Fredonia, Republic of

Republic of Fredonia (a.k.a. Fredonian Rebellion), brief revolt by Anglo-American adventurers in East Texas that took place from December 1826 to January 1827. Land speculator Haden Edwards antagonized settlers when he claimed that those who could not prove ownership of their land had to pay him for it under terms of his 1825 contract with the Mexican government. Settler protests led the government to revoke the contract and order his expulsion. On 16 December 1826, during Edwards's absence from Texas, his brother Benjamin led about thirty armed men into Nacogdoches and proclaimed the Republic of Fredonia. Unable to muster support from local Cherokees and Anglo-Americans, the group fled to the United States on the approach of Mexican military forces. The incident heightened Mexican government unease with continued Anglo-American immigration.

See alsoTexas .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Eugene C. Barker, The Life of Stephen F. Austin: Founder of Texas, 1793–1836, 2d ed. (1969), esp. pp. 148-177.

Additional Bibliography

Anderson, Gary Clayton. The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land, 1820–1875. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005.

Cantrell, Gregg. Stephen F. Austin, Empresario of Texas. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.

Kessell, John L. Spain in the Southwest: A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.

Reséndez, Andrés. Changing National Identities at the Frontier: Texas and New Mexico, 1800–1850. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Winders, Richard Bruce. Crisis in the Southwest: The United States, Mexico, and the Struggle over Texas. Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2002.

                                        JesÚs F. de la Teja