U.S History 1800-1860
A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 18001860
Cotton is King: The Antebellum South, 18001860
Antebellum Idealism and Reform Impulses, 18201860
Instructions
For this assignment, read the attached materials and answer ONE of the provided questions. 300-400 words excluding references and a minimum of 3 references.
1. What are the economic and political issues raised by having an imbalance between free and slave states? Why did the balance of free and slave states matter?
2. Consider the arguments over the expansion of slavery made by both northerners and southerners in the aftermath of the U.S. victory over Mexico. Who had the more compelling case? Or did each side make equally significant arguments?
3. What strategies did slaves employ to resist, revolt, and sustain their own independent communities and cultures? How did slaves use white southerners own philosophiespaternalism and Christianity, for exampleto their advantage in these efforts?
4. In what ways did the Second Great Awakening and transcendentalism reflect and react to the changes in antebellum American thought and culture?
300-450 words excluding references, APA format, and a minimum of 3 references. See the attached reading materials.
CHAPTER 11
A Nation on the Move: Westward
Expansion, 18001860
Figure 11.1 In the first half of the nineteenth century, settlers began to move west of the Mississippi River in large
numbers. In John Gasts American Progress (ca. 1872), the figure of Columbia, representing the United States and
the spirit of democracy, makes her way westward, literally bringing light to the darkness as she advances.
Chapter Outline
11.1 Lewis and Clark
11.2 The Missouri Crisis
11.3 Independence for Texas
11.4 The Mexican-American War, 18461848
11.5 Free Soil or Slave? The Dilemma of the West
Introduction
After 1800, the United States militantly expanded westward across North America, confident of its right
and duty to gain control of the continent and spread the benefits of its superior culture. In John Gasts
American Progress (Figure 11.1), the white, blonde figure of Columbiaa historical personification of the
United Statesstrides triumphantly westward with the Star of Empire on her head. She brings education,
symbolized by the schoolbook, and modern technology, represented by the telegraph wire. White settlers
follow her lead, driving the helpless natives away and bringing successive waves of technological progress
in their wake. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the quest for control of the West led to the
Louisiana Purchase, the annexation of Texas, and the Mexican-American War. Efforts to seize western
territories from native peoples and expand the republic by warring with Mexico succeeded beyond
expectations. Few nations ever expanded so quickly. Yet, this expansion led to debates about the fate
of slavery in the West, creating tensions between North and South that ultimately led to the collapse of
American democracy and a brutal civil war.
Chapter 11 | A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 18001860 299
11.1 Lewis and Clark
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
Explain the significance of the Louisiana Purchase
Describe the terms of the Adams-Ons Treaty
Describe the role played by the filibuster in American expansion
For centuries Europeans had mistakenly believed an all-water route across the North American continent
existed. This Northwest Passage would afford the country that controlled it not only access to the
interior of North America but alsomore importantlya relatively quick route to the Pacific Ocean and
to trade with Asia. The Spanish, French, and British searched for years before American explorers took
up the challenge of finding it. Indeed, shortly before Lewis and Clark set out on their expedition for the
U.S. government, Alexander Mackenzie, an officer of the British North West Company, a fur trading outfit,
had attempted to discover the route. Mackenzie made it to the Pacific and even believed (erroneously) he
had discovered the headwaters of the Columbia River, but he could not find an easy water route with a
minimum of difficult portages, that is, spots where boats must be carried overland.
Many Americans also dreamed of finding a Northwest Passage and opening the Pacific to American
commerce and influence, including President Thomas Jefferson. In April 1803, Jefferson achieved his goal
of purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France, effectively doubling the size of the United States.
The purchase was made possible due to events outside the nations control. With the success of the
Haitian Revolution, an uprising of slaves against the French, Frances Napoleon abandoned his quest to
re-establish an extensive French Empire in America. As a result, he was amenable to selling off the vast
Louisiana territory. President Jefferson quickly set out to learn precisely what he had bought and to assess
its potential for commercial exploitation. Above all else, Jefferson wanted to exert U.S. control over the
territory, an area already well known to French and British explorers. It was therefore vital for the United
States to explore and map the land to pave the way for future white settlement.
Figure 11.2
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JEFFERSONS CORPS OF DISCOVERY HEADS WEST
To head the expedition into the Louisiana territory, Jefferson appointed his friend and personal secretary,
twenty-nine-year-old army captain Meriwether Lewis, who was instructed to form a Corps of Discovery.
Lewis in turn selected William Clark, who had once been his commanding officer, to help him lead the
group (Figure 11.3).
Figure 11.3 Charles Willson Peale, celebrated portraitist of the American Revolution, painted both William Clark (a)
and Meriwether Lewis (b) in 1810 and 1807, respectively, after they returned from their expedition west.
Jefferson wanted to improve the ability of American merchants to access the ports of China. Establishing a
river route from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean was crucial to capturing a portion of the fur trade that had
proven so profitable to Great Britain. He also wanted to legitimize American claims to the land against
rivals, such as Great Britain and Spain. Lewis and Clark were thus instructed to map the territory through
which they would pass and to explore all tributaries of the Missouri River. This part of the expedition
struck fear into Spanish officials, who believed that Lewis and Clark would encroach on New Mexico, the
northern part of New Spain. Spain dispatched four unsuccessful expeditions from Santa Fe to intercept the
explorers. Lewis and Clark also had directives to establish friendly relationships with the western tribes,
introducing them to American trade goods and encouraging warring groups to make peace. Establishing
an overland route to the Pacific would bolster U.S. claims to the Pacific Northwest, first established in 1792
when Captain Robert Gray sailed his ship Columbia into the mouth of the river that now bears his vessels
name and forms the present-day border between Oregon and Washington. Finally, Jefferson, who had a
keen interest in science and nature, ordered Lewis and Clark to take extensive notes on the geography,
plant life, animals, and natural resources of the region into which they would journey.
After spending the winter of 18031804 encamped at the mouth of the Missouri River while the men
prepared for their expedition, the corps set off in May 1804. Although the thirty-three frontiersmen,
boatmen, and hunters took with them Alexander Mackenzies account of his explorations and the best
maps they could find, they did not have any real understanding of the difficulties they would face. Fierce
storms left them drenched and freezing. Enormous clouds of gnats and mosquitos swarmed about their
heads as they made their way up the Missouri River. Along the way they encountered (and killed) a variety
of animals including elk, buffalo, and grizzly bears. One member of the expedition survived a rattlesnake
bite. As the men collected minerals and specimens of plants and animals, the overly curious Lewis sampled
minerals by tasting them and became seriously ill at one point. What they did not collect, they sketched
and documented in the journals they kept. They also noted the customs of the Indian tribes who controlled
the land and attempted to establish peaceful relationships with them in order to ensure that future white
settlement would not be impeded.
Chapter 11 | A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 18001860 301
Read the journals of Lewis and Clark on the University of Virginia
(http://openstaxcollege.org/l/15LandClark) website or on the University of
NebraskaLincoln (http://openstaxcollege.org/l/15LandClark1) website, which also
has footnotes, maps, and commentary. According to their writings, what challenges did
the explorers confront?
The corps spent their first winter in the wilderness, 18041805, in a Mandan village in what is now
North Dakota. There they encountered a reminder of Frances former vast North American empire when
they met a French fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau. When the corps left in the spring of
1805, Charbonneau accompanied them as a guide and interpreter, bringing his teenage Shoshone wife
Sacagawea and their newborn son. Charbonneau knew the land better than the Americans, and Sacagawea
proved invaluable in many ways, not least of which was that the presence of a young woman and her
infant convinced many groups that the men were not a war party and meant no harm (Figure 11.4).
Figure 11.4 In this idealized image, Sacagawea leads Lewis and Clark through the Montana wilderness. In reality,
she was still a teenager at the time and served as interpreter; she did not actually guide the party, although legend
says she did. Kidnapped as a child, she would not likely have retained detailed memories about the place where she
grew up.
The corps set about making friends with native tribes while simultaneously attempting to assert American
power over the territory. Hoping to overawe the people of the land, Lewis would let out a blast of his
air rifle, a relatively new piece of technology the Indians had never seen. The corps also followed native
custom by distributing gifts, including shirts, ribbons, and kettles, as a sign of goodwill. The explorers
presented native leaders with medallions, many of which bore Jeffersons image, and invited them to visit
their new ruler in the East. These medallions or peace medals were meant to allow future explorers to
identify friendly native groups. Not all efforts to assert U.S. control went peacefully; some Indians rejected
the explorers intrusion onto their land. An encounter with the Blackfoot turned hostile, for example, and
members of the corps killed two Blackfoot men.
After spending eighteen long months on the trail and nearly starving to death in the Bitterroot Mountains
of Montana, the Corps of Discovery finally reached the Pacific Ocean in 1805 and spent the winter of
18051806 in Oregon. They returned to St. Louis later in 1806 having lost only one man, who had died
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http://openstaxcollege.org/l/15LandClark
http://openstaxcollege.org/l/15LandClark
http://openstaxcollege.org/l/15LandClark1
http://openstaxcollege.org/l/15LandClark1
of appendicitis. Upon their return, Meriwether Lewis was named governor of the Louisiana Territory.
Unfortunately, he died only three years later in circumstances that are still disputed, before he could write
a complete account of what the expedition had discovered.
Although the Corps of Discovery failed to find an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean (for none existed),
it nevertheless accomplished many of the goals Jefferson had set. The men traveled across the North
American continent and established relationships with many Indian tribes, paving the way for fur traders
like John Jacob Astor who later established trading posts solidifying U.S. claims to Oregon. Delegates of
several tribes did go to Washington to meet the president. Hundreds of plant and animal specimens were
collected, several of which were named for Lewis and Clark in recognition of their efforts. And the territory
was now more accurately mapped and legally claimed by the United States. Nonetheless, most of the vast
territory, home to a variety of native peoples, remained unknown to Americans (Figure 11.5).
Figure 11.5 This 1814 map of Lewis and Clarks path across North America from the Missouri River to the Pacific
Ocean was based on maps and notes made by William Clark. Although most of the West still remained unknown, the
expedition added greatly to knowledge of what lay west of the Mississippi. Most important, it allowed the United
States to solidify its claim to the immense territory.
Chapter 11 | A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 18001860 303
AMERICANA
A Selection of Hats for the Fashionable Gentleman
Beaver hats (Figure 11.6) were popular apparel in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in both
Europe and the United States because they were naturally waterproof and bore a glossy sheen. Demand
for beaver pelts (and for the pelts of sea otters, foxes, and martens) by hat makers, dressmakers, and
tailors led many fur trappers into the wilderness in pursuit of riches. Beaver hats fell out of fashion in the
1850s when silk hats became the rage and beaver became harder to find. In some parts of the West, the
animals had been hunted nearly to extinction.
Figure 11.6 This illustration from Castrologia, Or, The History and Traditions of the Canadian Beaver
shows a variety of beaver hat styles. Beaver pelts were also used to trim womens bonnets.
Are there any contemporary fashions or fads that likewise promise to alter the natural world?
SPANISH FLORIDA AND THE ADAMS-ONS TREATY
Despite the Lewis and Clark expedition, the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase remained contested.
Expansionists chose to believe the purchase included vast stretches of land, including all of Spanish Texas.
The Spanish government disagreed, however. The first attempt to resolve this issue took place in February
1819 with the signing of the Adams-Ons Treaty, which was actually intended to settle the problem of
Florida.
Spanish Florida had presented difficulties for its neighbors since the settlement of the original North
American colonies, first for England and then for the United States. By 1819, American settlers no longer
feared attack by Spanish troops garrisoned in Florida, but hostile tribes like the Creek and Seminole raided
Georgia and then retreated to the relative safety of the Florida wilderness. These tribes also sheltered
runaway slaves, often intermarrying with them and making them members of their tribes. Sparsely
populated by Spanish colonists and far from both Mexico City and Madrid, the frontier in Florida proved
next to impossible for the Spanish government to control.
In March 1818, General Andrew Jackson, frustrated by his inability to punish Creek and Seminole raiders,
pursued them across the international border into Spanish Florida. Under Jacksons command, U.S. troops
defeated the Creek and Seminole, occupied several Florida settlements, and executed two British citizens
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accused of acting against the United States. Outraged by the U.S. invasion of its territory, the Spanish
government demanded that Jackson and his troops withdraw. In agreeing to the withdrawal, however,
U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams also offered to purchase the colony. Realizing that conflict
between the United States and the Creeks and Seminoles would continue, Spain opted to cede the Spanish
colony to its northern neighbor. The Adams-Ons Treaty, named for Adams and the Spanish ambassador,
Lus de Ons, made the cession of Florida official while also setting the boundary between the United States
and Mexico at the Sabine River (Figure 11.7). In exchange, Adams gave up U.S. claims to lands west of the
Sabine and forgave Spains $5 million debt to the United States.
Figure 11.7 The red line indicates the border between U.S. and Spanish territory established by the Adams-Ons
Treaty of 1819.
The Adams-Ons Treaty upset many American expansionists, who criticized Adams for not laying claim
to all of Texas, which they believed had been included in the Louisiana Purchase. In the summer of 1819,
James Long, a planter from Natchez, Mississippi, became a filibuster, or a private, unauthorized military
adventurer, when he led three hundred men on an expedition across the Sabine River to take control
of Texas. Longs men succeeded in capturing Nacogdoches, writing a Declaration of Independence (see
below), and setting up a republican government. Spanish troops drove them out a month later. Returning
in 1820 with a much smaller force, Long was arrested by the Spanish authorities, imprisoned, and killed.
Long was but one of many nineteenth-century American filibusters who aimed at seizing territory in the
Caribbean and Central America.
Chapter 11 | A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 18001860 305
DEFINING “AMERICAN”
The Long Expeditions Declaration of Independence
The Long Expeditions short-lived Republic of Texas was announced with the drafting of a Declaration of
Independence in 1819. The declaration named settlers grievances against the limits put on expansion
by the Adams-Ons treaty and expressed their fears of Spain:
The citizens of Texas have long indulged the hope, that in the adjustment of the boundaries
of the Spanish possessions in America, and of the territories of the United States, that they
should be included within the limits of the latter. The claims of the United States, long and
strenuously urged, encouraged the hope. The recent [Adams-Ons] treaty between Spain and
the United States of America has dissipated an illusion too long fondly cherished, and has
roused the citizens of Texas . . . They have seen themselves . . . literally abandoned to the
dominion of the crown of Spain and left a prey . . . to all those exactions which Spanish
rapacity is fertile in devising. The citizens of Texas would have proved themselves unworthy
of the age . . . unworthy of their ancestry, of the kindred of the republics of the American
continent, could they have hesitated in this emergency . . . Spurning the fetters of colonial
vassalage, disdaining to submit to the most atrocious despotism that ever disgraced the
annals of Europe, they have resolved under the blessing of God to be free.
How did the filibusters view Spain? What do their actions say about the nature of American society and
of U.S. expansion?
11.2 The Missouri Crisis
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
Explain why the North and South differed over the admission of Missouri as a state
Explain how the admission of new states to the Union threatened to upset the balance
between free and slave states in Congress
Another stage of U.S. expansion took place when inhabitants of Missouri began petitioning for statehood
beginning in 1817. The Missouri territory had been part of the Louisiana Purchase and was the first part of
that vast acquisition to apply for statehood. By 1818, tens of thousands of settlers had flocked to Missouri,
including slaveholders who brought with them some ten thousand slaves. When the status of the Missouri
territory was taken up in earnest in the U.S. House of Representatives in early 1819, its admission to the
Union proved to be no easy matter, since it brought to the surface a violent debate over whether slavery
would be allowed in the new state.
Politicians had sought to avoid the issue of slavery ever since the 1787 Constitutional Convention arrived
at an uneasy compromise in the form of the three-fifths clause. This provision stated that the entirety
of a states free population and 60 percent of its enslaved population would be counted in establishing
the number of that states members in the House of Representatives and the size of its federal tax bill.
Although slavery existed in several northern states at the time, the compromise had angered many
northern politicians because, they argued, the extra population of slaves would give southern states
more votes than they deserved in both the House and the Electoral College. Admitting Missouri as a slave
state also threatened the tenuous balance between free and slave states in the Senate by giving slave states
a two-vote advantage.
The debate about representation shifted to the morality of slavery itself when New York representative
James Tallmadge, an opponent of slavery, attempted to amend the statehood bill in the House of
Representatives. Tallmadge proposed that Missouri be admitted as a free state, that no more slaves be
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allowed to enter Missouri after it achieved statehood, and that all enslaved children born there after its
admission be freed at age twenty-five. The amendment shifted the terms of debate by presenting slavery
as an evil to be stopped.
Northern representatives supported the Tallmadge Amendment, denouncing slavery as immoral and
opposed to the nations founding principles of equality and liberty. Southerners in Congress rejected
the amendment as an attempt to gradually abolish slaverynot just in Missouri but throughout the
Unionby violating the property rights of slaveholders and their freedom to take their property wherever
they wished. Slaverys apologists, who had long argued that slavery was a necessary evil, now began to
perpetuate the idea that slavery was a positive good for the United States. They asserted that it generated
wealth and left white men free to exercise their true talents instead of toiling in the soil, as the descendants
of Africans were better suited to do. Slaves were cared for, supporters argued, and were better off exposed
to the teachings of Christianity as slaves than living as free heathens in uncivilized Africa. Above all, the
United States had a destiny, they argued, to create an empire of slavery throughout the Americas. These
proslavery arguments were to be made repeatedly and forcefully as expansion to the West proceeded.
Most disturbing for the unity of the young nation, however, was that debaters divided along sectional
lines, not party lines. With only a few exceptions, northerners supported the Tallmadge Amendment
regardless of party affiliation, and southerners opposed it despite having party differences on other
matters. It did not pass, and the crisis over Missouri led to strident calls of disunion and threats of civil
war.
Congress finally came to an agreement, called the Missouri Compromise, in 1820. Missouri and Maine
(which had been part of Massachusetts) would enter the Union at the same time, Maine as a free state,
Missouri as a slave state. The Tallmadge Amendment was narrowly rejected, the balance between free and
slave states was maintained in the Senate, and southerners did not have to fear that Missouri slaveholders
would be deprived of their human property. To prevent similar conflicts each time a territory applied for
statehood, a line coinciding with the southern border of Missouri (at latitude 36 30′) was drawn across the
remainder of the Louisiana Territory (Figure 11.8). Slavery could exist south of this line but was forbidden
north of it, with the obvious exception of Missouri.
Figure 11.8 The Missouri Compromise resulted in the District of Maine, which had originally been settled in 1607 by
the Plymouth Company and was a part of Massachusetts, being admitted to the Union as a free state and Missouri
being admitted as a slave state.
Chapter 11 | A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 18001860 307
MY STORY
Thomas Jefferson on the Missouri Crisis
On April 22, 1820, Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Holmes to express his reaction to the Missouri Crisis,
especially the open threat of disunion and war:
I thank you, Dear Sir, for the copy you have been so kind as to send me of the letter to your
constituents on the Missouri question. it is a perfect justification to them. I had for a long time
ceased to read the newspapers or pay any attention to public affairs, confident they were in
good hands, and content to be a passenger in our bark to the shore from which I am not
distant. but this momentous question [over slavery in Missouri], like a fire bell in the night,
awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. it is
hushed indeed for the moment. but this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. a geographical
line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once concieved [sic] and held up
to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it
deeper and deeper. I can say with conscious truth that there is not a man on earth who would
sacrifice more than I would, to relieve us from this heavy reproach, in any practicable way. . .
.
I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves, by the
generation of 76. to acquire self government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown
away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is
to be that I live not to weep over it. if they would but dispassionately weigh the blessings
they will throw away against an abstract principle more likely to be effected by union than by
scission, they would pause before they would perpetuate this act of suicide themselves and
of treason against the hopes of the world. to yourself as the faithful advocate of union I tender
the offering of my high esteem and respect.
Th. Jefferson
How would you characterize the former presidents reaction? What do you think he means by writing that
the Missouri Compromise line is a reprieve only, not a final sentence?
Access a collection of primary documents relating to the Missouri Compromise,
including Missouris application for admission into the Union and Jeffersons
correspondence on the Missouri question, at the Library of Congress
(http://openstaxcollege.org/l/15MOComp) website.
11.3 Independence for Texas
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
Explain why American settlers in Texas sought independence from Mexico
Discuss early attempts to make Texas independent of Mexico
Describe the relationship between Anglo-Americans and Tejanos in Texas before and
after independence
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http://openstaxcollege.org/l/15MOComp
http://openstaxcollege.org/l/15MOComp
As the incursions of the earlier filibusters into Texas demonstrated, American expansionists had desired
this area of Spains empire in America for many years. After the 1819 Adams-Ons treaty established the
boundary between Mexico and the United States, more American expansionists began to move into the
northern portion of Mexicos province of Coahuila y Texas. Following Mexicos independence from Spain
in 1821, American settlers immigrated to Texas in even larger numbers, intent on taking the land from the
new and vulnerable Mexican nation in order to create a new American slave state.
AMERICAN SETTLERS MOVE TO TEXAS
After the 1819 Adams-Ons Treaty defined the U.S.-Mexico boundary, Spain began actively encouraging
Americans to settle their northern province. Texas was sparsely settled, and the few Mexican farmers
and ranchers who lived there were under constant threat of attack by hostile Indian tribes, especially the
Comanche, who supplemented their hunting with raids in pursuit of horses and cattle.
To increase the non-Indian population in Texas and provide a buffer zone between its hostile tribes and the
rest of Mexico, Spain began to recruit empresarios. An empresario was someone who brought settlers to the
region in exchange for generous grants of land. Moses Austin, a once-prosperous entrepreneur reduced
to poverty by the Panic of 1819, requested permission to settle three hundred English-speaking American
residents in Texas. Spain agreed on the condition that the resettled people convert to Roman Catholicism.
On his deathbed in 1821, Austin asked his son Stephen to carry out his plans, and Mexico, which had won
independence from Spain the same year, allowed Stephen to take control of his fathers grant. Like Spain,
Mexico also wished to encourage settlement in the state of Coahuila y Texas and passed colonization laws
to encourage immigration. Thousands of Americans, primarily from slave states, flocked to Texas and
quickly came to outnumber the Tejanos, the Mexican residents of the region. The soil and climate offered
good opportunities to expand slavery and the cotton kingdom. Land was plentiful and offered at generous
terms. Unlike the U.S. government, Mexico allowed buyers to pay for their land in installments and did not
require a minimum purchase. Furthermore, to many whites, it seemed not only their God-given right but
also their patriotic duty to populate the lands beyond the Mississippi River, bringing with them American
slavery, culture, laws, and political traditions (Figure 11.9).
Figure 11.9 By the early 1830s, all the lands east of the Mississippi River had been settled and admitted to the
Union as states. The land west of the river, though in this contemporary map united with the settled areas in the body
of an eagle symbolizing the territorial ambitions of the United States, remained largely unsettled by white Americans.
Texas (just southwest of the birds tail feathers) remained outside the U.S. border.
Chapter 11 | A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 18001860 309
THE TEXAS WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
Many Americans who migrated to Texas at the invitation of the Mexican government did not completely
shed their identity or loyalty to the United States. They brought American traditions and expectations with
them (including, for many, the right to own slaves). For instance, the majority of these new settlers were
Protestant, and though they were not required to attend the Catholic mass, Mexicos prohibition on the
public practice of other religions upset them and they routinely ignored it.
Accustomed to representative democracy, jury trials, and the defendants right to appear before a judge,
the Anglo-American settlers in Texas also disliked the Mexican legal system, which provided for an
initial hearing by an alcalde, an administrator who often combined the duties of mayor, judge, and law
enforcement officer. The alcalde sent a written record of the proceeding to a judge in Saltillo, the state
capital, who decided the outcome. Settlers also resented that at most two Texas representatives were
allowed in the state legislature.
Their greatest source of discontent, though, was the Mexican governments 1829 abolition of slavery. Most
American settlers were from southern states, and many had brought slaves with them. Mexico tried to
accommodate them by maintaining the fiction that the slaves were indentured servants. But American
slaveholders in Texas distrusted the Mexican government and wanted Texas to be a new U.S. slave state.
The dislike of most for Roman Catholicism (the prevailing religion of Mexico) and a widely held belief in
American racial superiority led them generally to regard Mexicans as dishonest, ignorant, and backward.
Belief in their own superiority inspired some Texans to try to undermine the power of the Mexican
government. When empresario Haden Edwards attempted to evict people who had settled his land grant
before he gained title to it, the Mexican government nullified its agreement with him. Outraged, Edwards
and a small party of men took prisoner the alcalde of Nacogdoches. The Mexican army marched to the
town, and Edwards and his troop then declared the formation of the Republic of Fredonia between the
Sabine and Rio Grande Rivers. To demonstrate loyalty to their adopted country, a force led by Stephen
Austin hastened to Nacogdoches to support the Mexican army. Edwardss revolt collapsed, and the
revolutionaries fled Texas.
The growing presence of
