he was known as "Sam". After graduating in 1825, Maverick returned to Pendleton and apprenticed under his father to learn business affairs. For the next year, his father deeded him land, and on February 4, 1826, he made his first land purchase, acquiring half a lot in Pendleton. In 1828, Maverick traveled to Winchester, Virginia, to study law under Henry St. George Tucker, Sr. He became licensed to practice law in Virginia on March 26, 1829, and several weeks later he received his license to practice in South Carolina. He soon established a law practice in Pendleton. The following year he ran for a seat in the South Carolina legislature, advocating for a peaceful resolution to the tariff problem and against nullification. This was not a popular strategy, and Maverick placed 9th out of 13 candidates, gathering 1,628 votes. Maverick relocated to Georgia in early 1833, where he unsuccessfully ran a gold mine. He returned home at the end of the year. On January 24, 1834, he left Pendleton for Lauderdale County, Alabama, taking 25 of his father's slaves to operate a plantation his father had given him. They arrived in March. Later that year his widowed sister, Mary Elizabeth, moved to Alabama to live near him with her three children. Maverick did not enjoy running a plantation, primarily because he did not like supervising slaves. On March 16, 1835, he left Alabama to go to Texas. Texas Revolution Maverick took the brig Henry from New Orleans and arrived at Velasco, at the mouth of the Brazos River, in April 1835. His interest in Texas extended back almost ten years, as in 1826 he noted in his journal that Stephen F. Austin had received a land grant and that Mexico was quickly being settled. When he arrived, there were fewer than 30,000 people living in the territory, which was then part of Mexico. Maverick immediately set out to buy land, making his first purchase on May 20. To officially transfer the title, Maverick had to go to San Felipe, and he spent the next several months traveling up and down the Brazos River from San Felipe looking for more land to buy. After recovering from a bout of malaria, Maverick journeyed to the drier climate of San Antonio, which was surrounded by large swaths of unclaimed land. Fifteen days after arriving in San Antonio he began buying large tracts of