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Maine was admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. The rest of the
Louisiana Territory was split into two parts. The dividing line was set at 36°30´
north latitude. South of the line, slavery was legal. North of the line—except in
Missouri—slavery was banned -
The main settlement of the colony was named San Felipe de Austin, in
Stephen’s honor. By 1825, Austin had issued 297 land grants to the group that later
became known as Texas’s Old Three Hundred. Each family received either 177 very
inexpensive acres of farmland, or 4,428 acres for stock grazing, as well as a 10-year
exemption from paying taxes. By 1830, there were more than 20,000 americans in Texas -
The overwhelmingly Protestant Anglo settlers spoke
English instead of Spanish. Furthermore, many of the settlers were Southerners,
who had brought slaves with them to Texas. Mexico, which had abolished slavery
in 1829, insisted in vain that the Texans free their slaves. -
Austin had
traveled to Mexico City late in 1833 to present petitions to Mexican president
Antonio López de Santa Anna for greater self-government for Texas. While
Austin was on his way home, Santa Anna had Austin imprisoned for inciting
revolution. After Santa Anna suspended local powers in Texas and other -
The Texas Revolution began when colonists in the Mexican province of Texas rebelled against the increasingly centralist Mexican government.
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stretched from Independence,
Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon. It was blazed in 1836 by
two Methodist missionaries named Marcus and Narcissa
Whitman. By driving their wagon as far as Fort Boise (near
present-day Boise, Idaho), they proved that wagons could
travel on the Oregon Trail. -
The 1844 U.S. presidential campaign focused on westward expansion. The
winner, James K. Polk, a slaveholder, firmly favored the annexation of Texas -
expressed the belief that the United States was ordained to expand to the Pacific
Ocean and into Mexican and Native American territory. -
stretched 780 miles from Independence, Missouri, to
Santa Fe in the Mexican province of New Mexico.
