To Know Who You Are and who you want to be

This song is about a musician whose life was a mess and he decided to Go To Texas and get it back together again.  The GTT spirit is a part of this song as well as all the GTT posters displayed, just like those Americans hung on their homes in the 1800's.

6 Mexican National Changes


  • ​A Many Americans and Mexicans migrated to Mexican Texas in the 1820's to obtain cheap farm land
  • B The establishment of Anglo-American settlements is a major change that occurred in Texas society during the Mexican National Era

8 Empresarios


  • ​A Empresarios were land agents that were granted land to sell and supervise in Texas
  • B There were Anglo-American as well as Mexican Empresarios
  • C The State Colonization Law of 1825 supported the Empresario system
  • ​D Most Texas Empresarios received land grants in 1823

Why are the cities of Dallas and Houston not on this map?

1 Filibusters


  • ​A Filibusters are rebels who fight against a foreign country
  • B Filibusters came to Texas and fought against the Spanish and Mexican governments

5 Juan Seguin


  • ​A Juan Seguín was a Tejano rancher who represented Texas at the Mexican Constitutional Convention, located land for the first Austin colony, and eventually supported Texas independence

13 Martin de Leon


  • ​A Mexican Empresario
  • B 1825 established colony
  • C 41 Mexican families in his colony
  • ​C The population of Texas changed during the Mexican National Era because enslaved African Americans were brought to Texas

10 Moses Austin


  • ​A Born in Connecticut
  • B Lived and worked in Missouri
  • C Moved to San Antonio in 1820
  • ​D Asked for permission to start a colony but was denied
  • ​E The Louisiana Purchase is made in 1803 doubling the size of the U.S.
  • F After many years of tension with England another war, The War of 1812 is fought
  • G The Nation spreads west across the continent during Manifest Destiny
  • ​D Long Expedition
    • ​1 Filibuster James Long was captured and executed in 1822 after leading an army into Nacogdoches and declared it independent
    • ​2 Jane Long was one of the first Anglo American women to settle in Texas. She became known as the “Mother of Texas”  

3 Mexican National Era


  • ​A This was the time when Texas was a part of Mexico
  • ​B 1821-1836

7 Gone to Texas


  • ​A The idea of Manifest Destiny drove American settlers West toward Texas
  • ​B So many people left their homes in the United States to come to Texas that “G.T.T.” (Gone To Texas) signs became common
  • E Mexican government did not trust him because of the Filibusters
  • F A local Mexican Nobleman supports Moses Austin and he gets an Empersario grant
  • ​G Moses Austin becomes ill and dies while recruiting people for his colony

12 Green DeWitt


  • ​A American Empresario
  • B1825 established colony
  • C 400 families allowed in his colony but less than 200 came
  • ​D Near Gonzalez Texas, South West of Austin
  • ​C Philip Nolan
    • ​1 First filibuster in Texas
    • 2 Late 1700's he entered Texas to round up wild horses and took them back to the U.S. to sell
    • ​3 He plotted to claim land in Texas for the U.S. in the 1790's
  • C Hidalgo's Army marched across Mexico defeating the Spanish
  • ​D Until he was captured and killed on July 30,1811
  • E Others carried on his fight
  • F Mexico Gained its independence from Spain in 1821
  • G The settler had to improve the land and pay a nominal fee to the state.
  • H Although some Empresarios were successful many were not due to the high cost of obtaining grants,  having land surveyed, and the long wait for approval

Mexican National Era and Empresarios

11 Stephen F Austin


  • ​A Stephen F Austin was a lawyer and legislator in the U.S.
  • B When his father, Moses, died Stephen put aside his career to fulfill his father's dream of starting a colony in Texas

2 Spain Loses Texas and More


  • ​A September 16, 1810 Mexico Declared its independence from Spain
  • B Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla's proclamation "Grito de Dolores" calls for Mexicans to take up arms against Spain (happened in the town of Dolores)
  • B Mexican officials tried to maintain Mexican culture when issuing land grants to Anglo empresarios was by requiring settlers to practice the Catholic religion
  • ​C This was also a requirement of the Constitution of 1824

4 The Constitution of 1824


  • ​A The Constitution of 1824 created the state of Coahuila and Texas. This merger of the two geographic regions eventually resulted in political tensions that divided the region
  • C Stephen F Austin  founded the first large Anglo colony in Texas
  • D His settlers were known as the "Old 300" They were the first 300 Anglo-American families in Texas 

9 Land Grant Locations


  • ​A Most Texas land grants were located in east and central Texas because Mexican officials wanted to settle areas closest to the United States
  • ​B The Coastal Plains Region had the most successful land grants in Texas
  • E Under the state colonization law, a married man could receive 177 acres of farming land and 4,428 acres of grazing land.
  • F An unmarried man could receive one-quarter of this amount.

13 Meanwhile in America


  • ​A The American Revolution had occurred after the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776.
  • B The war was won at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781
  • C The new nation survives the Articles of Confederation 
  • ​D The U.S. Constitution was written in 1787 with the ever important Bill of Rights added to it in 1791
  • ​E Gutierrez Magee Expedition
    • ​1 Agustus Magee and Bernardo Gutierrez form the Army of the North and they attacks Spanish outposts during the Mexican War for Independence
    • ​2 Expedition started in Nacogdoches in 1812 where they declared Texas independent from Spain.
    • ​3 The Army of the North was defeated during the Mexican War for independence at the Battle of Medina