In 1800, Phillip Nolan led one such filibuster but was caught and executed by
the Spaniards. In 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla led a revolution
against Spain because Indians, Creoles (Spaniards born in Mexico) and Mestizos
(people of mixed Indian-Spanish heritage ) were being discriminated against by
"pure" Spaniards born in Spain. His revolt failed, but the idea of
Mexican independence lived on. Many of Hidalgo’s supporters were in Texas, and
the idea of Texas independence became popular, too.
In 1813, the Mexican revolutionary Bernardo
Gutierrez joined forces with
former United States Army officer Augustus
Magee. The two created the Republican
Army of the North. They gained control of the settlements of Nacogdoches, Goliad and San Antonio. Then they declared
Texas independence and adopted a
republican constitution. However, Spanish forces defeated the revolutionaries on
August 18, 1813, at a battle fought near the Medina River.
The next attempt for Texas independence was led by Dr. James Long of Natchez,
Mississippi. In 1819, he led an expedition into Texas and took Nacogdoches. He
established a republic with himself as president. After the Spaniards drove Long
and his supporters away, Long went to Galveston Island where he asked the French
pirate, Jean Laffite, for help. The pirate refused, so Long recruited more men
elsewhere and continued to fight the Spanish. He was captured and taken to
prison in Mexico where he was killed by a guard. Dr. Long’s wife, Jane, was
about to have a baby. She remained in the Galveston area and gave birth to a
daughter in 1821. The baby was the first white American born in Texas (as best
accurate records can show). Since then, Jane Long has been called the
"mother of Texas."
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