Stephen F. Austin | |
|---|---|
 Posthumous portraitc. 1840 | |
| 4thSecretary of State of Texas | |
| In office October 22, 1836 – December 27, 1836 | |
| President | Sam Houston |
| Preceded by | William Houston Jack |
| Succeeded by | James Pinckney Henderson |
| Member of the Missouri Territorial Legislature | |
| In office 1814–1820 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Stephen Fuller Austin November 3, 1793 Wythe County, Virginia, United States |
| Died | December 27, 1836(1836-12-27) (aged 43) |
| Nationality | American,Spanish,Mexican,Texian |
| Relations |
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| Parent(s) | Moses Austin,Mary Brown Austin |
| Occupation | Politician,empresario |
| Known for | Being the "Father of Texas" |
Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836) was an American-bornempresario, i.e. a person granted the right to settle on land in exchange for recruiting and taking responsibility for settling the eastern areas of theTejas region of Mexico in the early nineteenth century. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas,[1][2] he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization of the region by bringing300 families and theirslaves from the United States in 1825.
Born inVirginia and raised in southeasternMissouri, Austin served in the Missouri territorial legislature. He moved toArkansas Territory and later toLouisiana. His father,Moses Austin, received an empresario grant fromSpain to settleTexas. After Moses Austin died in 1821, Stephen Austin won recognition of the empresario grant from the newly independent nation ofMexico.
Austin attracted numerous Anglo-American settlers to move to Texas, and by 1825, Austin had brought the first 300 American families into the territory. Throughout the 1820s, Austin sought to maintain good relations with the Mexican government and helped suppress theFredonian Rebellion. He also helped ensure the introduction ofslavery into Texas despite the Mexican government's opposition to the institution. Austin led thegenocidal policies of extermination against the IndigenousKarankawa people in this area.[3]
As Texas settlers became increasingly dissatisfied with the Mexican government, Austin advocated conciliation, but the dissent against Mexico escalated into theTexas Revolution. Austin led Texas forces at the successfulsiege of Béxar before serving as a commissioner to the United States. Austin ran as a candidate in the1836 Texas presidential election but was defeated bySam Houston, who had served as a general in the war and entered the race two weeks before the election. Houston appointed Austin as Secretary of State for the new republic, and Austin held that position until his death in December 1836.
Numerous places and institutions are named in his honor, including thecapital of Texas.
Stephen F. Austin was born on November 3, 1793, in the mining region of southwestern Virginia. His parents wereMary Brown Austin andMoses Austin. In 1798, his family moved west to the lead-mining region of present-dayPotosi, Missouri.[4] Moses Austin received asitio[5] from the Spanish government for the mining site ofMine à Breton, which had been established by French colonists.
His great-great-grandfather, Anthony Austin (b. 1636), was the son ofRichard Austin (b.1598 inBishopstoke,Hampshire, England). The immigrant ancestors, Richard Austin and his wife Esther, were original settlers ofSuffield, Massachusetts, which became Connecticut in 1749.
When Austin was eleven years old, his family sent him back East to be educated, first at the preparatory school ofBacon Academy inColchester, Connecticut. He studied atTransylvania University inLexington, Kentucky, from which he graduated in 1810.[6] After graduation, Austin began studying to be a lawyer, reading the law with an established firm.[7]
At age 21, he was elected to and served in theMissouri Territory legislature. There, he was "influential in obtaining a charter for the struggling Bank of St. Louis".[7] Left penniless after thePanic of 1819, Austin decided to move south to the newArkansas Territory.[6]
He acquired property on the south bank of theArkansas River, in the area that would later becomeLittle Rock. After purchasing the property, he learned the area was being considered as the location for the new territorial capital, which could make his land worth a great deal more.[8] He made his home inHempstead County, Arkansas. Austin declared his candidacy for Congress two weeks before the first Arkansas territorial elections in 1820. His late entrance meant his name did not appear on the ballot in two of the five counties, but he still placed second in the field of six candidates. Later, he was appointed as a First Circuit Court judge.[8] Little Rock was designated as the territorial capital over the next few months. But Austin's claim to land in the area was contested, and the courts ruled against him. The Territorial Assembly reorganized the government and abolished Austin's judgeship.[8]
Austin left the territory and moved to Louisiana. He reachedNew Orleans in November 1820. He met and stayed withJoseph H. Hawkins, a New Orleans lawyer and former Kentucky congressman, and made arrangements to study law with him.
During Austin's time in Arkansas, his father traveled toSpanish Texas and received anempresarial grant that would allow him to bring 300 American families to Texas.[6] Moses Austin caught pneumonia soon after returning to Missouri.[6] He directed that hisempresario grant would be taken over by his son Stephen. Although Austin was reluctant to carry on his father's Texas venture, he was persuaded to do so by a letter from his mother, written two days before Moses's death.[9]
Austin boarded the steamerBeaver and departed to New Orleans to meet Spanish officials led byErasmo Seguín. He was atNatchitoches, Louisiana, in 1821 when he learned of his father's death. "This news has effected me very much, he was one of the most feeling and affectionate Fathers that ever lived. His faults I now say, and always have, were not of the heart."[10]
Austin led his party to travel 300 miles (480 km) in four weeks toSan Antonio, with the intent of reauthorizing his father's grant; they arrived on August 12. While in transit, they learned Mexico had declared its independence from Spain, and Texas had become a Mexican province rather than a Spanish territory.José Antonio Navarro, a San Antonio native with ambitious visions of the future of Texas, befriended Stephen F. Austin, and the two developed a lasting association. Navarro, proficient in Spanish and Mexican law, assisted Austin in obtaining his empresario contracts.[11] In San Antonio, the grant was reauthorized by GovernorAntonio María Martínez, who allowed Austin to explore theGulf Coast between San Antonio and theBrazos River to find a suitable location for a colony.[8] As guides for the party,Manuel Becerra and threeAranama Indians went with the expedition.
Austin advertised the Texas opportunity in New Orleans, announcing that land was available along the Brazos andColorado rivers.[12] A family of a husband, wife, and two children would receive 1,280 acres (520 ha) at twelve and a half cents per acre. Farmers could get 177 acres (72 ha) and ranchers 4,428 acres (1,792 ha). In December 1821, the first U.S. colonists crossed into the granted territory by land and sea on the Brazos River in present-dayBrazoria County.
Austin's plan for an American colony was thrown into turmoil by Mexico's gainingindependence from Spain in 1821. Governor Martínez informed Austin that thejunta instituyente, the newrump congress of the government ofAgustín de Iturbide of Mexico, refused to recognize theland grant authorized by Spain. His government intended to use a generalimmigration law to regulate new settlement in Mexico. Austin traveled toMexico City, where he persuaded thejunta instituyente to approve the grant to his father and the law signed by the Mexican Emperor on January 3, 1823.
The old imperial law offered heads of families a league and a labor of land, 4,605 acres (1,864 ha), and other inducements. It also provided for the employment of agents, calledempresarios, to promoteimmigration. As anempresario, Austin was to receive 67,000 acres of land for each 200 families he brought to Texas. According to the law, immigrants were not required to pay fees to the government. Some of the immigrants denied Austin's right to charge them for services at the rate of 12.5 cents/acre (31 cents/ha).[7]
When Emperor of Mexico[13]Agustín de Iturbide abdicated in March 1823, the law was annulled once again. In April 1823, Austin induced the congress to grant him a contract to bring 300 families into Texas. He wanted honest, hard-working people who would make the colony a success. In 1824, the congress passed anew immigration law that allowed the individual states of Mexico to administer public lands and open them to settlement under certain conditions. In March 1825, the legislature of the Mexican state ofCoahuila y Tejas passed a law similar to the one authorized by Iturbide. The law continued the system ofempresarios and granted each married man a league of land, 4,428 acres (1,792 ha), stipulating that he must pay the state $30 within six years.
Austin sought an area for his colonists on the land near the mouth of the Colorado River (Texas) for a colony that could provide a good supply of clean, potable water. Austin claimed rich tracts of land near bays and river mouths already populated by the Karankawa. The Karankawa relied on these bays for the fish and shellfish that provided their winter food sources and thus were fiercely protective of that land.[14]
Austin was greeted by the native Karankawa inhabitants with the help of his Mexican scouts, they watched closely as the immigrants unloaded their goods, so that their two sloops could navigate safely up the shallows of the Colorado River. When the Karankawa noticed that only four armed men were guarding the merchandise of 300 immigrants, they made their attack, killing the guards and plundering the articles.[citation needed]
On February 23, 1823, the Karankawa killed two men, named Loy and John C. Alley, and wounded another namedJohn C. Clark. They were bringing home a canoe full of corn on the Colorado River near the mouth of Skull Creek.[15] Later the same evening, Robert Brotherton was riding along a trail near Skull Creek when he was "met by the Indians, robbed of his guns and perceiving he was in danger of his life after making his escape, was wounded in the back with an arrow, very severely. A volunteer militia was organized and went to the scene of the robbery. They followed the tracks to a nearby encampment and slew nineteen of them, scalped them and plundered their camp", wrote one of the participants,John H. Moore. This event became known as theSkull Creek massacre.
Austin wrote that extermination of the Karankawa would be necessary,[14] even though his first encounter with the tribe was friendly.[16] He talked to the settlers of cannibalism and extreme violence of the Karankawa, sometimes more specifically the Carancaguases. Research had suggested that these accusations of cannibalism were false, possibly caused by confusion with another tribe, and that the Karankawa were horrified by cannibalism when they learned of it being practiced by shipwrecked Spaniards.[17] Austin told the colonists that the Karankawa would be impossible to live among.[18][14] Austin continued to encourage violence both against and between the Indian tribes, culminating in 1825 with his order for all Kawankawa to be pursued and killed on sight.[19]
By late 1825, Austin had brought the first 300 families to his settlement, the Austin Colony; these 300 are now known inTexas history as theOld Three Hundred. Austin had obtained further contracts to settle an additional 900 families between 1825 and 1829. He had effective civil and military authority over the settlers, but he quickly introduced a semblance of American law – the Constitution of Coahuila y Tejas was agreed on in November 1827. Austin organized small, informal armed groups to protect the colonists, which evolved into theTexas Rangers. Despite his hopes, Austin was making little money from his endeavors; the colonists were unwilling to pay for his services asempresario, and most of his revenues were spent on the processes of government and other public services.
During these years, Austin, a Louisiana Lodge No. 111 member atSte. Genevieve, Missouri, sought to establishFreemasonry in Texas. Freemasonry was well established among the educated classes of Mexican society. It had been introduced among the aristocracy loyal to theHouse of Bourbon, and the conservatives had total control over the Order. By 1827, Americans living in Mexico City had introduced the United StatesYork Rite of Freemasonry as a liberal alternative to the established European-styleScottish Rite.[20][page needed] On February 11, 1828, Austin called a meeting of Freemasons atSan Felipe to elect officers and to petition the MasonicGrand Lodge in Mexico City for a charter to form a lodge. Austin was electedWorshipful Master of the new lodge. Although the petition reachedMatamoros and was to be forwarded to Mexico City, nothing more was heard. By 1828, the ruling faction in Mexico feared the liberal elements in Texas might try to gain their independence. Fully aware of the political philosophies of American Freemasons, the Mexican government outlawed Freemasonry on October 25, 1828. In 1829, Austin called another meeting, where it was decided that it was "impolitic and imprudent, at this time, to form Masonic lodges in Texas".[21][page needed]
He was active in promoting trade and currying the good favor of the Mexican authorities, aiding them in the suppression of theFredonian Rebellion ofHaden Edwards. Some historians consider the Fredonian Rebellion the beginning of theTexas Revolution. Although "premature ... the Fredonian Rebellion sparked the powder for later success."[22] For this event, Austin raised troops to fight with Mexican troops against the Texas rebels. With the colonists numbering more than 11,000 by 1832, they were becoming less amenable to Austin's cautious leadership, and the Mexican government was becoming less cooperative. It was concerned with the colony's growth and the U.S. government's efforts to buy the state from them. The Mexican government had attempted to stop further U.S. immigration as early as April 1830, but Austin's skills gained an exemption for his colonies. He granted land to immigrants based on 640 acres (2.6 km2) to the husband, 320 to the wife, 160 for every child, and 80 for every enslaved person.
Slavery was a very important issue to Austin, one he called "of great interest" to him.[23] Austin was a periodical enslaver throughout his life; however, he had conflicting views about it.[24][25][26][27] Theoretically, he believed slavery was wrong and went against the American ideal of liberty. In practice, however, he agreed with the social, economic, and political justifications for it and worked hard to defend and expand it.[28] Despite his defense of it, he also harbored concerns that the long-term effects of slavery would destroy American society. He grew particularly concerned followingNat Turner's rebellion in 1831, stating:
"I sometimes shudder at the consequences and think that a large part of America will beSanto Domingonized in 100, or 200 years. The idea of seeing such a country as this overrun by a slave population almost makes me weep. It is in vain to tell a North American that the white population will be destroyed some fifty or eighty years hence by the negroes, and that his daughters will be violated and Butchered by them."[29][30][31]
While Austin thought it would be advantageous someday for Texas to phase out of slavery, up until the Texas Revolution, he worked to ensure that his colony's immigrants could bypass the Mexican government's resistance to it.[32] Doing so ensured the population growth and economic development of his colony, which was primarily dependent on themonocropping ofcotton and sugar.[33][34][35] In August 1825, he recommended that the state government allow immigrants to bring people they were enslaving with them through 1840, with the caveat that female grandchildren of the enslaved people would be freed by age 15 and males by age 25.[36][34][37] His recommendation was rejected.
In 1826, when a state committee proposed abolishing slavery outright, 25 percent of the people in Austin's colony were enslaved.[34][38] Austin's colonists, mostly pro-slavery immigrants from the south, threatened to leave Texas if the proposition passed, while prospective Southern immigrants hesitated to come to Texas until slavery was guaranteed there.[37] Austin conceded that his colony's success depended on slavery.[24][37][39] Without enslaved people, the colonists would lack the mass labor to cultivate the land, which would stall the pace of immigration needed to develop and increase the land's value, deflate the economy, and motivate his colonists to leave.[37][40][41]
Austin went before the legislature and pleaded that, at the least, his original 300 families should be allowed to continue enslaving people.[37] He argued against the "bad faith" of freeing them, demandedreparations to enslavers for every enslaved person emancipated by the state, warned that the loss of enslaved people could leave some colonists destitute, and reasoned that freeing them would not only leave his settlers alone in the harsh Texas environment but would also expose them to the discomfort and nuisance of living amongst formerly enslaved people, who would become vagrants seeking retribution upon their former owners.[42] While he waited for the legislature's verdict of his request, Austin went into a deep depression over the issue and sent his brother,Brown Austin, to further lobby the legislature on his behalf.[32][39]
In March 1827, the legislature signedArticle 13 into law. Despite the law complying with some of his requests, Austin called it "unconstitutional". He contested the law as it freed the children of enslaved people at birth, established a six-month grace period before fully emancipating all enslaved people in the state, and included provisions to improve the conditions of enslaved people and transitioning freedmen.[43][44][45][46] Austin –– who had been so effective in persuading the legislature, however, that the author of Article 13 (before its passage) requested to withdraw it –– helped his colonists evade the law by advising them to legally supplant the word "slave" with the words "workingmen", "family servants", and "laborers", and by working to pass a decree that bannedfreedmen from Texas and forced emancipated slaves to work for their former slaveowners until the accrued "debt" (e.g. clothing, food), incurred for their own enslavement, was worked off.[31][45][47]
In 1828, Austin petitioned the legislature to guarantee that slaveowners immigrating to Texas could legally "free" their slaves before immigrating and contract them into a lifetime term of indentured servitude, thereby avoiding recognizing them as slaves.[48] He lobbied to help his colony elude presidentVicente Guerrero's 1829 decree to emancipate enslaved people in the province legally and to bypass the government's effort to prohibit slavery when it passed theLaw of April 6, 1830.[35][49][50]
In 1829, John Durst, a prominent landowner and politician, wrote about the president's emancipation of enslaved people, "We are ruined forever should this measure be adopted". Stephen F. Austin replied,
"I am the owner of one slave only, an old decrepit woman, not worth much, but in this matter I should feel that my constitutional rights as a Mexican were just as much infringed, as they would be if I had a thousand."[51]
In 1830, Austin wrote that he would oppose Texas joining the United States without guarantees that he should "insist on the perpetual exclusion of slavery from this state [Texas]".[50] In 1833, he wrote:
"Texas must be a slave country. Circumstances and unavoidable necessity compel it. It is the wish of the people there, and it is my duty to do all I can, prudently, in favor of it. I will do so."[37]
In May 1835, Austin's colonists learned that Mexico's tolerance for the evasions of enslavers was drawing to a close with its proposal of new abolition legislation.[31] Alarmed, and with Austin imprisoned in Mexico for pushing for independence, colonists turned against the Mexican government, calling it "oppressive" and a "plundering, robbing, autocratical government" without regard for the security of "life, liberty or property".[31][52] Resisting the impact a changed slavery policy would have on economic growth, and fearing rumors of Mexico's plan to free the enslaved people and turn them loose upon the colonists, shortly after Austin returned from Mexico, he and his colonists took up arms against the Mexican government. Austin later gained U.S. Government support for his revolution when he wrote to SenatorLewis F. Linn and pleaded thatSanta Anna planned to "exterminate" all of the colonists and fill Texas "with Indians and negroes [freed slaves]".[31][53][54]
Immigration controls and the introduction oftariff laws had done much to dissatisfy the colonists, peaking in theAnahuac Disturbances. Austin became involved in Mexican politics, supporting the upstartAntonio López de Santa Anna. Following the success of Santa Anna, the colonists sought a compensatory reward, proclaimed at theConvention of 1832: resumption of immigration, tariff exemption, separation from Coahuila, and a new state government for Texas. Austin did not support these demands; he considered them ill-timed and tried to moderate them. When they were repeated and extended at theConvention of 1833, Austin traveled to Mexico City on July 18, 1833, and met with Vice PresidentValentín Gómez Farías. Austin did gain certain significant reforms: the immigration ban was lifted, but a separate state government was not authorized. Statehood in Mexico required a population of 80,000, and Texas had only 30,000.
Believing that he was pushing for Texas independence and suspecting that he was trying to incite insurrection, the Mexican government arrested Austin in January 1834 inSaltillo. He was taken to Mexico City and imprisoned. No charges were filed against him as no court would accept jurisdiction. He was moved from prison to prison. He was released under bond in December 1834 and required to stay in the Federal District. He was entirely freed under the general amnesty in July 1835 and, in August 1835, left Mexico to return to Texas via New Orleans.
In his absence, several events propelled the colonists toward confrontation with Santa Anna's centralist government. Austin temporarily commanded the Texian forces during thesiege of Béxar from October 12 to December 11, 1835. After learning of theDisturbances at Anahuac and Velasco in the summer of 1835, an enraged Santa Anna made rapid preparations for the Mexican army to sweep Anglo settlers from Texas. War began in October 1835 atGonzales. TheRepublic of Texas, created by a new constitution on March 2, 1836, won independence following a string of defeats with the dramatic turnabout victory at theBattle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, and the capture of Santa Anna the following morning. He was then imprisoned.
In December 1835, Austin, Branch Archer, andWilliam H. Wharton were appointed commissioners to the U.S. by the provisional government of the republic. On June 10, 1836, Austin was in New Orleans, where he received word of Santa Anna's defeat bySam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto. Austin returned to Texas to rest at Peach Point in August. On August 4, he announced his candidacy for president of Texas. Austin felt confident he could win the election until two weeks before the election, when on August 20, Houston entered the race. Austin wrote, "Many of the old settlers who are too blind to see or understand their interest will vote for him." Houston carried East Texas, the Red River region, and most of the soldiers' votes. Austin received 587 votes to Sam Houston's 5,119 andHenry Smith's 743 votes. Houston appointed Austin as the first secretary of state of the new republic; however, Austin only served approximately two months before his death.
In December 1836, Austin was in the new capital of Columbia (now known asWest Columbia), where he caught a severe cold; his condition worsened. Doctors were called in but could not help him. Austin died ofpneumonia at noon on December 27, 1836. He was at the home of George B. McKinstry, near what is now West Columbia, Texas. He was 43. Austin's last words were, "The independence of Texas is recognized! Don't you see it in the papers?..."[55] Upon hearing of Austin's death, Houston ordered an official statement proclaiming: "The Father of Texas is no more; the first pioneer of the wilderness has departed."[56] Originally, Austin was buried atGulf Prairie Cemetery inBrazoria County, Texas. In 1910, Austin's body was reinterred at theTexas State Cemetery inAustin. Austin never married, nor did he have any children. He bequeathed all his land, titles, and possessions to his married sister,Emily Austin Perry.
While Stephen F. Austin and his sister Emily have each been the subject of a biography, they are descended from several generations of noteworthy people, including:Moses Austin (father—biography published by Trinity University Press),[64]Abia Brown (grandfather),Joseph Sharp (great-grandfather),Isaac Sharp (great, great-grandfather),Anthony Sharp (great, great, great-grandfather—biography published by Stanford University Press).[65] Accordingly, history records noteworthy social contributions in each generation of Stephen's family dating back to the early seventeenth century.Richard Austin, a native ofTitchfield, Hampshire was his paternal emigrant ancestor.
...generations of Texans have come to revere Austin as the Father of Texas...
"Austin, Stephen F.".The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1. 1906. p. 167.
Prison Journal of Stephen Austin public domain audiobook atLibriVox| Diplomatic posts | ||
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| Preceded by post created | Texas Commissioner to the United States 1835 – 1836 served alongsideWilliam H. Wharton andBranch T. Archer | Succeeded by unique post for support of Texas independence |
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Secretary of state of theRepublic of Texas 1836 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by office created | President of theConvention of 1832 1832 | Succeeded by office abolished |
Municipalities and communities ofTravis County, Texas,United States | ||
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| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
