Part of the narrative of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo is that the defenders were there to liberate Texas from the tyranny of Mexico. Julin Castro and Jorge Ramos Team Up to Destroy Joe Biden on Immigration, Oh My Lord What a Shockingly Ruthless Attack on Joe Biden, Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine, Trump Pulls a Charlottesville and Says He Hates All Kinds of 'Supremacy'. A former slave was not likely to have an education or much of a job. In Section 9 of the General Provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas, it is stated how the new republic would resolve their greatest problem under Mexican rule: All persons of color who were slaves for life previous to their emigration to Texas, and who are now held in bondage, shall remain in the like state of servitude Congress shall pass no laws to prohibit emigrants from bringing their slaves into the republic with them, and holding them by the same tenure by which such slaves were held in the United States; nor shall congress have power to emancipate slaves.. The Alamo became a symbol of resistance to oppression and the Texas fight for freedom. 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. 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. On March 20 Joe was brought before the Texas Cabinet at Groce's Retreat and questioned about events at the Alamo. 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). Many of the defenders of the Alamo believed in independence for Texas, but their leaders had not declared independence from Mexico yet. But Texans are deeply divided over how, exactly, to remember the Alamo. San Antonio was built around it. Summary "Among the fifty or so Texan survivors of the siege of the Alamo was Joe, the personal slave of Lt. Col. William Barret Travis. Plaster is flaking off the walls of the nearly 300-year-old former Spanish mission, the most revered battle site in Texas history. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. The third big name at the Alamo, the commander of the force, William Barret Travis, had at least one slave with him, Joe. If they want to bring up that it was about slavery, or say that the Alamo defenders were racist, or anything like that, they need to take their rear ends over the state border and get the hell out of Texas, said Brandon Burkhart, president of the This is Freedom Texas Force, a conservative group that held an armed protest last year in Alamo Plaza. And of course, this leads to one of the great myths, which is the bravery of the Alamo defenders, how they fought to their death and everything. On how Mexican Americans were largely written out of Texas history. As a nonprofit newsroom, we rely on members to help keep our stories free and our events open to the public. Per The New Yorker, we know Davy Crockett owned slaves back home in Tennessee, though there's no record of his slaves accompanying him to Texas. The fort was on 3 acres of land and contained several buildings with cannons along the walls and on roofs. Mexico had in fact abolished slavery in 1829, causing panic among the Texas slaveholders, overwhelmingly immigrants from the south of the United States. explicitly said they were fighting for slavery. The battle cry of remember the Alamo later became popular during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. On March 1, 32 brave men from the town of Gonzales made their way through enemy lines to reinforce the defenders at the Alamo. If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe. "One of the reasons that it matters most is that Latinos are poised to become a majority in Texas, according to census data," he says. 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. The story, and the heroismof frontiersman Davy Crockett, was mythologized in movies and taught to schoolchildren. 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. 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. Matamoros in the 1840s had a large and flourishing colony of ex-slaves from Texas and the United States. The victory ensured the success of Texan independence: Santa Anna, who had been taken prisoner, came to terms with Houston to end the war. But the heart of their 26 fast-paced chapters is . 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. But city and state leaders are optimistic that the site will be recognized. 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. t. e. Contemporary slavery, also sometimes known as modern slavery or neo-slavery, refers to institutional slavery that continues to occur in present-day society. ThoughtCo. The original plan, announced in 2017, called for repairing the Alamo, fixing up the plaza and building a world-class museum for artifacts, including a collection donated by rock musician Phil Collins, an Alamo enthusiast. Then, there was a counter-story switching good guys and bad guysthe Americans were all racist, taking the Mexicans land. The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all . And yet it spoke to a certain cross section of American and international viewers. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Do you value our journalism? Perhaps it goes without saying but producing quality journalism isn't cheap. 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. The struggle over the Cenotaph ended in September when the Texas Historical Commission, a state board whose members are appointed by Gov. All that is known about Joe after the Alamo is that he was questioned by Santa Anna and then later questioned by the Texas Cabinet. 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. San Antonio was captured by rebellious Texans in December1835. The twenty-year-old Joe stood with his master, Lieutenant Colonel Travis, against the Mexican army in the early hours of March 6, 1836. Sam and Charlie disappear. 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. Santa Anna's forces included a mix of former Spanish citizens, Spanish-Mexican criollos and mestizos, and several indigenous young men sent from the interior of Mexico. They know they're coming and yet still they stay there. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. All of the leaders of Mexico, in itself only an independent country since 1821, were personally opposed to slavery, in part because of the influence of emissaries from the freed slave republic of Haiti. 22, 2021, thoughtco.com/facts-about-the-battle-of-the-alamo-2136256. A hearty man of six feet, Bowie was a walking contradiction; a slave trader who fought for freedom, a generous and congenial man who had his thunderous temper, and a commanding leader . Joe took cover and continued fighting until the battle was over, when he presented himself and, as a slave, his life was spared. 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? "It means people can live free. This tense situation was resolved by three events: the advance of a common enemy (the Mexican army), the arrival of the charismatic and famous Davy Crockett (who proved very skilled at defusing the tension between Travis and Bowie), and Bowie's illness just before the battle. In 1832, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna took control of the Mexican government. But Texans are deeply divided over how, exactly, to remember the Alamo. They and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas started a movement to rebuild the monument to its 1836 configuration. The story of the Alamo has been central to the "whole Texas creation myth," Burrough says. May 10, 202110 AM Central. It fits in nicely with a narrative that the United States has always been and continues to be dedicated to principles like individual responsibility and freedom. On how the 1960 John Wayne movie The Alamo perpetuated these myths. Along the way they crossed paths with another survivor, a man named Joe, who had been William Travis slave. "International travelers seem to use world heritage as a bucket list item," Richard Oliver, a spokesperson for the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau, told Fusion. James "Jim" Bowie (c. 1796March 6, 1836) was an American frontiersman, trader of enslaved people, smuggler, settler, and soldier in the Texas Revolution. Most of the survivors were women, children, servants, and enslaved people. On the myth that the Alamo defenders fought to the death. And of course, it doesn't happen. The Barista Express grinds, foams milk, and produces the silkiest espresso at the perfect temperature. Greg Abbott (R), voted to deny a permit to move it. But the truly perplexing thing is that in the two weeks leading up to the arrival of Santa Anna's forces in San Antonio, Travis and Bowie are getting almost daily warnings of the progress. 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. It was really the thing that more than anything, caused the Alamo to become the international icon that it's become. How much did 1776 have to do with race and . Elected leaders have talked for decades about redeveloping the Alamo complex, which lies in the heart of San Antonio, not far from the famous River Walk. Houston was indecisive, lacking a clear plan to meet the Mexican army, but by either chance or design, he met Santa Anna at San Jacinto on April 21, overtaking his forces and capturing him as he retreated south. As more slaves came into the Republic of Texas, more escaped to Mexico. Last summer, the Cenotaph was spray-painted with graffiti decrying white supremacy. 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. https://www.tshaonline.org, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/joe. 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. So, he set out to tell the story of the Alamo, a story that, he believes, belongs to all of us through the diversity of its defenders. and the Mexican army defended it in the battle of December 1835, when it was further damaged. As more slaves came into the Republic of Texas, more escaped to Mexico. Joe, slave of William B. Travis and one of the few Texan survivors of the battle of the Alamo, was born about 1813. https://www.history.com/topics/latin-america/alamo. Many myths and legends have grown about the Battle of the Alamo, but the facts often give a different account. This commentary derives from research conducted for The Other Side of the Alamo: Art Against the Myth, an exhibition at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center for San Antonio's Tricentennial in 2018, which was funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. But no one knows exactly how Joe got there. Furthermore, the brave defense of the Alamo caused many more rebels to join the Texan army. 15 Facts About the Battle of the Alamo. Historians estimate that one million slaves were taken in a . The only problem? Most slaves came to Texas with their owners, and the vast . In early 1836, a small group of Texas volunteers at the Alamoheld off the Mexican army for 13 days before being defeated (and executed). Bonham and the men from Gonzales all died during the battle. This is the most significant piece of land in the entire state of Texas, and it deserves the reverence and dignity of a preservation project that has been a generation in the making.. The decision could also enflame a decades-long debate over what the Texas fort symbolizes. A few of the survivors later gave chilling eyewitness accounts of the battle. Forget the Alamo: Race Courses as a Struggle over History and Collective Memory. They had been kidnapped from their homes and were forced to work on tobacco, rice, and indigo plantations from Maryland . Austin was able to wrest from the Mexican authorities an exemption for the department -- Texas was technically a department of the state of Coahuila y Tejas -- that would allow the vile institution to continue. 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. My view, which is shared by the vast majority of San Antonians and Texans, is that regardless of your feelings on the Cenotaph moving, its not moving. In 1883, the state of Texas purchased the Alamo, later acquiring property rights to all the surrounding grounds. 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. Perhaps the most well known Alamo survivor was Susanna Dickinson, wife of defender Almaron Dickinson, who spent the battle hiding in a small dark room with her infant daughter, Angelina. 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. Afterward, they fortified the Alamo, a fortress-like former mission in the center of town. You get a sense that Travis never really believes something bad can happen to him. But it was an exemption reluctantly given, mainly because the authorities wanted to avoid rebellion in Texas when they already had problems in Yucatn and Guatemala. The issue for the project has been that theres a lot of moving parts, and a lot of people who have tried to insert their version of history, he said. Every dollar helps. The report said enslaved people would have done the hard work, like sawing logs and moving stones,. Nolan Thompson, Come or go, buy or sell, drunk or sober, or however they choose." Between 1836 and 1840, the slave population doubled; it doubled again by 1845; and it doubled still again by 1850 after annexation by the United States. Handbook of Texas Online, 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. slavery was the driving issue in the showdown at the Alamo. 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. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher | Spotify. hide caption. The Cenotaph at Alamo Plaza in San Antonio. The 4.2-acre site includes some original structures dating back to the mission period. The first time the story appeared in print was in 1888, in Anna Pennybackers' "New History for Texas Schools." Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/facts-about-the-battle-of-the-alamo-2136256. 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. It represented a rare alliance between the states Republican leadership and one of its more liberal cities, with San Antonio committing $38 million to the budget and the state of Texas pitching in $106 million. He was listed as a resident of Harrisburg in May 1833. Because the western part of the state is mostly desert, most Coahuilans live in the cool, moist eastern highlands. Joe traveled with one of the widows, Susanna Dickinson, and her young daughter, to the other Texian forces. That left at least $200 million to be raised through donations. Todd Hansen, editor of The Alamo Reader, found an account of Bettie staying with the Mexican troops at first, but later working as a servant and fleeing to Mexico to avoid being enslaved again in Texas. Under the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress Sign up for our newsletter and receive the mighty updates! 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. On that day, accompanied by an unidentified Mexican man and taking two fully equipped horses with him, he escaped. 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. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, a womens organization including descendants of the earliest Texan residents, has managed the Alamo since 1905. He annulled the constitution and set up centralist control. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. By 1835, there were 30,000 Anglo-Americans (called Texians) in Texas, and only 7,800 Texas-Mexicans (Tejanos). On April 21, 1836, Sam Houston and some 800 Texans defeated Santa Annas Mexican force of 1,500 men at San Jacinto (near the site of present-day Houston), shouting Remember the Alamo! as they attacked. There were 41 Europeans, two African Americans, and the rest were Americans from states in the United States. 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. The following year, the family acquired 200 acres (80 ha) along the Red River. However, he left on family matters leaving Lt. Col. William Travis (a ne'er-do-well and enslaver who had no military reputation before the Alamo) in charge. 3" on the balcony of Ashton Villa: . They told us how glorious that battle was. In 1619, the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia, one of the newly formed 13 American Colonies. 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. In the summer of 1821, Stephen Austin arrived in San Antonio along with some 300 U.S. families that the Spanish government had allowed to settle in Texas. Meanwhile, Alamo Plaza became a focus of San Antonios Black Lives Matter protests. Part of the problem with the historical record is that slaves weren't necessarily accounted for by name. 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. Joe was the slave of William B. Travis, the commander of the Alamo during Mexican dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Annas siege of the Texian fort. In the early 20th century, the Alamo was seen as a symbol of Texas pride and Americans fighting for freedom. The site is much bigger than just the 1836 battle, he said. 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. One wrinkle in the nomination is that the U.S. hasnt been paying its dues to UNESCO since the agency recognized Palestine as a state in 2013, which means the U.S.doesnt have voting rights on this or any other world heritage decisions. Though exact numbers do not exist, as many slaves may have escaped to Mexico as escaped through the more famous underground railway to Canada. We know that there were slaves within the Alamo fortress for the 13-day siege that resulted in the death of the entire garrison. Share your thoughts about this episode on Twitter at: @MandoFun and on our Facebook group. We need your support because we are a non-profit organization that relies upon contributions from our community in order to record and preserve the history of our state. 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. 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. meticulously detail what happened at the Alamo and within the broader Texas Revolution. Texas authorities later returned Joe to the Travis estate, but he escaped to freedom barely a year later. 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. To download your free audiobook today go to audibletrial.com/MandatoryFun. The plan itself is much more than a single monument, Nirenberg said in an interview. The idea was to make the plaza period neutral and help visitors imagine how the Alamo looked as a mission and fort. 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. But three writers, all Texans, say the common narrative of the Texas revolt. Some men reportedly deserted the Alamo and ran off in the days before the battle. Under the plan, the Cenotaph would be moved 500 feet south and deposited in front of the historic Menger Hotel. And even Crisp, the historian who emphasizes the complicated narratives of the fort, said he agrees it deserves world heritage status. accessed March 04, 2023, Generations of Texas schoolchildren have been taught to admire the Alamo defenders as revolutionaries slaughtered by the Mexican army in the fight for Texas independence. . Houston defeated the Mexican army in just 18 minutes. Roberta Shorrock and Joel Wolfram produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Santa Anna. Although Texas declared itself an independent republic in 1836, the Mexican state did not recognize Texas until the signing of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The social, economic, and legal positions of enslaved people have differed vastly in different systems of slavery in different times and places. Democratic elected officials in San Antonio want the Alamo story to be told from other perspectives. Matamoros in the 1840s had a large and flourishing colony of ex-slaves from Texas and the United States. The official commander of the Alamo was James Neill. Section 9 of the General Provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas, Biden Should Remove Cuba from List of State Sponsors of Terrorism, Descendants of Slaveholder Donor Denounce Law School Name Change, How Social Media and Community Schools Could Fill in Gaps Teaching Black History, American Girl Dolls Declare the 1990s Ancient History, Review: DeSantis's Book is a Campaign Tome Written by ChatGPT, Reconsidering Phillis Wheatley's Place in the Revolutionary Era, Philosopher Lewis Gordon's Impact on Black Jewish History, Quintard Taylor's Black Past Project Fights Erasure of History, Review: The Unfinished Business of "Double V", One Reason to Confirm National Archivist Fast?