Alamo Celebrations a Farce: Slavery was the Central Reason

The comparison of the Battle of the Alamo to the Battle of Thermopylae is a farce that any rookie historian can prove. The Spartan 300 that supposedly fought long enough to delay a Persian army is simply not true. The Spartans in that battle had the help of thousands of soldiers from various tribes, something the Greeks ignored and lied about for many years. This is myth building at its best. The Battle of the Alamo and the reasons for the Texas myth center around two clear cut reasons; white supremacy and slavery. The central issue in the Alamo battle and the fight for “Texas independence” was slavery. This is ignored or treated in a biased manner. Perhaps the Express News did not want to offend the Daughters of the Republic or the white supremacists that hold the Alamo as a shrine in an editorial last week. But it doesn’t surprise me. The fight for Texas independence was a fight for slavery and an attempt to create a slave empire in Texas. The entire hullabaloo about the 175th anniversary is just more of the same false stories that have been bandied about for years. The Alamo is a shrine alright; a shrine to slavery. Those who believe that all of the Alamo defenders clashed with Mexican soldiers in a brave “last stand” will attempt to deny the data that Dr. Phillip Tucker masterfully mined and provides in his new book, Exodus from the Alamo: The Anatomy of the Last Stand Myth (2010). Even during the time of the battle, Benjamin Lundy wrote that the battles in Texas against Mexico was a “Slave holder rebellion.”
Benjamin Lundy, a white anti-slavery advocate, told of the true nature of the Battle of the Alamo during this period and referred to it as a “slave holder rebellion.” Lundy’s book, “The War in Texas.” provides genuine evidence that Texas slave owners were not fighting for freedom, but to protect their institution of slavery. Lundy’s writings provide valuable insight into the real causes of Texas independence and the myths created to justify the occupation, slave state status, and the eventual stealing of Mexican lands. Before you think you know something about the Alamo read Lundy’s work! Dr. Tucker reveals that the Alamo heroes did not expire defending the Alamo walls to the last man is some sort of Spartan manner, but in fact many of them died running from the walls leaving some of their comrades behind to die. Were they running or simply trying to escape to fight another day? We don’t know that for sure, but the myth about an absolute “last stand” is completely false. The reenactment at the 175th anniversary was Hollywood baloney at its best!
Historical documents mined by Dr. Tucker reveal that approximately sixty-eight men ran from the Alamo at the southeastern corner and headed toward the Gonzalez Road (now East Commerce Street). According to Tucker’s research, they were ambushed by black Vera Cruz lancers near the area of the present day River Center Mall and into the St. Paul Square area on present day East Commerce Street. These black Mexican lancers killed all of these “escapees,” and the some fifty-two others that left out of the southwestern wall, apparently trying to make it to safety toward Gonzalez, Texas. The “last stand” never happened as explained by the myth makers at the 175th anniversary, and most of the Alamo defenders died outside of the walls and not inside in some last stand. This would mean that generations have been told racial lies about the Alamo defenders, and it makes sense given the central reason for stealing Mexican lands was the issue cotton and slavery.
Slave owning interests were shocked and in total fear that the Mexico would outlaw slavery and their lucrative cotton trade. This fear was made every more evident by the decree of Mexican President Vicente Guerrero who abolished slavery in 1829. Guerrero’s actions sent shock waves through an Anglo community that was organized around cash cotton sales that was harvested by free slave labor. Wealthy white planters were livid upon hearing that their organization of slavery was in jeopardy. All of this was threatened by a Mexican government that abolished slavery many years before it was finally abolished in the United States.
Interestingly, black lancers that killed the Alamo defenders that were on the run killed them with lances made and developed by the Moors, one of the groups that inhabited the eastern side of the San Antonio River since the arrival of the first Canary Islander families, and who occupied Spain for over seven hundred years. Canary Islanders were racist. They came to San Antonio with a racist caste system that segregated black Canary Islanders form lighter-skinned Spaniards. Many lighter-skinned Canary Islanders (Tejanos) believed in slavery and hence their dislike for Santa Anna and the decree by the Afro-Mexican president Vicente Guerrero in 1829 that abolished slavery. Juan Seguin and Antonio Navarro were slavery supporters and that is why these Tejanos supported the racialized whites that believed in slavery. These Tejanos were traitors to the cause of freedom for slaves and should not be celebrated any more than the pro-slavery warriors that took Mexican land.
When Mexico abolished slavery this sent the slave owning racialized Texans into mayhem. Tucker provides economic figures and data on the cotton agricultural system that provided cash for planters. Settlers came by the thousands to establish a slave country, but first Mexican lands had to be taken. Clara Driscoll’s words in 1900 reveal the true nature of slave owning interests when she says, “Men . . . were dying like martyrs to free this glorious state from tyrannical Mexican rule.” I find her words false, especially since Texas became the center of tyrannical rule against African Americans and Native Americans. In the years after the Alamo there was no freedom except for whites as proven by the fact that Texas entered the United States as a slave state in 1845!