Why were Americans eager to move to Austin's Mexican colony?


There was considerable migration from Missouri to Texas in the 1820s, many of whom had ventured into that area from Tennessee, a not-surprising east to west movement, not unlike that which transported people from Ohio into Iowa and Nebraska. Stephen Austin arrived in Texas in 1821, the holder of a grant thousands of acres. Other American-born grant holders soon arrived, promoting land sales, but only about 3,500 Americans settled in Texas between 1825 and 1832. Meanwhile, squatters with no legal claim to land settled in East Texas.