On the myth that the Alamo defenders fought to the death. Joe claimed that when Gen. Antonio Lpez deSanta Anna's troops stormed the Alamo on March 6, 1836, he armed himself and followed Travis from his quarters into the battle, fired his gun, then retreated into a building from which he fired several more times. James W. Russell, University Professor of Sociology at Eastern Connecticut State University, is the author most recently of Escape from Texas: A Novel of Slavery and the Texas War of Independence. One of the points that often gets lost amid the flag-waving and coonskin caps is that by the time of the Texas Revolution, Mexico had abolished slavery, and Texas hadn't. Mexican forces were victorious in . The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. Meanwhile, issues of race and slavery at the Alamo remain unresolved. battle cry while fighting against Mexican forces in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. All Rights Reserved. Meanwhile, the Alamo had been under siege for days, and it fell early on March 6, with the defenders never knowing that independence had been formally declared a few days before. The third big name at the Alamo, the commander of the force, William Barret Travis, had at least one slave with him, Joe. Some heroes of the Texas Revolution were enslavers, a neglected piece of history that has helped stall a badly needed overhaul of the revered battle site. By 1835, there were 30,000 Anglo-Americans (called Texians) in Texas, and only 7,800 Texas-Mexicans (Tejanos). They told us how glorious that battle was. It has been used just anecdotally for generations to put down Mexican Americans, a big beefy white guy going up to the little Mexican guy and punching him in the arm and saying, "Remember the Alamo," that type of thing. But city and state leaders are optimistic that the site will be recognized. There is no evidence Davy Crockett went down fighting, as John Wayne famously did in his 1960 movie The Alamo, a font of misinformation; there is ample testimony from Mexican soldiers that. It was just that the place was overrun. Joe traveled with one of the widows, Susanna Dickinson, and her young daughter, to the other Texian forces. Santa Annas army arrived in San Antonio in late February1836. By 1835, there were 30,000 Anglo-Americans (called Texians) in Texas, and only 7,800 Texas-Mexicans (Tejanos). But as the smoke cleared after the bloody battle, around 15 survivors of the battle on the Texan side remained. But then you have to understand: The Texas revolt, for 150 years, was largely ignored by academics, in part because it was considered dclass, it was considered provincial, and because the state government of Texas, much as they're doing now, has for 120, 130 years, made very clear to the University of Texas faculty and to the faculty of other state-funded universities that it only wants one type of Texas history taught and that if you get outside those boundaries, you're going to hear about it from the Legislature. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger and over 2,000 federal troops arrived at Galveston Island to take possession of the state and enforce the two-year-old Emancipation Proclamation.There, he proclaimed his "General Order No. The Mexican armies that entered the department to put down the rebellion had explicit orders to free any slaves that they encountered, and so they did. Even without trying, people of color tended to fade into the obscurity of history. By the time of annexation a decade later, there were 30,000; by 1860, the census found 182,566 slaves -- over 30% of the total population of the state. As the Alamo was under siege in March 1836, the convention of Texans that voted for independence selected Houston as commander-in-chief of . On April 15, the city council voted to go forward with a new plan that leases much of the plaza to the state for at least 50 years and leaves the Cenotaph in place. Trevio, who represents much of central San Antonio, said his push to move the Cenotaph had been aimed at telling a more inclusive story. He also supported carving into the monument the names of enslaved people and Tejanos native Texans of Mexican descent who were present at the 1836 battle. For many years afterward, the U.S. Army quartered troops and stored supplies at the Alamo. by Richard Webner, The Washington Post Furthermore, the brave defense of the Alamo caused many more rebels to join the Texan army. Their accounts provided much of the backbone of what was known about the Alamo. The city has read more, In March 1836, Mexican forces overran the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, achieving victory over those who had declared Texas independence from Mexico just a few weeks earlier. But those plans have always presented logistical challenges the Alamo is owned by the state, while the adjoining plaza is owned by the city as well as ideological ones. "Republic. In early 1836, a small group of Texas volunteers at the Alamo held off the Mexican army for 13 days before being defeated (and executed). Someof the men defendingthe Alamo were slaveholders, and manyof them werent even Texans: they were Americans paid by New Orleans merchants who saw the potential for big profits if the state seceded. The Cenotaph at Alamo Plaza in San Antonio. The Alamo became a symbol of resistance to oppression and the Texas fight for freedom. When I grew up I learned that the heroes of the Alamo were a bunch of drunks and crooks and slaveholding imperialists who conquered land that didnt belong to them. Crockett's fate is unclear. They had been kidnapped from their homes and were forced to work on tobacco, rice, and indigo plantations from Maryland . Although slavery was part of the Texas revolution, it wasnt one of the main issuesrevolutionaries were fighting for. [Wayne] made the movie basically because he wholeheartedly believed that America was falling apart, that it was going to the dogs and that somebody needs to stand up for what are today called "patriotic values," "family values," "American values." Forget the Alamo: Race Courses as a Struggle over History and Collective Memory. Thats how we came to know of Joe just Joe, any other names he had are lost to history now. We know that there were slaves within the Alamo fortress for the 13-day siege that resulted in the death of the entire garrison. Afterward, they fortified the Alamo, a fortress-like former mission in the center of town. "It means people can live free. But they remained, trusting their defenses and their skill with their lethal long rifles. Under the plan, the Cenotaph would be moved 500 feet south and deposited in front of the historic Menger Hotel. He reported the events" Historians are doubtful. There were 41 Europeans, two African Americans, and the rest were Americans from states in the United States. "The stunning discovery that Joethe slave of Alamo commander William Barret Traviswas the brother of the abolitionist William Wells Brown has opened an entirely new chapter in the history of Texas. Whether he fell in battle or was captured and executed, Crockett fought bravely and did not survive the Battle of the Alamo. And the surrounding plaza is a tourist circus, packed with novelty shops and a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. Did anyone at the Alamo survive? The Pena Perspective. Spanish settlers built the Mission San Antonio de Valero, named for St. Anthony of Padua, on the banks of the San Antonio River around 1718. "15 Facts About the Battle of the Alamo." Courtesy Texas Historical Commission Joseph, an enslaved person, was one of a handful of survivors at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Even though the Texans were fighting against a certain kind of tyranny, they were also fighting for an independent republic where slavery was legal, Crisp told Fusion. To an amazing degree, maybe because the Texas media [are] still dominated by Anglos as well as the Texas government, that viewpoint has just never really gotten into the mainstream. You have to remember that this city is predominantly Hispanic. It perpetuates every hoary Alamo myth. It was the site of numerous protests from Latino rights groups in the '70s and '80s, led by activists like Rosie Castro, a leader of La Raza Unida and the mother of former San Antonio Mayor and potential future Vice President Julian Castro. Sam, James Bowie's slave, was also reported to have survived the battle, but no further record of him is known to exist. But he adds it's past time to look critically at the "heroic Anglo narrative" associated with the site. (Creeks, Choctaws, and . Bush and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg threw their political muscle behind reviving the project. The Mexican forces also suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of the Alamo, losing between 600 and 1,600 men. 4. The Tejanos, who were the Texians' key allies and a number of which fought and died at the Alamo, were entirely written out of generations of Texas history [as it was] written by Anglo writers. Enrique Esparza, son of Alamo defender Gregorio Esparza, told of how Mexican troops fired a hale of bullets into the room where he was hiding alongside his mother and three siblings. Slaves could not be imported. As the defenders of the Alamo were about to sacrifice their lives, other Texans were making clear the goals of the sacrifice at a constitutional convention for the new republic they hoped to create. Subscribe: At a time when Confederate flags have sparked controversy around the U.S., some wonder why a fort defended by whites fighting Mexicans for the right to own slaves deserves international recognition. A band of badly outnumbered Texans fought against oppression by the Mexican dictator Santa Anna, holding off the siege. In 1825, it finally became the permanent quarters for a garrison of men, under the direction of Anastacio Bustamante, the captain general of the Provincias Internas. Now, neither we nor the academic authors who first found this say that this means anybody was a coward. Joe, the Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend recovers a true American character from obscurity and expands our view of events central to the emergence of Texas"-- Provided by publisher. Some historians believe slavery was the driving issue in the showdown at the Alamo, arguing that Mexicos attempts to end slavery contrasted with the hopes of many white settlers in Texas at the time who moved to the region to farm cotton. A color guard carries flags from each state that lost people in the battle of the Alamo March 6, 2001 during the Annual Memorial Service at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. Indeed, an enslaved man named Joe, who was owned by Travis, survived the battle of the Alamo and became one of the primary sources of information about the 13-day siege, inspiring dozens of books and movies, including the John Wayne classic. This is their journey. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, a womens organization including descendants of the earliest Texan residents, has managed the Alamo since 1905. The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all . Texas became an independent republic, and nine years later, it was annexed as an American state. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). The only person spared in the retaking of the Alamo was Joe, the personal slave of William Travis. In addition to Joe, slaves Bettie, Sam, and Charlie left the Alamo alive. . Rice had placed a $50 reward for Joe's capture. In December of 1835, a group of Texan volunteer soldiers had occupied the Alamo, a former Franciscan mission located near the present-day city of San Antonio. As more slaves came into the Republic of Texas, more escaped to Mexico. Along the way they crossed paths with another survivor, a man named Joe, who had been William Travis slave. On how the 1960 John Wayne movie The Alamo perpetuated these myths. Did you know? There have been references to Joe over the years, particularly his eyewitness account of the battle, but only recently have researchers uncovered a significant amount of his history for the 2015 book Joe: The Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend, by Ron J. Jackson and Lee Spencer White. Cook was waiting to go to medical school when he discovered Joes story and was compelled to write about the Alamo. https://www.tshaonline.org, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/joe. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, people were kidnapped from the continent of Africa, forced into slavery in the American colonies and exploited to work in the . On the eve of the Civil War, which Texas would enter as a part of the Confederacy, there were 182,566 slaves, nearly one-third of the states population. One of these was Susannah Dickinson, the wife of Captain Almaron Dickinson (who was killed) and her infant daughter Angelina. Did he die free? This detailed timeline of Mexican history explores such themes as the read more, Mexico City, Mexicos largest city and the most populous metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere, is also known as Distrito Federal, or the federal district. Fannin had decided that the logistics of reaching the Alamo in time were impossible and, in any event, his 300 or so men would not make a difference against the Mexican army and its 2,000 soldiers. There were four people enslaved at the Alamo where we know their names : Joe and Bettie (enslaved by William Travis); "Tom", who may have been Bowie's servant, and "Charlie", about whom nothing is known. The story, and the heroismof frontiersman Davy Crockett, was mythologized in movies and taught to schoolchildren. In point of fact, there's large disagreement about how many men Travis commanded at the fort, anywhere from 182-250. Nearly half of the board members of the nonprofit raising funds for the Alamo renovation resigned in protest raising doubts about where the rest of money would come from. As a part of that debate, which has been ongoing since the publication of the 1619 Project, the nation's founding has come under the most scrutiny. The historic movement carried thousands of enslaved people to freedom. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! By mid-February 1836, Colonel James Bowie and Lieutenant Colonel William B. Travis had taken command of Texan forces in San Antonio. It still surprises me that slavery went unexamined for so long. Dickinson and Joe were allowed to travel towards the Anglo settlements, escorted by Ben, a former slave from the United States who served as Mexican Colonel Juan Almonte's cook.
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