To the Vast and Beautiful Land

To the Vast and Beautiful Land PDF Author: Light Townsend Cummins
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1623497418
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
To the Vast and Beautiful Land gathers eleven essays written by Light Townsend Cummins, a foremost authority on Texas and Louisiana during the Spanish colonial era, and traces the arc of the author’s career over a quarter of a century. Each essay includes a new introduction linking the original article to current scholarship and forms the connective tissue for the volume. A new bibliography updates and supplements the sources cited in the essays. From the “enduring community” of Anglo-American settlers in colonial Natchez to the Gálvez family along the Gulf Coast and their participation in the American Revolution, Cummins shows that mercantile commerce and land acquisition went hand-in-hand as dual motivations for the migration of English-speakers into Louisiana and Texas. Mercantile trade dominated by Anglo-Americans increasingly tied the Mississippi valley and western Gulf Coast to the English-speaking ports of the Atlantic world bridging two centuries, shifting it away from earlier French and Spanish commercial patterns. As a result, Anglo-Americans moved to the region as residents and secured land from Spanish authorities, who often welcomed them with favorable settlement policies. This steady flow of settlement set the stage for families such as the Austins—first Moses and later his son Stephen—to take root and further “Anglocize” a colonial region. Taken together, To the Vast and Beautiful Land makes a new contribution to the growing literature on the history of the Spanish borderlands in North America.

To the Vast and Beautiful Land

To the Vast and Beautiful Land PDF Author: Light Townsend Cummins
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1623497418
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
To the Vast and Beautiful Land gathers eleven essays written by Light Townsend Cummins, a foremost authority on Texas and Louisiana during the Spanish colonial era, and traces the arc of the author’s career over a quarter of a century. Each essay includes a new introduction linking the original article to current scholarship and forms the connective tissue for the volume. A new bibliography updates and supplements the sources cited in the essays. From the “enduring community” of Anglo-American settlers in colonial Natchez to the Gálvez family along the Gulf Coast and their participation in the American Revolution, Cummins shows that mercantile commerce and land acquisition went hand-in-hand as dual motivations for the migration of English-speakers into Louisiana and Texas. Mercantile trade dominated by Anglo-Americans increasingly tied the Mississippi valley and western Gulf Coast to the English-speaking ports of the Atlantic world bridging two centuries, shifting it away from earlier French and Spanish commercial patterns. As a result, Anglo-Americans moved to the region as residents and secured land from Spanish authorities, who often welcomed them with favorable settlement policies. This steady flow of settlement set the stage for families such as the Austins—first Moses and later his son Stephen—to take root and further “Anglocize” a colonial region. Taken together, To the Vast and Beautiful Land makes a new contribution to the growing literature on the history of the Spanish borderlands in North America.

The Austin Papers

The Austin Papers PDF Author: Moses Austin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Texas
Languages : es
Pages : 1204

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Book Description


Stephen F. Austin

Stephen F. Austin PDF Author: Gregg Cantrell
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1625110391
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Book Description
The Texas State Historical Association is pleased to offer a reprint edition of Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas, Gregg Cantrell’s path-breaking biography of the founder of Anglo Texas. Cantrell’s portrait goes beyond the traditional interpretation of Austin as the man who spearheaded American Manifest Destiny. Cantrell portrays Austin as a borderlands figure who could navigate the complex cultural landscape of 1820s Texas, then a portion of Mexico. His command of the Spanish language, respect for the Mexican people, and ability to navigate the shoals of Mexican politics made him the perfect advocate for his colonists and often for all of Texas. Yet when conflicts between Anglo colonists and Mexican authorities turned violent, Austin’s accomodationist stance became outdated. Overshadowed by the military hero Sam Houston, he died at the age of forty-three, just six months after Texas independence. Decades after his death, Austin’s reputation was resurrected and he became known as the “Father of Texas.” More than just an icon, Stephen F. Austin emerges from these pages as a shrewd, complicated, and sometimes conflicted figure.

Dictionary of Missouri Biography

Dictionary of Missouri Biography PDF Author: Lawrence O. Christensen
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 9780826260161
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 860

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Book Description


Emily Austin of Texas 1795-1851

Emily Austin of Texas 1795-1851 PDF Author: Light Townsend Cummins
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 0875657249
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
The Austin family left an indelible mark on Texas and the expanding American nation. In this insightful biography, Light Townsend Cummins turns the historical spotlight on Emily Austin, the daughter who followed the trails of the western frontier to Texas, where she saw the burgeoning young colony erupt in revolution, establish a proud republic, and usher in the period of antebellum statehood. Emily's journey was one of remarkable personal change as the rigors of frontier life shaped her into a uniquely self-reliant southern woman, one who fulfilled the role of the plantation mistress while taking a distinct hand in ambitious public ventures. Despite her ties to influential family members, including her brother Stephen F. Austin, Emily's determined spirit allowed her to live on her own terms. In all of her notable activities, Emily principally remained a devoted daughter, sister, wife, and mother who proudly clung to her Austin roots. Utilizing her family's written correspondence, Cummins provides insight into Emily's multifaceted personality and the relationships that sustained her through times of tribulation and triumph. "Emily was very much her own woman, with strong, well-articulated personal feelings centered on a steely personality. Her rock-solid resolve for action enabled her to survive almost six decades of frontier hardship . . . Above all else, Emily Austin was the touchstone at the center of an extended family that provided a common point of reference for four generations . . . " Light Cummins, from Emily Austin

Moses Austin

Moses Austin PDF Author: David B. Gracy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
The story of Moses Austin, founder of the American lead industry and the person who opened the way for Anglo-American settlement in Spanish Texas.

Frontier Swashbuckler

Frontier Swashbuckler PDF Author: Dick Steward
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826263437
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Few frontiersmen in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century epitomized the reckless energies of the West and the lust for adventure as did John Smith T pioneer, gunfighter, entrepreneur, militia colonel, miner, judge, and folk hero. In this fascinating biography, Dick Steward traces the colorful Smith T's life from his early days in Virginia through his young adulthood. He then describes Smith T's remarkable career in the wilds of Missouri and his armed raids to gain land from Indians, Spaniards, and others. Born into the fifth generation of Virginia gentry, young Smith first made his name on the Tennessee frontier. It was there that he added the "T" to his name to distinguish his land titles and other enterprises from those of the hosts of other John Smiths. By the late 1790s he owned or laid claim to more than a quarter million acres in Tennessee and northern Alabama. In 1797, Smith T moved to Missouri, then a Spanish territory, and sought to gain control of its lead-mining district by displacing the most powerful American in the region, Moses Austin. He acquired such public positions as judge of the court of common pleas, commissioner of weights and levies, and lieutenant colonel of the militia, which enabled him to mount a spirited assault on Austin's virtual monopoly of the lead mines. Although neither side emerged a winner from that ten-year-old conflict, it was during this period that Smith T's fame as a gunfighter and duelist spread across the West. Known as the most dangerous man in Missouri, he was said to have killed fourteen men in duels. Smith T was also recognized by many for his good works. He donated land for churches and schools and was generous to the poor and downtrodden. He epitomized the opening of the West, helping to build towns, roads, and canals and organizing trading expeditions. Even though Smith T was one of the most notorious characters in Missouri history, by the late nineteenth century he had all but disappeared from the annals of western history. Frontier Swashbuckler seeks to rescue both the man and the legend from historical obscurity. At the same time, it provides valuable insights into the economic, political, and social dynamics of early Missouri frontier history.

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Southwestern Historical Quarterly PDF Author: Eugene Campbell Barker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Southwest, New
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Big Wonderful Thing

Big Wonderful Thing PDF Author: Stephen Harrigan
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292759517
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 944

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Book Description
The story of Texas is the story of struggle and triumph in a land of extremes. It is a story of drought and flood, invasion and war, boom and bust, and of the myriad peoples who, over centuries of conflict, gave rise to a place that has helped shape the identity of the United States and the destiny of the world. “I couldn’t believe Texas was real,” the painter Georgia O’Keeffe remembered of her first encounter with the Lone Star State. It was, for her, “the same big wonderful thing that oceans and the highest mountains are.” Big Wonderful Thing invites us to walk in the footsteps of ancient as well as modern people along the path of Texas’s evolution. Blending action and atmosphere with impeccable research, New York Times best-selling author Stephen Harrigan brings to life with novelistic immediacy the generations of driven men and women who shaped Texas, including Spanish explorers, American filibusters, Comanche warriors, wildcatters, Tejano activists, and spellbinding artists—all of them taking their part in the creation of a place that became not just a nation, not just a state, but an indelible idea. Written in fast-paced prose, rich with personal observation and a passionate sense of place, Big Wonderful Thing calls to mind the literary spirit of Robert Hughes writing about Australia or Shelby Foote about the Civil War. Like those volumes it is a big book about a big subject, a book that dares to tell the whole glorious, gruesome, epically sprawling story of Texas.

The Southwestern Historical Quarterly

The Southwestern Historical Quarterly PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description