One of the great quotes of all time was made by the Black American astrophysicist Neil Tyson when he said, “One of the great challenges in the world is knowing enough about a subject to think you’re right but not enough about the subject to know you’re wrong.”
This is certainly true about decades of historians, some of them white supremacists, and others just listening to lies and racial fiction about the fighting at the Alamo. One historian after another, including people from the time of 1836, falsely made up all sorts of stories when all of the major combatants in that small scrimmage were all killed. Worse, was the fact that many historians did not even try to get Mexican documents translated so that only a invented story could be manufactured.
The fact that Black Mexican soldiers fought against the slave owners was ignored. Santa Anna brought with him Black troops known as the “Free Black of Vera Cruz” in order to free Blacks along the long march across the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) and into northern Texas. Everywhere Santa Anna went he freed enslaved people. It stands to reason that the slave-owners would have hated him for this and the fact that he abolished the 1824 Mexican Constitution for it did not prevent slavery on Mexican territory. William Travis, the commander of the Alamo was a slave owner, slave trader, and a lawyer that filed lawsuits to return runaway slaves to their owners that had escaped to Mexico. Travis also abandoned his wife and children in Alabama before coming to Texas. James Bowie, the worst of the lot, was a con man, drunk, slave owner, slave trader, racist, and thief. David Crockett was a slave owner and killer of Native Americans. All of these so-called mythical heroes were nothing more than scoundrels bent on establishing a slave empire.
One of the reasons that the issue of slavery has been left out of the Alamo story is that one could argue it was America’s first war for slavery. The Tejano leaders, Juan Seguin and Jose Antonio Navarro, were also slave owners and this is the reason for their support of the Alamo defenders. Of course, the white supremacists of today are trying to take us back to the false history they want to spread. Many in the older generation of racially minded folks want to believe the ridiculous rendition of the Alamo story as seen in the 1960 John Wayne movie. This movie, which was made during the “Cold War,” led many a young man down the road to hero worship and death in an illegal war in Vietnam. This 1960 film, along with the 2004 Alamo film, was as much garbage as anyone can take. These movies made it seem that all 185 Alamo defenders died inside the Alamo. The actual fighting lasted only about 20 minutes not the hours that were lied about. Historical evidence reveals that 120 men ran from the Alamo, dying outside of the Alamo at the hands of Black Mexican troops (lancers). There is also evidence to show that Travis shot himself rather than being killed in fighting.
Approximately 19 people survived the Alamo. The Mexican Army freed the slave of Travis; “Joe” or “Ben” as he was called as they did with all blacks that were discovered after the fighting. Unfortunately, Joe was made to tell invented stories which whites wanted to hear and even after he did their bidding the Travis family would not free him from bondage.
