Former Tennessee governor Sam Houston, who has…
October 1832 CE
Former Tennessee governor Sam Houston, who has lived for the past three years in Indian Territory among the Cherokees, has taken a Cherokee wife, Tiana Rogers, and adopted Cherokee citizenship.
He acts as a trader, advisor, and special envoy for the tribe on numerous occasions.
In 1832, Houston, now thirty-nine, travels to Texas in this last capacity in futile attempt to secure a land grant for the tribe.
Stephen F. Austin has meanwhile actively promoted trade and attempted to secure the good favor of the Mexican authorities, having aiding them in the suppression of the Fredonian Rebellion of Haden Edwards in 1827.
However, with the colonists numbering over eleven thousand by 1832, they are becoming less conducive to Austin's cautious leadership.
The Mexican government, concerned with the growth of the colony and the efforts of the U. S. government to buy the state from them, is meanwhile becoming less cooperative.
The Mexican government had attempted to stop further U. S. immigration as early as April 1830, but again the skills of Austin had gained an exemption for his colonies.
He has given 640 acres to the husband, 320 to the wife, 160 for every child, and 80 for every slave.
The application of the immigration control and the introduction of tariff laws have done much to dissatisfy the colonists, peaking in the Anahuac Disturbances, the first of which takes place in 1832.
Austin now feels compelled to involve himself in Mexican politics, supporting the upstart Antonio López de Santa Anna.
Following the success of Santa Anna, the colonists seek a compensatory reward, proclaimed at the Convention of 1832, the first political gathering of colonists in Mexican Texas: resumption of immigration, tariff exemption, separation from Coahuila, and a new state government for Texas.
Austin is not in favor of these demands, considering them ill timed and trying his hardest to moderate them.