- Anahuac Disturbances
The Anahuac Disturbances, occurring in and around
Anahuac, Texas , in 1832 and 1835 helped to precipitate theTexas Revolution that led to thesecession ofTexas fromMexico and the formation of theRepublic of Texas .Anahuac's location on the East side of the Trinity River near the North shore of
Galveston Bay placed it astride the trade route between Mexico andLouisiana and the rest of theUnited States proper. Therefore, it was a logical place for a Mexicangarrison responsible for curtailing smuggling and enforcing customs tariffs from the coastal colonies.In June 1832, animosity was building between Anglo-Texian settlers and the Mexican military commander, Col.
Juan Davis Bradburn , in part because the settlers blamed a number of local crimes on his troops, some of whom were former convicts sent to the Mexican frontier to do heavy construction work in order to earn their freedom. Bradburn had also incorporated two or three runaway slaves from Louisiana into his garrison.Slavery had a somewhat ambiguous legality on the Mexican frontier at that time - being officially prohibited, but widely tolerated under the disguise ofindentured servitude . A local lawyer namedWilliam B. Travis , who would eventually be considered ahero of the Texas Revolution, argued alongside his partnerPatrick Churchill Jack for the release of the slaves, but they were themselves imprisoned by Bradburn.A militia force of perhaps 200 men attempting to secure the release of Travis and Jack skirmished with Bradburn's forces before retreating to
Turtle Bayou , six miles North of Anahuac, to awaitartillery . While there, they composed and signed theTurtle Bayou Resolutions , which explained their rebellion against thecentralist Bradburn as part of thefederalist reform movement of Federalist generalAntonio López de Santa Anna who had recently won a victory over administration forces atTampico . The matter was resolved when Bradburn's immediate supervisor Col Jose de las Piedras arrived fromNacogdoches, Texas and bowed to the wishes of the settlers.A second dispute arose in late June 1835, again over the issue of customs. A local merchant and boat captain, Andrew Briscoe, complained that taxes were not being enforced equally at all ports. He intentionally tested the new government commander, Capt. Antonio Tenorio, by loading his boat in a matter he knew would generate curiosity on the part of the officials. In reality, he was merely loading his boat with ballast. Tenorio was incensed and arrested Briscoe and his partner DeWitt Clinton Harris. The soldiers escorting Harris and Briscoe also shot and wounded another Texian, young William Smith.
Again, Travis played a major role. When news of the arrests were heard in San Felipe de Austin, where radical sentiments were taking hold, the political chief [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/MM/fmi15.html Peter Miller] encouraged or authorized Travis to organize a militia for the incident. Travis gathered a militia, commandeered a vessel at Harrisburg, Texas, the "Ohio", and set sail for Anahuac with a cannon. His force of 25 men quickly won the surrender of the forty-some Mexican troops, disarmed them, freed the Texian prisoners and expelled the troops. [Looscan, AB., "THE OLD FORT AT ANAHUAC", Volume 002, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online,. [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v002/n1/article_3.html Page 21 - 28] Accessed Sat Oct 28 7:02:26 CDT 2006] [ [http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/pubbarker.htm Excerpted publications of Texas historian] , Eugene Barker]
However, Travis had acted without broad community support and ended up making an apology in order not to endanger
Stephen F. Austin who was in Mexico City at the time. Austin was the most prominentempresario contracted by the Spanish (and later Mexican) governments to encourage and oversee the immigration of people to Mexico to settle the frontier. Later that summer, the Mexican military authorities demanded the surrender of Travis for military trial, which the colonists were not prepared to do.Travis and Austin would go on to become major historical figures, with Travis dying shortly after at the
Battle of the Alamo and Austin serving as secretary of state for theRepublic of Texas for a short time before his own death.References
* [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/AA/jca1.html Handbook of Texas entry for the Anahuac Disturbances]
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