The Untrue Alamo

Be Careful Who You Claim as A Hero! Various state governments do not want us to know the truth about fictional heroes. Texas is trying to do just that by trying to outlaw Black History. Just because someone claims that some historical figure was a good guy does not make it so. This is the case with Texas President Sam Houston and his less than humane views that were unfortunately defended by the mythologists. Sam Houston became the president of the Republic of Texas in the days when slavers were leaving Tennessee to escape anti-slavery activity in the eastern part of that state. In looking at the troubles in Tennessee today, with Black state Representatives being removed by a racialized state government, it stands to reason that the hatred from the past has been maintained there. The Tennessee “volunteers,” like David Crockett, who came to Texas to expand slavery, brought their racist hatred with them. Sam Houston, born in another slave owning state, Virginia, owned approximately 12 slaves and kept all of them except for those that escaped. This Texas Alamo history is ignored.
Fortunately, enslaved Black men escaped from Sam Houston and went into freedom in Mexico. On the surface, Sam Houston seemed tormented, if one is to believe that he was a “good slave owner,” (I have never understood what a good slave owner is, unless they freed them) for like many racialized whites of his day he could not reconcile the norms of a racist society with his desire to act in humane ways. He was not a man above the times, but one brainwashed by the times. On the one hand, Houston was said to educate his slaves and treat them more humanely than other slave owners, but this flies in the face of the fact that Houston adamantly opposed the abolition of slavery. One can only wonder what kind of education provided to enslaved people. Calling Sam Houston’s slaves “trusted servants” was but another way to sugar-coat the horrible institution of slavery. Treating slaves nice does not erase the fact they were not free to leave. In Texas, we ought to remove his name from any institution that bears it for his mythical status only adds to the array of false white supremacist history. Furthermore, a review of the reasons for his opposing Texas secession from the Union had little to do with any opposition to slavery. A better explanation is that Sam Houston was a master politician, speaking out of both sides of his mouth while hiding his true intentions.
One enslaved man of Sam Houston was named Joshua. Joshua was owned by one of the many wives of Sam Houston, Margaret Lea. One must be careful about putting a human face on slavery by focusing on individual slaves. What Joshua was told about the freedom that awaited runaways in Mexico was not enough for him to surrender any desires of leaving his racist master. He was either fearful of the unknown or totally corrupted with Texan lies. Houston would be wounded by an arrow at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend with the “Red Stick Creeks,” a battle in which fetuses from native women would be used to decorate the horses of Andrew Jackson’s troops. Did Joshua know of this or was he too brainwashed to care? Joshua had to witness the selling of a long-time slave woman of Houston named Charlotte. Unlike Joshua she was true to her spirit of freedom and was eventually sold off to another slave owner. Joshua seems to have accept his imprisonment and degradation. He was a man stuck in the times.
When Houston became governor, he forced his slave to sleep in the stables with the manure and smell of animals. Joshua would not be freed until the Juneteenth announcement in 1865. Joshua Houston made a better life for himself after slavery and seems to have regained self-dignity given his contributions to his community. Some enslaved Black people lost their dignity and spirit while enslaved. One of Houston’s slaves named Jeff Hamilton was so self-identified with his master that he wanted to be buried at Sam Houston’s feet. This is what slavery did to human beings—it destroyed their dignity. They lost their identity and never knew who they really were. It was ethnocide in its truest form.
Of Alamo history, James Bowie, perhaps the worst of the lot, was a con man, drunk, slave owner, slave trader, racist, and thief. Bowie was born in Kentucky in 1796, but spent most of his life in Louisiana. In 1820, Kentucky had approximately 126,000 slaves while Louisiana had about 70,000. Bowie owned, sold, and traded human beings. American slavery essentially began in Texas in 1821, when slave owners and pro-slavery men arrived with a sizeable number of slaves which grew to over 400 by 1825. They planted their hatred on Mexican soil. The Austin clan was the original guilty party—Moses Austin and his son Stephen F. Austin came specifically to fasten the institution of slavery upon Mexican territory. This is not an opinion, but fact.
Another famed member of the Alamo hero roll call was David Crockett. Crockett was a slave owner and killer of Native Americans in Alabama at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1813. Interestingly, David Crockett and Sam Houston were there serving with the most racist president Andrew Jackson. At Horseshoe Bend, Crockett experienced the doomed strategy of fighting behind an enclosed structure against overwhelming odds as the Creek fighters were massacred and their corpses (body parts) used to decorate horses, hats, and belts. It makes sense, that Crockett’s words at the Alamo, “I think we had better march out and die in the open air. I don’t like being hemmed up” would indicate that he was perhaps one of the ones who tried to run while escorting runners outside the Alamo. Over one hundred Alamo defenders ran and did not die inside the Alamo.
Numerous accounts reveal that some 62 Alamo defenders ran from the Alamo with another group of 50 or so, and a smaller contingent it seems apparently followed Crockett’s “call.” Those that reported the escapees were completely ignored for decades for one simple reason—racism. During the time of the Alamo, it was often said that one white man could kill 10 Mexicans. Using this racial math would mean that 185 Alamo defenders killed 1,850 Mexicans—the false stories about killing of thousands of Mexican troops at the Alamo clearly comes from this racist mathematical formula. Only 300 Mexican soldiers died at the Alamo and about half of that number tied from friendly fire. In tracing racist history, remember, supposedly “heaps” of Mexican bodies were said to be surrounding Crockett! This in no way can be construed that Crockett killed them. His body may have been dragged there or the bodies around him killed by others. This did not stop the bizarre leap of concluding that Crockett killed those in the “heap.” This willy-nilly logic extended over into racial myths and was evident in the words of Travis. According to Jack Cohen, at the University of the Incarnate Word, “William B. Travis wrote in May 1835 that if the Mexicans murdered the captive Stephen F. Austin, ‘a thousand of their contemptible ‘red skins’ shall be sacrificed to his name.” This was ill-placed bluster in its most ridiculous form and outright racism to boot.