As Americans, we have been taught to believe in the historical myth of The Alamo, rather than the reality. Few Americans are aware that the rebels who died defending The Alamo to KEEP SLAVERY ALIVE IN TEXAS! They weren’t the legendary folk heroes we’ve been led to believe. They were defending the Alamo from the Mexican army, not for any noble cause, but defending slavery.
That is the reality.
Texas was technically a “department” in the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas at the time. Mexico had only recently gained its independence – in 1821 – and all of its leaders were fundamentally opposed to the idea of slavery.
When Mexico outlawed slavery in 1829, it caused a panic among the Texas slaveholders – made up primarily of white settlers from the slave-owning South. So they sent Stephen Austin, the “Father of Texas” to Mexico City to complain to the authorities. Austin was able to negotiate a temporary exemption for the department that would allow the vile institution of slavery to continue for the time being.
The exemption was only reluctantly granted by the Mexican government; mainly because they wanted to avoid rebellion in the region – but as far as they were concerned, the exemption was only a temporary measure – and the settlers in Texas also knew it.
Eventually, the Texas rebels succeeded in breaking away from Mexico and establishing an independent Republic, and slavery took off as an institution.
The Mexican Army sent in to put down the rebellion in December 1835 had explicit orders to free any slaves that they encountered, and so they did. The only person spared in recapturing the Alamo was Joe, the personal slave of General William Travis.
Many of those defending the Alamo were slaveholders, and some of them weren’t even Texans: they were mercenaries paid by New Orleans slave traders who saw the potential for big profits if the state seceded.
Confederates like Jim Bowie, William Travis and Davey Crocket certainly aren’t the fucking heroes they’re cracked up to be in American history books. They died fighting to keep slavery ALIVE.
Don’t forget it.
Those insurrectionists should be remembered as the traitors and the slavers they were. We should be celebrating their demise instead of glorifying them as some sort of folk heroes! What kind of bullshit country is this?
The slave population doubled in Texas between 1836 and 1840. It doubled again by 1845, and it had doubled again by 1850, following annexation by the United States. Texas later entered The Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. At the time there were 182,566 slaves in Texas; nearly one-third of the state’s population.
But of course, the unwashed masses aren’t entitled to know the real history of our country, so we must forever remain ignorant of the atrocities committed on our behalf. Instead, we get the fantasy; an alternate, fact-free history. Hollywood instead of education.
Americans get indoctrination.
The “heroes” who defended The Alamo no doubt thought they were doing their ‘patriotic’ duty, just like the current batch of traitors in Trump’s death cult.
Remember the Alamo, indeed.