Nacogdoches land men and the Texas Revolution

Following the Louisiana Purchase, Americans began to drift across the Sabine River, fully expecting the Neches River to be the new boundary between the United States and Mexico. From that time, immigration increased and those crossing the border settled in the eastern province, squatting on land that they expected to legally obtain when the United States acquired Texas. Distance from the more structured settlements closer to the interior gave the men that settled in Nacogdoches the ability to acquire vast amounts of land for profit with little accountability and to defy government orders in their attempts to hold on to their land. This study uses primary and secondary sources to investigate the speculating activities of the Nacogdoches land men and to determine how their reactions to political changes that impacted such activities affected the Texas Revolution.