Another thing lost in history. Super short, in a nutshell history tidbit. The original intent was not a white supremacist movement, but to separate the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas into two states, the State of Coahuila and the State of Texas, for economical reasons. Stephen Austin's lobbying efforts in Mexico City were fruitless. We wanted San Antonio to be the capital and the center of commerce, but it could not be as the Mexican government was so centralized that the cattle ranchers needed to go instead all the way to Saltillo, which was not practical. Ranchers and traders were losing economically because of the huge travel burden in a very hot environment. A large Tejano population (you may know them better as modern Hispanics) was in support of this as well as whites. When Antonio Lopez de Santana made it impossible for the division of the state and tightening grip of the central government, Texas declared its independence. Remained independent for a few years, then joined the United States with the promise to become a slave state to "keep the balance". With open borders and cheap land, slaveowners moved into East Texas. Yes there were American Southerners living there during the Texas Revolution, but they could not own slaves due to slavery being illegal in Mexico for more than three decades. Slavery is not a key economic component of Texas history as it is in places like Alabama and South Carolina. Texas is more into cattle ranching than cotton and other plantations. whew! Mexican - American borderlands history is not as cut and dry and simple as you'd like it to be. Reasons for Texan independence are about as complicated as the history of any self determination struggle around the world.
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