Law of April 6, 1830

The Law of April 6, 1830 was issued because of the General Mier y Terán Report. The Law of April 6, 1830 angered many Mexicans, Tejanos, and Anglos alike in Texas. This decree placed a severe halt on American immigration to Mexico. The Texians wanted the 1824 General Colonization Law (Constitution of 1824) to be restored.

In 1827 and 1829, the United States offered to purchase Mexican Texas.

Both times, President Guadalupe Victoria declined to sell part of the border state. After the failed Fredonian Rebellion in east Texas, the Mexican government asked General Manuel Mier y Terán to investigate the outcome of the 1824 General Colonization Law in Texas. In 1829, Mier y Terán issued his report, which concluded that most Anglo Americans tried to isolate themselves from Mexicans. He also noted that slave reforms passed by the state were being ignored.

Almost all of Mier y Terán's recommendations were adopted in a series of laws passed on April 6, 1830 under President Anastasio Bustamante.

The law explicitly banned any further immigration from the United States to Texas, inclusive of any new slaves. Settlement contracts were brought under federal rather than state control, and colonies that did not have at least 150 inhabitants would be canceled. Provisions of the law were designed to encourage Mexican citizens to move from the interior to Texas. Mexicans who agreed to relocate to Texas would get good land, free transportation to Texas, and some financial assistance. Convicts would be sent to Texas to build fortifications and roads to stimulate trade.

Other parts of the law were targeted at those already living in Texas. Bustamante rescinded the property tax law, which had exempted immigrants from paying taxes for ten years. He further increased tariffs on goods entering Mexico from the United States, causing their prices to rise.

The ban and other measures did not stop U.S. citizens from migrating to Texas by the thousands, and by 1834, it was estimated that over 30,000 Anglos lived in Texas, compared to only 7,800 Mexicans.

In regard to slavery, influential settler Stephen F. Austin, who reasoned that the success of his colonies necessitated free slave labor, and the economics it produced in order to lure more whites to the area, used his relationships to get an exemption from the law. Therefore, slavery remained in Texas until the end of the Civil War.

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