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Davy Crockett is fondly remembered as the king of the wild frontier, a principled politician, and the last defender of the Alamo. But the truth about this frontiersman is a lot more complicated than that.
Transcript
00:00David Crockett is finally remembered as the King of the Wild Frontier, a principled politician,
00:05and the last defender of the Alamo. But the truth about this frontiersman is a lot more
00:09complicated than that.
00:11David Crockett was born on August 17, 1786, near the town of Limestone. The state park
00:16commemorates the spot, which is now part of Tennessee. The Volunteer State claims Crockett
00:21as a native son and hero, and indeed, he served in the Tennessee General Assembly before representing
00:26one of its congressional districts. And the theme song to the Disney series even began
00:30with the phrase,
00:31"'Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee."
00:33There's two things we need to address. The Crockett home, while relatively remote, wasn't
00:38actually on a mountaintop. And at the time he was born, it wasn't part of Tennessee.
00:43The Scots-Irish settlers who populated the region aimed to organize it into a new state
00:47named Franklin. In 1784, when Franklin narrowly lost the vote necessary to receive statehood
00:52from Congress, its constituents broke away from North Carolina and became an independent
00:57republic.
00:58This story is pretty complicated. Just to sort of wrap it up, North Carolina then reabsorbed
01:02the republic in 1789, ceded that land, plus some west of there, back to the U.S. government,
01:08and that's how we ended up with the state of Tennessee. Back to our main story.
01:12No, not born on a mountaintop, not in Tennessee.
01:16That being said, born in a remote section of the state of Franklin during its separation
01:20from North Carolina and prior to becoming the state of Tennessee doesn't exactly roll
01:24up the tongue, so it's really okay they like a song there.
01:28The first episode of Disney's Davy Crockett series was entitled Davy Crockett, Indian
01:32Fighter. It was loosely based around the Creek War, a clash between the Red Stick faction
01:37of the Creek Indians and the United States between 1813 and 1814. Disney presented Crockett
01:42as an active combatant who personally fought and bested the Red Stick leader before convincing
01:47him to make peace.
01:48And then there's the 1960 film The Alamo, starring John Wayne as Crockett, who says
01:52that fighting against Native Americans was the only soldiering he ever did before coming
01:56to Texas. The real David Crockett was a proud veteran of the Creek War who used his service
02:01to his advantage when on the political campaign trail later in life.
02:05But Crockett wasn't actually an Indian fighter in the Creek War or any other conflict between
02:10white settlers and Native Americans. He was a first-rate hunter and scout, and his service
02:15as a volunteer was largely spent in those roles, hunting and scouting. By his own admission,
02:20he didn't believe that he was suited to warfare, and contemporary and historical assessments
02:24of his character paint a picture of a man too friendly to be a fierce combatant. So
02:28he didn't exactly fib about his service.
02:31David Crockett don't lie.
02:33Texas Monthly once described David Crockett as perhaps the first American to make a living
02:37portraying his own fanciful image. Imagine a world where people are famous for being
02:42famous.
02:44Though essentially an honest man, he loved to entertain with boasts about his hunting
02:50expeditions. Once he became involved in politics, he turned his natural charm to his advantage.
02:55You could certainly make the case that he was an early example of a famous person becoming
02:59a politician. Outgunned financially by his opponents, he told stories, cracked jokes,
03:04and on one occasion, took the wind out of another candidate's sails by memorizing his
03:07stump speech and delivering it before he could.
03:11David's celebrity really exploded nationwide by the time he reached the Capitol. His image
03:15as a buckskin-clad, semi-literate outdoorsman was lauded and lambasted in equal measure.
03:21The tippy-top of his fame happened when he was fictionalized as Nimrod Wildfire in The
03:25Lion of the West, a successful play that celebrated the frontiersman portrayal in heavily caricatured
03:30fashion.
03:32Crockett attended the play's Washington benefit performance in 1831 or so, and he continued
03:36to trade on his frontier image. But he was ambivalent and at times resentful about how
03:41much this caricature drove his reputation. He wanted to be accepted as a gentleman, and
03:45he took care to dress and speak well when keeping company in Washington. Imagine the
03:50disappointment when visitors met Crockett there clad in a suit, no buckskin clothing.
03:54And wait until you hear about his hat.
03:58The Lion of the West did much to amplify popular legends about Crockett. The illustration that
04:02graced the playbill and the cover that appeared on Davy Crockett's almanac fixed his image
04:07in the public mind of a half-wild frontiersman wearing a burr cap and dressed head-to-toe
04:11in buckskins. The initial illustrations featured a hat made of a wildcat pelt, but over time
04:17the coon skin became fixed as the one and only Crockett cap.
04:21Hunting raccoons was part of Crockett's public persona. Speaking of, if you know the song,
04:26you're probably wondering about the other thing he hunted. We can't speak to any incident
04:30at the age of three, but yes, Davy Crockett killed bears. Lots of bears. Lots and lots
04:37of bears. Let's just leave it at that.
04:39Well, that's just great. Bears. Now you're putting the whole station in jeopardy.
04:45His political opponents castigated him as an unserious coon killer, while he himself
04:49told tales of getting raccoons out of trees just by grinning. But there's no record of
04:54him ever having worn a burr cap of any kind before Nimrod Wildfire came along. When he
04:59arranged for a portrait of himself in frontier garb, he posed not with a coon skin cap, but
05:04with a popular felt hat with a white brim.
05:07Accounts of Crockett setting out for Texas or lying dead in the Alamo feature him wearing
05:11the coon skin, or at least a distinctive hat, but these stories emerged well after his death.
05:16Assuming that these accounts weren't colored by Crockett's popular image, they indicate
05:20that he only started wearing his trademark headgear at the very end of his life.
05:23Do you think I'm going to dress like any self-respecting congressman? No. I gotta go in there like
05:27the king of the wild frontier, thanks to you.
05:30In the second episode of the Disney series, Davy Crockett Goes to Congress, Crockett loses
05:34his congressional seat and any hopes for higher office when he opposes Andrew Jackson's Indian
05:39Removal Bill. This opposition is historically accurate, and it was also principled.
05:44Crockett was against the lack of congressional oversight to the funds that were granted to
05:48Jackson. In fact, he once introduced a bill to eliminate West Point because he thought
05:51it was basically a money-laundering system for rich folks' kids. But with the Indian
05:56Removal Bill, he sympathized with the native tribes who would be displaced, fearing it
06:00would lead to a miserable fate to the tribes. Spoiler, he was right.
06:04But this vote didn't really represent either the high or low point of Crockett's time in
06:09politics. While he did lose his seat in the 1830 referendum, he was also re-elected two
06:13years later.
06:14A bill like this would never live long enough to even get on our desk, let alone come to
06:19a vote.
06:21This opposition didn't bring any changes to Crockett's notoriously empty list of legislative
06:24accomplishments. But it did temporarily endear him to the leaders of the Whig Party, who
06:29courted Crockett as a potential presidential candidate for the 1836 election. How seriously
06:34Crockett took a possible White House run isn't clear, but he was ultimately too independent-minded
06:38for the Whigs or any political party.
06:42Abandoned by his Whig allies after losing his congressional seat — again — and hounded
06:46by supporters of Andrew Jackson, Crockett's political career seemed finished. As for his
06:50personal life, he was estranged from his wife and her family.
06:54Texas, which was at the time still a territory of Mexico open to American settlers, offered
06:58a fresh start. Old friends like Sam Houston had relocated there, and opportunities for
07:03hunting and leisure abounded. By the time that Crockett set out for Texas, tensions
07:07between the Texians and the Central Authority in Mexico were inflamed and well-known to
07:11Americans. But contrary to the 1960 Alamo film and other fictionalized accounts, Crockett
07:17didn't go there with a mind for battle.
07:19When he arrived in January 1836, it appeared to many Texians that the fighting was over,
07:24or at least a far-off prospect. Crockett wrote back home that he was sure that he'd be elected
07:29to help with the state constitution. It was only after he arrived and caught the whiff
07:33of adventure in the air that he began claiming he meant to fight.
07:35And I feel sure that where Crockett leads, his men will follow.
07:41Popular accounts about the siege of the Alamo are full of myths, half-truths, and outright
07:45lies. But one thing they generally get right is that command of the garrison was shared
07:49by William Barrett Travis and Jim Bowie — or at least until the latter fell sick. But in
07:54many popular accounts, David Crockett is presented as a de facto third commander, present for
07:59all major decisions and deep in Travis' and Bowie's confidence.
08:03But Crockett was no officer, only a private, and he may not even have been the leader of
08:07the so-called Tennessee Mounted Volunteers. He originally came to Texas with three companions.
08:13According to the Three Roads to the Alamo, when he enlisted with the militia and made
08:16off for San Antonio, he became the informal leader of a slightly larger group. But William
08:21B. Harrison was the party's commander. Either way, Crockett was certainly famous and celebrated.
08:26But third in command? He was not.
08:29A counter-myth, which was presented in the 2004 film The Alamo, portrays Crockett as
08:33insecure and lost within the border's walls. But letters from Travis and survivor accounts
08:38shared by historians on the DVD's behind-the-scenes features paint him as an energetic cheerleader
08:43and entertainer to the men, helping them to stay brave and dutiful.
08:48There are two popular myths regarding how David Crockett died during the Battle of the
08:51Alamo on March 6, 1836. One, which was popularized heavily in the mid-20th century, is that he
08:56went down fighting. The Disney miniseries ended with him as literally the last defender
09:01left at the Alamo, swinging his rifle like a club against an onslaught of Mexican soldiers.
09:06The 1960s Alamo movie, meanwhile, shows him being mortally wounded before destroying the
09:10garrison's supply of gunpowder, thus denying it to the enemy. This story has some support
09:15in the historical record, as various survivors reportedly said that they saw Crockett dead,
09:20but surrounded by the men that he'd slain.
09:22But according to pre-roads to the Alamo, these accounts were recorded from second-hand sources
09:27and were told well after the fact. And the report that Crockett went down swinging has
09:31competition for an alternative telling in which he was instead executed after being
09:35captured. According to several sources, including the diary of Mexican soldier José Enrique
09:40de la Peña, this account claims that Crockett and other soldiers were taken prisoner by
09:45a general who asked that they receive clemency. But instead, Antonio López de Santa Anna
09:51had been killed.
09:52There's a report in a letter from a George M. Dolson that echoes the captured-slash-shot
09:57version, and about three weeks after the Alamo, a New Orleans newspaper carried that same
10:01story. The authenticity of the diary is reportedly solid, but that doesn't mean it's accurate.
10:07There's some dispute as to if Crockett was indeed one of the men executed after the battle.
10:11Ultimately, the only certainty about Crockett's death is that he died at the Alamo.

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