15. Reality vs Mythology at the Alamo
As the Battle of the Alamo neared its end, the Mexican commander issued an ultimatum: surrender or die. Travis drew a line in the dirt with his sword, and asked the men to choose their fate: surrender, or cross the line and join him in a fight to the death. To a man, they crossed the line. There’s no evidence that ever happened, and we know that the defenders did not fight to the last man. When it became clear that the battle was lost, about half the Alamo’s defenders tried to escape, only to get run down and killed in the open by Mexican cavalry. Nor did Davy Crocket fight to the end, as depicted by John Wayne. He surrendered, and was subsequently executed. Also, for generations, scholars tiptoed around an uncomfortable aspect of the Alamo and Texas Revolution myth of a noble fight for freedom against tyranny: slavery.
In the 1980s, scholars finally researched the relevance of slavery to the Texas Revolution. Their findings demonstrated conclusively that the main issue that drove a wedge between the American immigrants and the Mexican government was slavery. Mexican law prohibited slavery, and the American immigrants wanted to bring and maintain slaves on Mexican soil. All the Mexican governments that held power before the Texas Revolution were dedicated abolitionists. By contrast, many American immigrants to Texas wanted to farm cotton on its virgin soil, and wanted to do it with slaves. Stephen F. Austin, “the Father of Texas”, argued for years that slaves were necessary for Texan prosperity. In correspondence with Mexican bureaucrats in 1832, for example, he wrote: “Nothing is wanted but money, and negroes are necessary to make it“. The main “freedom” fought for at the Alamo was the freedom to own slaves.
