Dissertation Overview: Competing Conceptions of Liberty in Early Nineteenth-Century Texas

 

In the middle of the Battle of Gonzales, the captain of a small Mexican company of dragoons called a ceasefire to parlay with his Texian counterpart. The captain inquired about the Texian motivation in the battle, specifically why they chose to open fire. The conversation shifted into politics, however, and both discovered that they were republicans, and that they equally disliked Santa Anna. The Texian captain implored the young officer and his men to switch sides and join the fight. That request shattered the discourse and fighting resumed. The dragoons fell back to San Antonio, and the Texians claimed victory.

In that conversation, both men agreed on significant political issues, but came to radically different conclusions when it came to understanding the purpose of their fight. The Mexican commander chose loyalty over idealism, demonstrating remarkable fidelity to his government. To the Anglo, liberty was not a means of political agency, but an ideal for which it was worthy to fight and die. To the Mexican, liberty was secondary to loyalty and the honor of fighting for one’s country. Their understanding of liberty split because of their unique interpretations, leading them to become enemies in a vicious war, despite the fact that they agreed on major political principles.

This famous story from the opening battle of the Texas Revolution begs the question: how can different interpretations of a single concept inspire revolutionary action? The word liberty is often used as a synonym for freedom or even independence in modern American parlance, but in early the 19^th century it enjoyed a much more rigorous debate. The discussion surrounding the interpretation of liberty received new life in the early 1810s as rebellion broke out across the North American holdings of the Spanish Empire. Citizens of the empire pushed for radical social change throughout Mexico, leading to rebellion on the nascent streets of San Antonio. Spain endeavored to stamp out the cause of liberty throughout Tejas in the name of the King, leading to a bloodbath that decimate the population of the revolting province.

Although the Tejanos did not win the fight for independence from Spain, the cause of liberty would again arise in Texas at multiple points. Anglo settlers who chafed under the centrist reforms of Santa Anna armed themselves for battle and waged a six-month war that began at Gonzales and ended with a Texas victory at San Jacinto. It is easy to say that the both the Texans and the earlier Tejanos fought for liberty, but there are very few cultural links that would allow for a shared definition between the two conflicts. The Anglos arrived in Texas in the 1820s with an Old-World perception of personal freedom. That understanding informed their notions of government and influenced their actions with centralizing Mexico. The Tejanos, on the other hand, represented a fusion of Spanish and Native culture, maintaining a strong catholic identity that promoted a hierarchical worldview. Individual freedom did not inspire their choice to rebel against the king.

The interpretations of liberty in early nineteenth-century Texas are just as diverse as those who took up arms in multiple conflicts. At this juncture, there is a true need for new scholarship to analyze these competing conceptions of liberty, and to paint and intellectual history of the period. Previous research has been largely political or social, focused primarily on retelling the narrative of the Texas Revolution from various perspectives. There has even been an increase in military history in recent years, but little or no work has been done on the history of revolutionary concepts. Texana scholars have delved into alternative perspectives of the conflict and have produced rich monographs that add to or challenge the previous efforts of the mythologizing traditionalists, but none have written a conceptual history of the era or attempted to analyze the ideas that inspired revolutionary action in the early decades of the nineteenth-century.

Conceptual history deals with the evolution of ideas within historical contexts, and the recent digitization of numerous primary sources makes this an ideal time to begin. For this project, the goal is to explore the contextual definitions of liberty and analyze its connections across related historical events. This includes the 1812 efforts of the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition, the resulting pressure exerted by Spain, the failed rebellions of other Mexican states and the disastrous efforts of Hayden Edwards and his Cherokee allies. These events should not be only seen as steps to the Texas Revolution that was ultimately successful, but as examples of how differing concepts of liberty can inspire radical actions from those who chose to fight.