Personal Narrative Essay: Growing Up In Texas

As a young armadillo growing up in Texas during the 1820s, my life was peaceful and happy. The Federalists who held power in Mexico left me, my fellow armadillos, and the Anglo Americans alone to enjoy and work the land. However, in 1829, the Centralists gained control of the Mexican government and the freedom we enjoyed gradually eroded. As the Mexican government imposed more regulations on the Anglo Americans, the tension which had existed between the two groups due to the Nacogdoches land grant, become even more palpable.
While I was in Nacogdoches in 1826, I witnessed the tension between the Anglo Americans and Mexican officials for myself. I met Haden Edwards who told me he was trying to settle a huge tract of land in East Texas when …show more content…
The Anglo Americans accused Colonel Bradburn of the Mexican army of refusing to return their escaped slaves and of stealing their supplies. The Anglo Americans were also upset that Bradburn and his troops insisted on collecting an import duty on all goods coming into Texas, even goods arriving by ship. There was even some troops trying to collect a duty on me! The conflict erupted in gunfire between Texans and Mexican troops when some ship captains refused to travel to Anahuac to pay the duty. During the next few years, the problems continued and people from each side were captured and imprisoned. Although the relationship between Anglo Americans and Mexican officials seemed to be worsening, some of my Anglo American friends believe they had an ally in Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. General López de Santa Anna was a Federalist and had won victories against Centralist troops. Since he promised to follow the Mexican Constitution of 1824, which pleased the Texans, the Texans responded by adopting the Turtle Bay Resolutions. In the resolution, the Texans declared their loyalty to Mexico, but not to the Mexican government, and stated their support for López de Santa