An Excerpt from Texas Got It Right!:
The first thing you’ve gotta know about the word maverick is that it’s got only two syllables: MAV-rick. The second thing is that the word maverick comes from a Texan, Samuel August Maverick. A land baron, businessman, scrappy independence fighter, and canny politician, Sam Maverick fit the definition of the word coined from his family name…
In 1842, after Texas had become an independent nation, Maverick, along with fifty-five other Texans, was captured by Mexican troops and led on a forced march to a Veracruz prison. From South Carolina, Maverick’s father negotiated with the Mexican government for his son’s release, which the Mexicans made conditional on Maverick’s swearing an oath of allegiance to the Mexican re-annexation of Texas. Maverick refused.
Then, with no explanation, the Mexicans released him and two other prisoners in March 1843. Maverick returned to San Antonio triumphant, carrying his prison shackles as a souvenir. By the time of his death in 1870, Maverick had become the model of a true Texan: loyal to the people he was elected to serve, and loyal to Texas, his own promised land, a place he deemed worth fighting and dying for…
Read more about Samuel Maverick in Texas Got It Right!