Leading Up To The Birth Of The Republic of Texas, The State, & Smith County
General James Smith
Moved To Tejas & Became A Mexican Citizen, Plantation Owner, Slave Master, Slaughtered Native Americans, First Judge In East Texas, FIrst State Legislator For New State of Texas (1844-1847) Representing Rusk County.
Namesake Of Smith County, Texas.
Although the government of Mexico had initially been welcoming of American settlers to Coahuila y Tejas, the hosts did not take lightly their refusal to obey Mexican laws. Mexico was also concerned with the increasing number of uncooperative Anglo-Saxon aliens. In response, President Santa Anna traveled to Tejas to bring order. Then the Anglo-American immigrants’, led by Sam Houston, waged a futile war of resistance. The Battle of the Alamo, one of the main skirmishes of the insurrection, led to the death or execution of William Travis, Davy Crocket, and James Bowie. However, General Santa Anna made a grave battlefield mistake that led to his capture by the ill-equipped insurgent guerilla army. The Tejas-area later declared independence and became the short-lived Republic of Texas (1836-1846).
Upon declaring itself a sovereign nation, one of the first acts of the new Republic was to cement “the existence of slavery forever in the young nation’s constitution.”[1] Interestingly, in the 10yr history of the nation, a successfully stable government and a working economy was never established. It eluded the new Texans. Nevertheless, the centrality of a slave economy revealed itself as the slave population grew exponentially. At the beginning of the Republic, slaves numbered 5000 souls. In less than ten years, the population soared to 30,000 souls.
During this period, General James Smith of South Carolina moved to Nacogdoches, the oldest Texas settlement dating back thousands of years. Mexico created the formal Nacogdoches District in 1826 as a municipality. General Smith, who himself slaughtered Native Americans in the War of 1812, hoped to build a large slave plantation at his new home.
White settlers arriving in Smith County in 1839 drove out the remaining Caddo and other tribes that had been resettled here, like the Cherokee.[2] All Caddo groups moved to the Brazos River area to remove themselves from Anglo-American repressive measures and colonization efforts.[3]
How did the Cherokee arrive in Smith County? In the early 1800s, the Cherokee began to move into the East Texas area, occupying areas also inhabited by the Caddo. One reason given for the move was that it was an effort to preserve Cherokee culture. But truthfully, the Cherokee people were forced to move into the area due to the Indian removal policy set in place by the United States government. The purpose of the system was to take Native American lands to allow cotton growers the opportunity to increase their wealth. They were also escaping the genocide of their populations in some places along the Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Tennessee areas.
The Trail of Tears became infamous during this period as U.S. military forces looted and pillaged Cherokee homelands. The military then used extreme and cruel pressure, including gun and bayonet point, to march the proud native peoples over 1200 miles to the newly appointed Indian Territory. Thousands died on the walk from starvation. Thousands more died due to epidemics along the way, such as dysentery, cholera, and even whooping cough.
Did You Know There Was A Cherokee Reservation In Smith & Surrounding Counties? It Was Created By The Treaty of Bowles Village Signed on February 23, 1836, Between The Republic of Texas & The Cherokee and Twelve Affiliated Tribes.
After their resettlement, The Treaty of Bowles Village signed on February 23, 1836, between the Republic of Texas and the Cherokee and twelve affiliated tribes, gave all of Smith and modern-day Cherokee County as well as parts of western Rusk County, southern Gregg County (formed from Rusk County in 1873) along with southeastern Van Zandt County to the newly arrived tribes. But that treaty, like so many others, proved worthless. Friction became a regular occurrence between Cherokee, Kickapoo, Shawnee Indians, and white settlers who continued to move into the area. The conflict led to The Cherokee War of 1839. After the war, any remaining Indians were driven out of Smith and surrounding counties.
On March 1, 1845, U.S. President Tyler, whose record of supporting slavery was among the most extreme, was aided by Southern Whigs. They joined congressional Democrats to pass a resolution allowing for the annexation of the Republic of Texas, even though Mexico still regarded it as one of its states. President Tyler signed the annexation bill, and on March 3 (his last day in office), he forwarded the House resolution to the slavery-affirming Republic of Texas, offering immediate annexation. The very next day, incoming President Polk took office. One of Polk’s very first steps was to encourage the Republic of Texas to accept President Tyler’s offer.
The Republic of Texas ratified the agreement with widespread approval from Texans. The bill signed by President Polk on December 29, 1845, officially accepted Texas as the 28th state of the Union. Texas formally relinquished its sovereignty to the United States on February 19, 1846. Less than two months later, on April 11, 1846, the new State of Texas legislature broke apart the huge Nacogdoches County. The county was subdivided into all or part of twenty other Texas counties: Anderson, Angelina, Camp, Cherokee, Dallas, Delta, Gregg, Henderson, Hopkins, Houston, Hunt, Kaufman, Raines, Rockwall, Rusk, Smith, Trinity, Upshur, Van Zandt, and Wood.[4] One of the northern counties was named in honor of James Smith, a General in the Texas insurrection. General Smith went on to possess many slaves that worked on his sizeable 53,000-acre plantation. The City of Tyler, a new burgeoning community in the county, would be made the county seat.[5]
The City of Tyler was named to honor President John Tyler. Less than 15 years later, President Tyler would go on to commit an act of supreme rebellion against the United States by leading the charge for Virginia’s secession. John Tyler then swore an oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America after being elected to the Provisional Confederate Congress. He was a devoted white supremacist - a slave owner himself of 40 to 70 souls. Abolitionist Joshua Leavitt published widespread rumors that Tyler had fathered several sons with his slaves then later sold them. Some African American families today maintain a belief in their descent from the former president.
Tyler was later elected to the Confederate House of Representatives but did not serve due to his untimely death. President Tyler became the first Chief Executive of the United States whose death went unrecognized in Washington, D.C. Instead, Tyler’s coffin would be draped with a confederate flag then quietly interred at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va.[6]
Biographer Edward P. Crapol began John Tyler, the Accidental President, by noting: “Other biographers and historians have argued that John Tyler was a hapless and inept chief executive whose presidency was seriously flawed.”[7] Whatever good President Tyler may have achieved was ultimately heavily and appropriately overshadowed by his unbelievable renunciation and subsequent allegiance to the Confederacy.” John Tyler’s historical reputation would not recover from that tragic decision to betray his loyalty and commitment to what he had once defined as “the first great American interest—the preservation of the Union,” continued Crapol. It is no wonder why so many historians, like Dan Monroe, have assessed Tyler’s presidency as generally ranked “one of the least successful.”[8]
FOOTNOTES:
A Brief Overview of Slavery In Texas. University of North Texas. https://exhibits.library.unt.edu/slavery-texas/brief-overview-slavery-texas.
Lipscomb, C. A. TSHA | Cherokee Indians. Texas State Historical Association. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/cherokee-indians.
Smallwood, J. (1999, Chp 1). The History of Smith County, Texas: Born in Dixie (1st ed.,Vol. 1). Eakin Press.172
Cook, L. J. (2011). In Romance in land titles (pp. 52–59). Authorhouse. Chp 7.
Woldert, A. (1948). A history of Tyler and Smith County, Texas. Naylor Co.
Seager, R. (1963). And Tyler Too: A Biography of John & Julia Gardiner Tyler. The Easton Press.
Crapol, E. P. (2012). John Tyler, The Accidental President (Revised ed.). The University of North Carolina Press.
Monroe, R. D. (2003). The Republican Vision of John Tyler (1st ed.). Texas A&M University Press.
