Juan Davis Bradburn: A Reappraisal of the Mexican Commander of Anahuac

Margaret Swett Henson examines the actions of John Davis Bradburn, an American-born man whose early involvement in filibustering brought him to the Mexican state of Coahuila-Texas and won him Mexican citizenship in the Mexican army. Although he was branded as an arrogant, unprincipled tyrant by Anglo Texans of his time and later historians for his 1832 arrest of William Barret Travis, Henson concludes that Bradburn was simply doing his duty as a Mexican career officer. Winner of the Summerfield G. Roberts Award, when it was first published in 1982, this provocative revisionist look at a Mexican official long vilified in Texas gives a new perspective on specific events involving Juan Davis Bradburn. It also helps to explain early stages of the Texas war for independence in terms of the refusal of Anglo settlers to accept the "un-American" laws and customs of Mexican Texans. MARGARET SWETT HENSON (1942--2001) was a prolific Texas historian who served as a fellow and president of the Texas State Historical Association.