Velasco Is Where Two Texas Treaties Were Signed

After the Texan victory at San Jacinto, the loose ends were tied up at Velasco, on the lower Brazos in what is now Brazoria County. On May 14, 1836, ad interim president David G. Burnet and the captured Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna signed two agreements there.

The public treaty ended hostilities and called for Mexican forces to withdraw beyond the Rio Grande. A second, secret agreement tied Santa Anna's release to a promise that he would push Mexico to recognize Texas independence. It did not hold — on May 20 the government in Mexico City declared void everything Santa Anna had done as a prisoner, and Mexico would not recognize the border until 1848.

Keep the story in mind the next time you look at a map of the lower Brazos. Velasco, now part of the Freeport area, was not a footnote to the revolution; it was where the paperwork was signed. For the treaty text and the fuller account, see the Texas State Historical Association or the Texas State Library.