Antonio with a small cavalry force to direct the march of reinforcements from below the Rio Grande. Austin sent cavalry to intercept him, but the Mexican troops evaded them. With the weather changing and becoming colder and without adequate supplies both armies began to suffer morale problems. When three companies with over a hundred men arrived from the United States in mid-November, Austin again planned an attack. Officers still expressed doubts, however, and it was called off. Austin then left to assume diplomatic duties in the United States. The Texas troops selected Edward Burleson as their new leader. On November 26, Erastus (Deaf) Smith reported approaching Mexican cavalry and Burleson sent troops to cut them off.

We're still in 1835 and I'm taking a closer look at each of the early battles skirmishes that took place as the year comes to a close and today it's the Battle of Goliad. In my last episode I discussed what happened in Gonzales, Texas, almost simultaneously trouble was brewing in Goliad. That battle was not limited to one settlement, it encompassed several of the towns in and around the area and it is where we first meet General Cos of the Mexican Army. What could possibly be so important about a settlement, that quite frankly most people have never heard of, that it deserves special mention? Before 1829, Goliad was called La Bahía, and it occupied a place on the main route from the Gulf of Mexico to San Antonio de Béxar. About the same times as San Antonio was established the Mexicans also established Copano (El Cópano), on Aransas Bay and it served as the principal port of entry into Texas. These three points, San Antonio, La Bahia (Goliad), and Copano were the key to control of South Texas. La Bahía had incredible strategic importance since it guarded the supply line from the coast to the principal city of San Antonio. The roots of the Goliad Campaign of 1835 lay in Santa Anna's emergence in 1834 as president of Mexico and leader of the movement to establish the authority of a supreme central government. This clashed with the increasingly independent thinking in Texas arising in part from its distance from the central government in Mexico City and from its proximity to the United States. Santa Anna was determined to suppress any movements that were in favor of maintaining federalism and opposing his presidency. Santa Ana ordered his brother-in-law, General Cos, to Texas in September to investigate the refusal of citizens at Anahuac to pay duties to the central government, I've talked about the Anahuac Disturbances in episode 20 and it's on the website, so I won't go into detail here. Cos's goal was to proceed to San Antonio and ultimately San Felipe de Austin via Goliad with an army of 500 men. Their purpose was to reinforce Col. Domingo de Ugartechea and chastise the citizens of Texas for their attitude. This plan was well known in Texas, for many citizens had family in the interior and business connections there. The influential John J. Linn of Guadalupe Victoria warned as early as July 1835 that Cos would land at Copano. In July at La Bahía presidio, Col. Nicolás Condelle (or Conde), who had been sent to secure Goliad and Copano for Cos's projected expedition, arrested the alcalde, stripped the town of its arms, pressed citizens into service, and quartered soldiers in their homes. These activities caused several clashes to take place and increased the tension. General Cos landed at Copano about September 20. James Power, empresario of the Power and Hewetson colony and Cos's friend, sought out the general, who cordially informed the empresario of his orders to "repress with strong arm all those who, forgetting their duties to the nation which has adopted them as her children, are pushing forward with a desire to live at their own option without subjection to the laws." Power then warned the inland colonies that Cos had arrived and had marched to reinforce the government garrisons at Refugio, Goliad, and San Antonio, and would ultimately arrive at San Felipe de Austin. Cos left Refugio on October 1 and entered Goliad the next day with an honor guard of thirty, followed, as rapidly as it could be landed, by the infantry battalion which numbered more than 400. Cos dispatched Capt. Manuel Sabriego, a commander of local rancheros, and about twenty-five men to Guadalupe Victoria to seize a cannon and arrest José M. J. Carbajal, though, like the incident at Gonzales, the attempt was unsuccessful. Alcalde Plácido Benavides led the militia of Victoria against surrendering either the cannon or Carbajal. Cos departed from Goliad on October 5 with his honor guard and a  battalion and marched unmolest...

This video examines the current battle for control of Texas waters. It looks at the current water situation, asks who uses the water, who owns the water, and what's the real argument all about.