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. 8 Things You Might Not Know About Daniel Boone - HISTORY Democratic elected officials in San Antonio want the Alamo story to be told from other perspectives. A band of badly outnumbered Texans fought against oppression by the Mexican dictator Santa Anna, holding off the siege. Its just that not everyone inside the Alamo died that day. 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. 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. Now, neither we nor the academic authors who first found this say that this means anybody was a coward. On March 1, 32 brave men from the town of Gonzales made their way through enemy lines to reinforce the defenders at the Alamo. A popular historical anecdote is the design of the famous M1 carbine by convicted murderer David Marshall Williams. None of the defenders survived. But they remained, trusting their defenses and their skill with their lethal long rifles. [Mexican Gen. Antonio Lpez de] Santa Anna is coming north with 6,000 troops. And thats whats missing right now in our society, is the nuance.. Houston's men were the first to shout. Meanwhile, Alamo Plaza became a focus of San Antonios Black Lives Matter protests. It still surprises me that slavery went unexamined for so long. Meanwhile,some conservatives balk at the idea of the UN getting involved in this icon of Texas pride. Furthermore, the brave defense of the Alamo caused many more rebels to join the Texan army. Remember the Alamo? A battle brews in Texas over history - Travel 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. In a remarkable feat of historical detective work, authors Ron J. Jackson, Jr., and Lee Spencer White have fully restored this pivotal yet elusive figure to his place in the American story. The others are slavery and its role in the Civil War, and the white man's dealings with Native Americans. Did Davy Crockett Die in Battle at the Alamo? 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. and the Mexican army defended it in the battle of December 1835, when it was further damaged. The Alamo, and its overlooked history of slavery, could be - Splinter They ran out into the open where they were unceremoniously run down and killed by Mexican cavalry. 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. 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. In 1845, the United States annexed Texas. The movie, most reviewers would tell you, is a mess. Not until the late 1890s did two women, Adina De Zavala and Clara Driscoll, collaborate to preserve the Alamo. 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. "Republic. And of course, it doesn't happen. He annulled the constitution and set up centralist control. 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. Meanwhile, historians argue that support for slavery was indeed a motivating factor for the Texas Revolution, a fact that should be acknowledged at the site, even if it tarnishes some giants of Texas history. Afterward, they fortified the Alamo, a fortress-like former mission in the center of town. How much did 1776 have to do with race and . For the Texans, the Battle of the Alamo became a symbol of heroic resistance and a rallying cry in their struggle for independence. The victory ensured the success of Texan independence: Santa Anna, who had been taken prisoner, came to terms with Houston to end the war. Among them was Susanna W. Dickinson, widow of Capt. All Rights Reserved. The Battle of the Alamo: Unfolding Events, 8 Important People of the Texas Revolution, Biography of William Travis, Texas Revolution Hero. According to Texas lore, it's the site in San Antonio where, in 1836, about 180 Texan rebels died defending the state during Texas' war for independence from Mexico. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/joe. 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. 9 'Facts' About Slavery They Don't Want You to Know When the din of the fighting died down and the Mexicans firmly controlled the fort, Joe was shot and bayoneted, only to be saved by a Mexican field officer. Biography of James 'Jim' Bowie, American Frontiersman - ThoughtCo Cook was waiting to go to medical school when he discovered Joes story and was compelled to write about the Alamo. 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. But three writers, all Texans, say the common narrative of the Texas revolt. The remains of William Travis, David Crockett and James Bowie are entombed in a marble coffin at San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas. The only problem? It's generally believed that Joe left Texas to return to Travis's family in Alabama and lived with them for many years. Some 600 Mexican soldiers died in the battle, compared to roughly 200 rebellious Texans. 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. The whole Remember the Alamo cry was the reason Texas was bornits a true and great symbol of how Texas came to be., When asked about the Alamo's history of slavery, Oliver said thatits not something we dwell on.". (Creeks, Choctaws, and . Many myths and legends have grown about the Battle of the Alamo, but the facts often give a different account. He was born around 1815. They know they're coming and yet still they stay there. 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. Show us with your support. Fugitive Slave Acts, in U.S. history, statutes passed by Congress in 1793 and 1850 (and repealed in 1864) that provided for the seizure and return of runaway slaves who escaped from one state into another or into a federal territory. Paul D. Lack, "Slavery and the Texas Revolution," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 89 (July 1985). When events become legendary, facts tend to get forgotten. International recognition would mean increased tourism and potential UN support for upkeep. Did anyone at the Alamo survive? "So if there's ever been a time for there to be a robust civic conversation about this, about the place of the Alamo in our history, about Texas history itself, we hope it was now. Some men reportedly deserted the Alamo and ran off in the days before the battle. What Happened To The Slaves At The Alamo. Subscribe: A $450 million plan to renovate the site has devolved into a five-year brawl over whether to focus narrowly on the 1836 battle or present a fuller view that delves into the sites Indigenous history and the role of slavery in the Texas Revolution. The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. 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. Known simply as Joe, he was sold four times in his life, most notably to his third master, Colonel William Barret Travis. Christopher Minster, Ph.D., is a professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. 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). 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. Key members of the states GOP leadership and some conservative groups are insisting that the renovation stay focused on the battle. The attack on the Alamo in 1836 was not a 13-day siege and slaughter as often portrayed in film and television. San Antonio was built around it. battle cry while fighting against Mexican forces in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. 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. accessed March 04, 2023, Portrait of Jim Bowie, circa 1820. Its one of the most famous historic places in the world, he said. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. 15 Facts About the Battle of the Alamo. 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. Every day during the siege, the defenders of the Alamo looked for Fannin and his men but they never arrived. Casey Tolan is a National News Reporter for Fusion based in New York City. 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. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. On how the 1960 John Wayne movie The Alamo perpetuated these myths. Signup today for our free newsletter, Especially Texan. Most slaves came to Texas with their owners, and the vast . On March 20 Joe was brought before the Texas Cabinet at Groce's Retreat and questioned about events at the Alamo. 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. Joe, the Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/facts-about-the-battle-of-the-alamo-2136256. Protests have become less common in the past few decades, as the city made an effort to include more of the contested histories in its educational material. Joe was last reported in Austin in 1875. 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. Although Dickinson would eventually be sought out as an important witness, says Houston Public Media, Joe slipped away. After the battle, Mexican troops searched the buildings within the Alamo and called for any Blacks to reveal themselves. In the early 20th century, the Alamo was seen as a symbol of Texas pride and Americans fighting for freedom. The official commander of the Alamo was James Neill. In their fascinating new book, "Joe: The Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend," Ron L. Jackson Jr. and Lee Spencer White fill in the biographical details of a man who deserves credit for . Mexican forces were victorious in . 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. Joe was taken into Bexar, where he was detained. The Mexican government was opposed to slavery, but even so, there were 5000 slaves in Texas by the time of the Texas Revolution in 1836. 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. When Mexican troops stormed the former mission known as the Alamo on the morning of March 6, 1836, Mexican General Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna ordered that no prisoners be taken. The fort was full of women, minorities of many color, and followers of many religions. 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. There were many native TexansMexican nationals referred to as Tejanoswho joined the movement and fought every bit as bravely as their Anglo companions.