Alamo Book; clear eyed look

[springfield art]

"Exodus From The Alamo; Anatomy of The Last Stand Myth by Phillip Thomas Tucker, Casement Publishers 2010. A very interesting look at the reality of the Alamo events, without the mythical Disney and John Wayne movie versions. Required reading for the Alamo enthusiast, well documented references.

 

[tenngun]

Will look it up

 

[Eutycus]

Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

 

[springfield art]

It just all makes sense. There was no water well in the Alamo. Many of the guys were sickly. There simply was no relationship to the Disney/John Wayne, and the recent movie. The powder was bad. Rifled long guns took too long to reload to fend off a charge. etc., etc. Read it and keep an open mind. The settlers wanted "independence" for Texas so they could continue slavery, which Mexico had outlawed. Never mentioned in the Disney series.

 

[Eutycus]

Will see if our local library can get me a copy, it sounds interesting.

 

[tenngun]

It just all makes sense. There was no water well in the Alamo. Many of the guys were sickly. There simply was no relationship to the Disney/John Wayne, and the recent movie. The powder was bad. Rifled long guns took too long to reload to fend off a charge. etc., etc. Read it and keep an open mind. The settlers wanted "independence" for Texas so they could continue slavery, which Mexico had outlawed. Never mentioned in the Disney series.

Alamo happened before Texan Decleration of independence. While Mexico did outlaw slavery it never touched the slaves in Texas.
The rebellion was against the dictatorship of Santa Anna, and his setting aside the constitution of 1824.
The flag that flew over the Alamo was the Mexican flag.
We see the issue of slavery as a great evil today, but slaves were just another piece of property then.
It wasn’t an issue for the Alamo defenders
Out of the eleven states that joined the confederacy twenty five years later Texas was number ten in population of slaves, out of the four million American slaves less then two hundred thousand were in Texas. Even by 1836, fifteen years after the original three hundred slavery was a low profit economic resource in Texas.

 

[Eutycus]

Only the Eastern part of Texas and small parts in the southerly and westerly direction were suitable for cotton growing plantations.You just didn't put slaves on horseback in ranching country and expect them to remain loyal. You'd be minus a horse and a slave.

 

[Eutycus]

Runaway slaves in the Old South got word that they could head North toward freedom. This soon grew into the Underground Railroad. The slaves in Texas eventually got the idea that since slavery was outlawed in Mexico they'd get their freedom there too. There soon became a "branch" of the Underground Railroad across Texas into Mexico.

 

[Eutycus]

I think alot of us Texans realize there are myths about the Alamo, we just don't want to or can't bring ourselves to admit it.

 

[BillinOregon]

Some very interesting reviews of this book on Amazon.

 

[Absaroka]

Santa Anna repealed the Mexican Constitution of 1824, which stated the Texans were exempt from any taxes or government services, which also included defense. The Texans basically governed themselves. Texas was originally opened up for settlement to provide a buffer between Mexico and attacks by the Comanche. In 1830 the Mexican Congress passed a law that no more Americans could immigrate to Texas. Mexico also sent convict troops to police the area and enforce the law , which didn't go over well with the Texans.

 

[Absaroka]

There were some early Texans that had slaves, but most didn't. Those early Texans arrived by ship and landed on the Texas coast. Some were able to trade for horses but most walked to the Gonzales area, which I believe is around 100 miles, their only possessions were what they could carry. There were no friendly tribes in that immediate area to trade with, but deer and turkey were everywhere so no one went hungry. They learned to make clothing from deer hides. In the book "Tall Men With Long Rifles", by James T. DeShields, it describes the men that showed up to defend the Come and Take It cannon. They were wearing buckskins and fur hats, all ready for a fight.

 

[tenngun]

Only the Eastern part of Texas and small parts in the southerly and westerly direction were suitable for cotton growing plantations.You just didn't put slaves on horseback in ranching country and expect them to remain loyal. You'd be minus a horse and a slave.

Lincoln’s platform that drove the south to leave the union was the desire to prevent slavery in the new territories
But really where could it had expanded too?
Texas was the last frontier

 

[Eutycus]

Depending on what map you look at there is kind of a circle formed by the Deep South,Florida, Cuba, the Yucatan, Mexico, and Texas. Could groups such as the Knights of the Golden "Circle" have had their eyes on that? Had to have Texas to complete the circle.

 

[tenngun]

Depending on what map you look at there is kind of a circle formed by the Deep South,Florida, Cuba, the Yucatan, Mexico, and Texas. Could groups such as the Knights of the Golden "Circle" have had their eyes on that? Had to have Texas to complete the circle.

That’s a trueism, but that’s 1860, near forty years since the settlement of Texas and near twenty-five years after the revolution.
Any move on Cuba would have been war with Spain.
War with Mexico was a tough road in 1846, the south would be hardly prepared for war even if Lincoln had let them go in ‘61
A Golden Circle I THINK was more of a discovered geographic idea formed when the anti slavery rhetoric really started heating up. Even with Manifest Destiny ideas of the 1840s the US didn’t conquer Mexico,
I THINK Houston and some others were dreaming of a new Western nation with Sam at the head, a new Washington as early as 21 or 22, but I THINK most Texas settlers were just the same as Iowa and Kentucky settlers, just looking to build a life in the wild
Patriotism at tge time was very local, and switched loyalty with the roll of tge wagon wheel.

 

[springfield art]

People need to clear their heads of the stories we've been told from childhood and accept the realities of the way things happened back in historical times.

 

[Eutycus]

People need to clear their heads of the stories we've been told from childhood and accept the realities of the way things happened back in historical times.

Yeah but I'd like to hang on to a few of them.

 

[Darto]

Revisionist historians want to reshape our understanding of things in the past, to make it fit in with their more modern sensibilities. Agenda driven.

 

[Sam squanch]

Only the Eastern part of Texas and small parts in the southerly and westerly direction were suitable for cotton growing plantations.You just didn't put slaves on horseback in ranching country and expect them to remain loyal. You'd be minus a horse and a slave.

This exact thing happened in northern Argentina. Too many black gauchos ran off to live the wild life. The remaining ones were freed and paid wages to stay, as they were desperately needed in the ranches.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

The big flaw in all historical writings is that they are written by the victors and anything written by the losers is destroyed, or in modern term "canceled". Look at what's happening in America today. In another generation the old South will have never existed except for the evils it condoned. All dreamed up by the victors. For those of us who are of Yankee descent, to quote Pogo: