Gone to Texas (often abbreviated GTT), was a phrase used by Americans emigrating to Texas in the 19th century.[1] During the Panic of 1819, many left the United States and moved there to escape debt.[2] Moving to Texas, which at the time was part of Mexico, was particularly popular among debtors from the South and West.[3]
Emigrants or their abandoned neighbors often wrote the phrase on doors of abandoned houses or posted as a sign on fences.[4][5][6][7]
While speaking in Nacogdoches, Texas in early 1836, shortly before his death at The Alamo, Davy Crockett is quoted regarding his last campaign for Congress:
A gentleman from Nacogdoches, in Texas, informs us, that, whilst there, he dined in public with col. Crockett, who had just arrived from Tennessee. The old bear-hunter, on being toasted, made a speech to the Texians, replete with his usual dry humor. He began nearly in this style: "I am told, gentlemen, that, when a stranger, like myself, arrives among you, the first inquiry is—what brought you here? To satisfy your curiosity at once as to myself, I will tell you all about it. I was, for some years, a member of congress. In my last canvass, I told the people of my district, that, if they saw fit to re-elect me, I would serve them faithfully as I had done; but, if not, they might all go to h——, and I would go to Texas. I was beaten, gentlemen, and here I am." The roar of applause was like a thunder-burst.[8]
In the 21st-century, The phrase "Gone to Texas" can still be used as Texas is currently the second most populous state in the United States and is experiencing strong population growth by migration with an estimated July 2019 population of 28.996 million.[9]
References
edit- ^ National Gazette and Literary Register - December 29, 1825, "Col. Palmer is said to have taken French leave and gone to Texas." from online source, verified 2005-12-30.
- ^ UTSA ITC Education Scrapbook - Texas the Shape and the Name Archived 2009-11-30 at the Wayback Machine, The University of Texas at San Antonio, Institute of Texan Cultures. 1996-2001, verified 2005-12-30.
- ^ Samuel May Williams, Early Texas Entrepreneur, Margaret Swett Henson
- ^ "G.T.T.", The Handbook of Texas Online
- ^ Smith, Sidney (1850). The Settler's New Home: Or, Whether to Go, and Whither?. London: John Kendrick. p. 128. Retrieved 2009-05-27.. This discouraged emigration by noting that "'Gone to Texas' has become the proverb for a scamp#PPA674,M1
- ^ Thirty years' view; or, A history of the working of the American government for thirty years, from 1820 to 1850 (Vol. 1)Benton, Thomas Hart (1854), New York: D. Appleton and Company, p. 674
{{citation}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ South-Western Immigration Company (Austin, Texas) (1881). Texas: Her Resources and Capabilities. New York: E.D. Slater.. This encouraged migration to the state of Texas and remarked on the "slang use" of the term a "generation ago" to refer to fugitives from justice.
- ^ Niles' Weekly Register - April 9, 1836
- ^ "2018 Estimated Population of Texas, Its Counties, and Places" (PDF). Texas Demographic Center. December 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
Further reading
edit- Campbell, Randolph (2003). Gone To Texas - A History of the Lone Star State. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513843-0.
- Hughes, Thomas (1884). G. T. T. Gone to Texas: Letters from Our Boys. New York: MacMillan. Retrieved 2009-05-23.