Stephen F. Austin: The Father of Texas (Primary Source Readers: Texas History)

Stephen Fuller Austin grew up in a family of risk-takers. When he was older, he took his own risk in leading the first American colony into Texas. Austin had to recruit American settlers and work with the Mexican government to make his colony successful. He was careful to choose colonists who were honest and hard workers. But by the 1830s, tensions between American colonists and Mexico erupted into war. Austin helped lead the fight for independence in the Texas Revolution.