One of the more obnoxious perspectives, in the eyes of many Texans, is Col. Jose Enrique de la Pea's purported eye-witness account of the way Davey Crockett and other heroes of the Alamo met their deaths. 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 . Every dollar helps. The defenders of the Alamo, as brave as they may have been, were martyrs to the cause of the freedom of slaveholders, with the Texas War of Independence having been the first of their nineteenth-century revolts, with the American Civil War the second. [Mexican Gen. Antonio Lpez de] Santa Anna is coming north with 6,000 troops. [2] Contents 1 Early life Santa Anna ordered his men to take no prisoners, and only a small handful of the Texans were spared. 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. A popular telling of the battle holds that in early 1836 a small group of brave Texans defended the mission-fort known as the Alamo against thousands of Mexican soldiers, knowing it meant certain death. May 10, 202110 AM Central. Bowie was known as a legendary fighter; the large Bowie knife is named after . On February 23, a Mexican force comprising somewhere between 1,800 and 6,000 men (according to various estimates) and commanded by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began a siege of the fort. San Antonio was captured by rebellious Texans in December1835. "The Alamo is a symbol of greatness to some people; to others it's a symbol of Anglo dominance that is a dark side of our history," says Scott Huddleston, a veteran reporter covering the Alamo. Not until the late 1890s did two women, Adina De Zavala and Clara Driscoll, collaborate to preserve the Alamo. After the battle, Mexican troops searched the buildings within the Alamo and called for any Blacks to reveal themselves. In the end, it would not be enough. The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all . And for many years, it has not felt like its seen itself in that story.. By 1835, there were 30,000 Anglo-Americans (called Texians) in Texas, and only 7,800 Texas-Mexicans (Tejanos). 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. Did he die free? He annulled the constitution and set up centralist control. 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. 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. On February 23, a Mexican force numbering in the thousands and led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began a siege of the fort. Mexican general Santa Anna appeared in short order at the head of a massive army and laid siege to the Alamo. "Slavery was the undeniable linchpin of all of this," author Bryan Burrough says. They might be considered as servants, or not considered at all. Because of Joe, a slave, we can remember as much as we do about the Alamo. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. As a nonprofit newsroom, we rely on members to help keep our stories free and our events open to the public. The early depictions of Texas history was good guys against bad guys, white guys against brown guys, democracy against tyranny, Crisp said. Joe traveled with one of the widows, Susanna Dickinson, and her young daughter, to the other Texian forces. A notice offering fifty dollars for his return was published by the executor of Travis's estate in the Telegraph and Texas Register on May 26, 1837. The Battle of the Alamo during Texas war for independence from Mexico lasted thirteen days, from February 23, 1836-March 6, 1836. Another survivor was a former Mexican soldier named Brigido Guerrero, who fought with the defenders but apparently escaped death by convincing the Mexicans he had been taken captive. These defenders, who despite later reinforcements never numbered more than 200, included Davy Crockett, the famous frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee, who had arrived in early February. We'll send you a couple of emails per month, filled with fascinating history facts that you can share with your friends. What we now know is because Mexican accounts accounts from Mexican officers and soldiers a number of them, a dozen of them have come to light over the last 50 years, show that between a third and a half [of] the Texas defenders actually broke and ran. The mayor of San Antonio, however, claimed to have seen Crockett dead among the other defenders, and he had met Crockett before the battle. Portrait of Jim Bowie, circa 1820. The battle cry Remember the Alamo! became a symbol of victory in future battles, when the Texans defeated the Mexican army. Its a common misconception that the Texans who rose up against Mexico were all settlers from the U.S. who decided on independence. Some controversy and debate has surrounded the exact number and their identity, but most were wives, children, servants and slaves whom the Alamos defenders had brought with them into the mission for safety after Santa Annas troops occupied San Antonio. The Alamo is the cradle of Texas slavery, and a host of other oppressions. Dont get me wrong the defenders of the mission-turned-fortress were killed en masse as Mexican troops stormed the structure. The idea was to make the plaza period neutral and help visitors imagine how the Alamo looked as a mission and fort. The Mexican forces also suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of the Alamo, losing between 600 and 1,600 men. Bush and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg threw their political muscle behind reviving the project. To some, the Alamo, the San Antonio fort where Texans died while fighting off the Mexican army, is a symbol of liberty and Texas pride. ThoughtCo, May. Even without trying, people of color tended to fade into the obscurity of history. International recognition would mean increased tourism and potential UN support for upkeep. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Sometimes we try so hard to create perfect heroes, and in trying so hard to create perfection, we force ourselves into a corner where its difficult to accept the reality that people are not perfect, said Carey Latimore, a history professor at Trinity University. It includes recently discovered facts about William Travis, Susana Dickinson, Davy Crockett, and Joe himself. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. You get a sense that Travis never really believes something bad can happen to him. Its just that not everyone inside the Alamo died that day. The exemption was, in their minds, a temporary measure and Texas slaveholders knew that. The Mexican government, for its part, encouraged the slave runaways, often with offers of land as well as freedom. Renovations to the Alamo have previously been stalled due to similar conversations over the sites legacy and the role of slavery in the Texas revolution.. About half of the men there were not enlisted soldiers, but volunteers who technically could come, go, and do as they pleased. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry. It makes absolutely no sense of why they stayed there, except for the fact that these are men who, by and large, have never been in war. These men included famed frontiersman Davy Crockett and inventor of the Bowie knife, James Bowie, who was confined to bed but still managed to . Perhaps it goes without saying but producing quality journalism isn't cheap. All Rights Reserved. The Alamo has been commemorated on everything from postage stamps to the 1960 film The Alamo starring John Wayne as Davy Crockett. A United Nations committee is expected to announce this weekend whether the Alamo will receive UNESCO World Heritage status, putting it in the same league as Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal, and the Statue of Liberty. The twenty-year-old Joe stood with his master, Lieutenant Colonel Travis, against the Mexican army in the early hours of March 6, 1836. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. But Texans are deeply divided over how, exactly, to remember the Alamo. But aspects of the plan quickly met with outrage, especially its treatment of the Cenotaph, a 56-foot monument to Alamo defenders erected in the plaza in 1940. The Battle of the Alamo was part of the Texas Revolution, in which American settlers in the Mexican state of Texas fought for secession fromthe increasingly centralized and autocratic Mexican government. On April 21, 1836, at the Battle of San . Mexican American kids can grow up in Texas believing they're Americans, with the Statue of Liberty and all that, until seventh grade when you were taught, in essence, that if you're Mexican, your ancestors killed Davy Crockett, that that's kind of the original sin of the Texas creation myth. His first book, called And when you look at the facts, they never made a conscious decision to fight to the death. Until now. But they remained, trusting their defenses and their skill with their lethal long rifles. A 2013 BexarCounty reportpredicted a $100 million benefit to the local economy and more than 1,000 new jobs if the sites receive heritage status. There's also some evidence that at one point in his later years he returned to Texas and perhaps even visited the old fortress where he nearly died. Then, there was a counter-story switching good guys and bad guysthe Americans were all racist, taking the Mexicans land. 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. Houston sent Jim Bowie to San Antonio: his orders were to destroy the Alamo and return with all of the men and artillery stationed there. 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. He was listed as a resident of Harrisburg in May 1833. By and large, any time you've had any type of Latino voice come out and question the traditional Anglo narrative, they've been shouted down. he Alamo Cenotaph, also known as the Spirit of Sacrifice, is a monument in San Antonio, Texas, United States, commemorating the Battle of the Alamo, which was fought at the adjacent Alamo Mission. In early April 1836, Santa Anna had the structural elements of the Alamo burned, and the site was left in ruins for the next several decades, as Texas became first a republic, then a state. Roberta Shorrock and Joel Wolfram produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Texas became an independent republic, and nine years later, it was annexed as an American state. ", On how Texas history often fails to address slavery. Both sides included prominent Mexican citizens. Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. 4. Sam and Charlie disappear. The others are slavery and its role in the Civil War, and the white man's dealings with Native Americans. Rather, what is surprising is that some men snuck into the Alamo in the days before the fatal attack. In 1883, the state of Texas purchased the Alamo, later acquiring property rights to all the surrounding grounds. He observed a grand review of the Mexican army before being interrogated by Santa Anna about Texas and its army. Click on the photo for complete transcription. Every other day they send off these plaintive, dramatic letters asking for reinforcement that, by and large, never came. Did you know? Some men reportedly deserted the Alamo and ran off in the days before the battle. In 1829, the Mexican government outlawed the practice, specifically to discourage that influx since it was not an issue there. 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. The Alamo remained a symbol of courage, and in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, U.S. soldiers revived the "Remember the Alamo!" History Early History Signup today for our free newsletter, Especially Texan. Families were often split up by the sale of one or more members, usually never to see or hear of each other again. Mexico abolished slavery in 1829, as History tells us, but made some exceptions in Texas for instance, slaves whose master had died with no heirs would be freed (providing they hadn't actually killed their masters, though who could blame them?). The movie, most reviewers would tell you, is a mess. Under the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress Sign up for our newsletter and receive the mighty updates! The siege of the Alamo was memorably depicted in a Walt Disney series and in a 1960 movie starring John Wayne. Indigenous leaders, for example, want the site to show respect for its ancient role as a burial ground. And in the end, Santa Anna lost the war, going down in defeat within six weeks. And even Crisp, the historian who emphasizes the complicated narratives of the fort, said he agrees it deserves world heritage status. The Alamo Battle Was Not About Texan Independence, The Texans Weren't Supposed to Defend the Alamo, Photograph Courtesy of the Library of Congress, The Defenders Experienced Internal Tension, The Defenders Died Believing Reinforcements Were on the Way, There Were Many Mexicans Among the Defenders. Joe escaped to Mexico on two stolen horses. For Texans, the Battle of the Alamo became an enduring symbol of their resistance to oppression and their struggle for independence, which they won later that year. "Republic. Legendary frontiersman Jim Bowie, suffering from a debilitating illness, asked to be carried over the line. The church was still not completed when it was transferred to civil authorities in 1792. But if Northeasterners can be excused for embracing a somewhat fuzzy notion of abstract liberty, the symbolism of the Alamo has always been built upon historical myth. Yes. On March 20 Joe was brought before the Texas Cabinet at Groce's Retreat and questioned about events at the Alamo. Such is the case with the fabled Battle of the Alamo. Plaster is flaking off the walls of the nearly 300-year-old former Spanish mission, the most revered battle site in Texas history. On April 21, 1836, during Texas war for independence from Mexico, the Texas militia under Sam Houston (1793-1863) launched a surprise attack against the forces of Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (1794-1876) at the Battle of San Jacinto, near present-day Houston, read more, A country rich in history, tradition and culture, Mexico is made up of 31 states and one federal district. . Jim Bowie, the famous knife fighter and all-around badass (look up The Sandbar Fight sometime) made a tidy sum dealing in slaves in the years before the Alamo, says Smithsonian, and brought at least two with him into the fort, a man named Sam and a woman named Bettie. "15 Facts About the Battle of the Alamo." Democratic elected officials in San Antonio want the Alamo story to be told from other perspectives. 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. Immigrants to Texas usually came from the South and brought slaves with them to work their agricultural enterprises, says History News Network, but if slavery was outlawed? Matamoros in the 1840s had a large and flourishing colony of ex-slaves from Texas and the United States. Joe was on the wall with Travis during the final battle and saw Travis die. While fighting alongside Travis and the other defenders, Joe was shot and bayoneted but lived, becoming the only adult male on the Texan side to survive the Alamo. The areas main farm read more. Joe did so and was struck by a pistol shot and bayonet thrust before a Mexican captain intervened. The Battle of the Alamo was part of the Texas Revolution, in which American settlers in the Mexican state of Texas fought for secession from the increasingly centralized and autocratic Mexican government. This famous story shows the dedication of the Texans to fight for their freedom. Although nearly everyone at the Alamo was killed or captured, Texas achieved independence when Sam read more, Coahuila, one of Mexicos major steel producers, straddles the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains. It was on March 2, 1836, that delegates meeting in Washington-on-the-Brazos formally declared independence from Mexico. General Sam Houston felt that holding San Antonio was impossible and unnecessary, as most of the settlements of the rebellious Texans were far to the east. But Texans are deeply divided over how, exactly, to remember the Alamo. Last year, Patrick threatened to wrest control of the Alamo away from the General Land Office, which is led by George P. Bush, a potential political rival and son of former Florida governor Jeb Bush. I mean, the idea that Mexican soldiers would show up and kill them all just seems like a notion that he never really accepted, that somehow something would happen to spirit them all the way to safety. A former slave was not likely to have an education or much of a job. Along the way they crossed paths with another survivor, a man named Joe, who had been William Travis slave. 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. Visitors walk around the outside of the Alamo in San Antonio. explicitly said they were fighting for slavery. According to legend, fort commander William Travis drew a line in the sand with his sword and asked all of the defenders who were willing to fight to the death to cross it: only one man refused. [The Alamo defenders have] maybe 200 guys at essentially an indefensible open-air Spanish mission. SAN ANTONIO The Alamo needs a makeover; on that, at least, everyone agrees. James "Jim" Bowie (c. 1796March 6, 1836) was an American frontiersman, trader of enslaved people, smuggler, settler, and soldier in the Texas Revolution. ThoughtCo. Lieutenant Travis sent repeated requests to Col. James Fannin in Goliad (about 90 miles to the east) for reinforcements, and he had no reason to suspect that Fannin would not come. At the time of Bowie's birth, his father owned eight enslaved African Americans, eleven head of cattle, seven horses, and one stud horse. Some 600 Mexican soldiers died in the battle, compared to roughly 200 rebellious Texans. At a time when newsroom resources and revenue across the country are declining, The Texas Tribune remains committed to sustaining our mission: creating a more engaged and informed Texas with every story we cover, every event we convene and every newsletter we send. Show us with your support. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. In early March, Nirenberg took the unusual step of replacing a city council member, Roberto Trevio, who had been leading two committees coordinating the project and had been staunchly in favor of moving the Cenotaph. Two and a half million people visit the Alamo each year where, according to its website, men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom, making it hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty.. Though vastly outnumbered, the Alamos 200 defenderscommanded by James Bowie and William Travis and including the famed frontiersman Davy Crockettheld out for 13 days before the Mexican forces finally overpowered them. Not everyone in the fort was killed. He was born around 1815. Slaves could not be imported.