Old Three Hundred

The "Old Three Hundred" were 297 grantees who purchased 307 parcels of land from Stephen Fuller Austin in Mexican Texas.

[1] Because the Americans believed they needed enslaved workers, Austin negotiated with the Mexican government to gain approval, as the new nation was opposed to slavery.

Before he reached San Antonio to meet with the governor, the group learned that Mexico had gained its independence from Spain.

Austin considered legal slavery critical to the success of his colony, so he spent a year in Mexico City lobbying against anti-slavery legislation.

[2]: 20–23 The 1823 Imperial Colonization Law of Mexico allowed an empresario to receive a land grant within the Mexican province of Texas.

The empresario and a commissioner appointed by the governor were authorized to distribute land to settlers and issue titles in the name of the Mexican government.

The grant could be increased for large families or those wishing to establish a new industry, but the lands would be forfeited if they were not cultivated within two years.

[6] The settlers who received their titles under Stephen's first contract, known today as the Old Three Hundred, made up the first organized, approved group of Anglo-American immigrants from the United States to Texas.

[9] This area had long been occupied by indigenous peoples, however, and they objected to Anglo-American encroachment, resisting with armed conflict.

Austin wrote the colony's legal code, including elements to control enslaved African Americans.

According to historian William C. Davis, because the colonists were literate, they "absorbed and spread the knowledge and news always essential to uniting people to a common purpose".