Problems with the Alamo Story: The Facts are Ignored

No one can honestly say that slavery had nothing to do with the Alamo when Whites were expected to respect slavery and the supposed inferiority of nonwhites. But they are trying with the way Alamo funds being spent to create a museum across the street from the Alamo. Recent criticism of this effort has revealed that a concerted effort in under way to continue telling the false stories about the Alamo. During the time of the battle for Texas independence, 1836, and the cause to enshrine slavery upon Mexican territory, white supremacy was already ingrained into the minds of Texas settlers. These “White” immigrants were told they could become wealthy with a few acres of land and a few slaves. They bum rushed the Mexican border to get here and this was the central reason they came to Texas in the first place. We can only guess if the real Alamo story will be told in this proposed museum, or will the old lies continue the falsehoods we were told for years. We are finally beginning to get solid research on the fight for Texas independence and its central relationship to slavery. Let us look at the evidence.
Before David Crockett ended up at the Alamo he was a commander in the Tennessee Militia in 1813, who participated in the killing of Creek Indians in Alabama. Crockett fought the Creek Nation and their Black allies in an effort to drive Native Americans from their ancestral homes, and to restore escaped Black slaves living with native people to plantation owners. Crockett was under the command of Andrew Jackson, and according to many, Jackson was one of the most atrocious defenders of racist destiny in history. Crockett assisted Jackson in his campaign to annihilate the Black and Red people wherever they could be found. In 1826, Crockett would become involved in hauling slaves on ships in Louisiana.
The formula for honestly looking at the Alamo story is racism plus myth equals the false Alamo story. At the time, popular imagination, coupled with racism, would solidify myths that racialized historians printed in dozens of books that were taught as if these falsehoods were fact. There are dozens of ignored or erased facts and invented stories about the war in Texas so that creative stories were combined with myth and hatred. This mix of falsehoods ignores historical facts. For example, James Bowie was a major slave owner and slave trader. Bowie succeeded in creating problems that resulted in a fragmented joint command structure as a result of trying to seek a surrender option with Santa Anna, as well as releasing prisoners that Travis had court-martialed. Additionally, there was never a line drawn in the sand, a racist named William Zuber most likely invented that myth, nor was there a Black slave woman named Emily Morgan (Emily West was actually her real name and she was a free woman) having a sexual relation with Santa Anna.
There is plenty of evidence to prove that the Texas fighters for independence from Mexico were racist bigots. In a letter to Henry Clay, David G. Burnet, an interim president of Texas in March of 1836, and while serving with vice-president of the Republic, said, “The causes which have led to this momentous act are too numerous to be detailed in a single letter, but one general fact may account for all; the utter dissimilarity of character between the two people, the Texians and the Mexicans. The first are principally Anglo Americans; the others a mongrel race of degenerate Spanish and Indians more depraved than they.” Burnet said that all of the problems confronting Anglos were the “mongrel” Mexicans—“mongrel” meaning a dog of no definite bred. The use of the racial slur “mongrel” is quite telling as to the spread of this racist rhetoric among the Texas immigrants. Stephen F. Austin also chimed in with this racially loaded word when he said that the war was carried out by a “mongrel Spanish-Indian and negro race, against civilization and the Anglo-American race.” Calling Mexican dogs, greasers, and other slurs has been the accepted norm, and still rears its ugly head from time to time. No one in their right mind can deny these facts and what they strongly imply.
We are not out of the racist woods yet, there is more. Colonel William B. Travis was no hero at all. He was a lawyer that often-found ways to sue Mexican authorities to have runaway slaves returned to their masters in Louisiana. These actions proof the pro-slavery intent of Travis as Mexico had abolished slavery, while Mexico was not about to return Black slaves to their masters. Mexico’s open policy of accepting runaway slaves made that country an underground railroad. Stephen F. Austin, Moses Austin’s son, lived to fulfill the establishment of a pro-slavery colony. When Austin returned to New Orleans, to publish the terms of colonization, he would be traveling to a pro-slavery business area that was controlled by smugglers of human beings. Stephen F. Austin also participated in the genocidal campaign against the Native Americans of Texas, and would in 1823 ask the Mexican government to legalize slavery. Though Austin appeared to be anti-slavery at various times, his true intentions were revealed in 1833 when he declared consistently that, “Texas must be a slave state.”