Ethnic Texans

Open access books on Texas ethnic groups

Institute of Texan Cultures' Texans Series

The Anglo-Americans were people who moved from the United States to Texas. They spoke English. Their parents or ancestors had come from northern Europe to America.

Most of the Anglo-Americans did not come to Texas in large groups. Often families came alone. Many families traveled in covered wagons. Some of them tacked signs which said “G.T.T. – Gone to Texas” to the doors of the cabins they left.

Early Anglo-American settlers in Texas had to “make do” with what they had or found around them. Many of them had spent all of their money to buy land and pay for their journey. They did not have money to buy houses, food, or clothes. They built their homes with what they could find: trees, stones, river can, sod or mud.

They got their food by hunting and picking berries and nuts. The children learned to spin and weave to help make cloth from cotton and wool. Almost everything was handmade. The settlers became very good at creating tools and toys, clothes and new kinds of food from what they had. They used everything. Scraps of cloth were made into quilts. Scraps of food were fed to animals. “Waste not, want not,” they said.

Handbook of Texas

Colonization through Annexation

Historic Sites