Alamo Offers Lesson for Black History Month

by

John J. Dunphy

Originally published in the 2/15/20 edition of The Telegraph of Alton, IL)

We should expect snowstorms this August. Trump gave me an idea for a Black History Month column while delivering his State of the Union address.

“This is the country where children learn names like Wyatt Earp, Davy Crockett, and Annie Oakley,” The Donald said. “This is the place where pilgrims landed at Plymouth and where Texas patriots made their last stand at the Alamo — the beautiful, beautiful Alamo.”

Whether the Alamo is indeed beautiful is a matter of one’s personal aesthetic taste. However, I will take issue with The Donald’s interpretation of the Alamo’s defenders, which included the aforementioned Davy Crockett. In the first place, the defenders of the Alamo mission in what is now San Antonio, TX referred to themselves as “Texians,” not Texas patriots. The residents of the present-day state of Texas referred to themselves as Texians during the Texas Revolution.

The Alamo certainly was the scene of a “last stand,” as Trump put it. Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis and the other defenders of the mission numbered fewer than 300. Santa Anna led a Mexican army of at least 1,800. The Alamo was stormed and easily taken. Santa Anna had ordered that the mission’s defenders be shown no mercy. A few men who attempted to surrender were killed. The fallen were bayoneted to make certain they were dead.

As a child, I watched the Disney presentation “Davy Crockett,” which depicted that burly, coonskin cap-wearing frontiersman journeying to Texas because “freedom was fightin’ another foe an’ they needed him at the Alamo,” as the lyrics of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” put it. But was the Texas Revolution really about freedom? Not at all. The Texians rose in revolt because they wanted a Republic of Texas in which slavery was forever protected under the law.

Spain finally recognized Mexico’s independence in 1821, and this new nation abolished slavery in 1829. Mexico allowed Americans to settle in Texas but made it clear that, after 1830, they couldn’t bring their slaves with them. That didn’t sit well with slaveholders who wanted to bring the Peculiar Institution to Texas in perpetuity. This desire to create a white supremacist nation where slavery couldn’t be abolished fueled the Texas Revolution.

Trump cited Davy Crockett as an American our schoolchildren should study. Crockett, who dared to oppose President Andrew Jackson’s forced relocation of Indian tribes, was a paragon of virtue compared to Bowie and Travis. Both owned slaves. Bowie had even worked as a slave trader. While Travis and Bowie were killed defending the Alamo, Santa Anna’s army spared the lives of the slaves they had brought to the mission with them.

The Texas Revolution of 1835–1836 created the Republic of Texas. Its constitution ensured that this nation would be a white-supremacist state. Section 6 of its General Provisions stated that “All free white persons who shall emigrate to this Republic” could be become citizens after residing in Texas for six months, taking an oath that they intended to remain permanently in the nation and swearing to support its constitution.

Section 9 of this constitution allowed immigrants to bring their slaves into Texas and ensured these slaves “shall remain in a state of servitude.” Section 9 also stipulated that “No free person of African descent, either in whole or in part, shall be permitted to reside permanently in the Republic, without the consent of Congress.” The Texas congress was denied the power to abolish slavery and no slaveholder could “emancipate his or her slaves, without the consent of Congress.” Section 10 limited citizenship to whites. “All persons, (Africans, the descendants of Africans, and Indians excepted), who were residing in Texas on the day of the Declaration of Independence, shall be considered citizens of the Republic.”

The Alamo defenders died fighting for the establishment of a white supremacist nation. My respect is reserved for those who die fighting for freedom and equality.

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John J. Dunphy is the author of Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois and Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials: The Investigative Work of the U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group, 1945–1947.