Unsettled Land by Sam Haynes

Unsettled Land: From Revolution to Republic, the Struggle for Texas
by Sam W. Haynes
Basic Books, 2022

Texas has always been larger than life. Consequently, Texas history deals, for the most part, in mythology. No better example can be found than the myths told of the American colonization of Texas and the subsequent Texas Revolution, Lone Star Republic, and Texas’s role in the Mexican American War. Unsettled Land by Sam W. Haynes takes a gleeful and enjoyable mythbusting to these long held, and enduring, myths.

Unsettled Land begins with the brief history of Villa de Dolores, a village along the Rio Grande that serves as a microcosm of Texas. The narrative then backtracks to the beginning of American and Native American colonization of Texas and the ensuing multicultural society that briefly developed. Gradually, as more and more Americans came to Texas, greater tensions rose between all those who called Texas home, with the Mexican government in Mexico City, and the state government of Coahuila y Texas in Saltillo. These tensions eventually led to the Texas Revolution, the Texas Republic, and the annexation of Texas by the United States.

White Americans were not the only immigrants to Texas in the early nineteenth century. Haynes begins with the story of the Texas Cherokee — two in particular: Chief Bowls and Richard Fields. Seeking a better life away from the United States, these two very different men sought to establish a Cherokee homeland in the Piney Woods. Throughout the story of these two men (more Bowls than Fields), the Cherokee experience in Texas transitioned from hope for a homeland to the false promises of the well-intentioned Sam Houston before their eventual expulsion from Texas under Mirabeau B. Lamar.

The other Native American tribe focused on in Unsettled Land are the Comanches. For much of the nineteenth century, the Comanches controlled much of west and west central Texas. The Comanches often held the stronger position in their dealings with both Mexicans, Americans, and other Native American Tribes. But, in the end, they too were displaced and forced to reservations after annexation.

The most interesting part of the narrative is Haynes’s exploration of Mexican politics of the period and how Mexican politics influenced, if not outright caused, the Texas Revolution. Post-independence Mexico was torn between two competing ideologies: centralism and federalism. The peripheries of Mexico were bastions of federalism, including Texas. When Santa Ana replaced his federalist first government with a centralist one, he drove many of his former supporters to rebellion. The civil unrest in Coahuila y Texas contributed to the rising tensions in Texas to drive the Texas Revolution.

Personal politics, Haynes argues, played an even greater role. One of Santa Ana’s fiercest enemies was Lorenzo de Zavala. An Americophile, de Zavala moved to his Texas properties as the drive to secession reached a fever pitch. And, once knowing de Zavala was in Texas, Santa Ana was hell bent on capturing his enemy. Which, at San Jacinto, led to Santa Ana’s defeat.

The Battle of San Jacinto was a massive blunder on Santa Ana’s part. Not that he was particularly interested in engaging the Texan rebels at that particular moment. Rather, Santa Ana and a small army were furiously pursuing de Zavala, whose property in Texas was near the site of the battle. This error is representative of the wider war of errors that was the Texas Revolution. Further complicating Santa Ana’s efforts to crush the rebellion was the fact that the treasury was empty. On the Texan side, the Texans never quite formed an army. Rather, their version was a rabble who very rarely accepted discipline. These problems also plagued what passed for the revolutionary government.

Speaking of the American Texans, another interesting aspect of the narrative is the character of many of the men who immigrated to Texas. While most Americans who immigrated to Texas were much like Stephen F. Austin in their desire for a better life and intent, after a fashion, to become good Mexican citizens, a vocal, domineering, minority came looking to cause nothing but trouble. Men like the Wharton brothers, William Barret Travis, Thomas Jefferson Green, and William Walker made life miserable for Mexicans, Native Americans, and their fellow Americans. These men were imbued with a sense of entitlement, a personal anarchism, that brooked no authority over themselves (though they were more than willing to exercise authority over their slaves). This personal anarchism, and the fact that these men tended to dominate Texas politics during the Revolution and the years of the Texas Republic, made Texas, before annexation, practically a failed state.

The heroic story of Texas has endured since the first histories of American colonization and the Texas Revolution were first written. This story magnifies the American story. And, of course, much of the Texas character then and now is an exaggeration of certain American character traits.

It is only relatively recently that this heroic narrative has been challenged. Unsettled Land is a good history that aims to mythbust many of these enduring myths of Texas in the early nineteenth century.

—James Holder holds a BA in English Literature. He lives in Texas.