Joe Travis (c. 1815 - Unknown) was an enslaved man who was one of the only survivors of the Battle of the Alamo. In early 1836, a small group of Texas volunteers at the Alamo held off the Mexican army for 13 days before being defeated (and executed). If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe. The 1793 law enforced Article IV, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution in authorizing any federal district judge or circuit court judge, or any state magistrate . And yet it still surprises me that slavery went unexamined for so long.". Along the way they crossed paths with another survivor, a man named Joe, who had been William Travis slave. Some historians believe slavery was the driving issue in the showdown at the Alamo, arguing that Mexicos attempts to end slavery contrasted with the hopes of many white settlers in Texas at the time who moved to the region to farm cotton. But conservative groups rallied in armed protest and turned up at public meetings chanting Not one inch!, State leaders took up the cause, including Lt. Gov. Renovations to the Alamo have previously been stalled due to similar conversations over the sites legacy and the role of slavery in the Texas revolution.. History Early History In 1883, the state of Texas purchased the Alamo, later acquiring property rights to all the surrounding grounds. Santa Anna ordered his men to take no prisoners, and only a small handful of the Texans were spared. Because Joe could speak Spanish, he was able to be interrogated afterward. This is the most significant piece of land in the entire state of Texas, and it deserves the reverence and dignity of a preservation project that has been a generation in the making.. One of the points that often gets lost amid the flag-waving and coonskin caps is that by the time of the Texas Revolution, Mexico had abolished slavery, and Texas hadn't. Summary "Among the fifty or so Texan survivors of the siege of the Alamo was Joe, the personal slave of Lt. Col. William Barret Travis. The social, economic, and legal positions of enslaved people have differed vastly in different systems of slavery in different times and places. It was finished when Spanish troops arrived in 1805 but it was used as a hospital. A little more than a year later, What we now know is because Mexican accounts accounts from Mexican officers and soldiers a number of them, a dozen of them have come to light over the last 50 years, show that between a third and a half [of] the Texas defenders actually broke and ran. According to Jose Enrique de la Pefia, one of Santa Anna's officers, a handful of prisoners, including Crockett, were taken after the battle and put to death. Accounts of his departure from the Alamo differ, but he later joined Susanna W. Dickinson and her escort, Ben, Santa Anna's Black cook, on their way to Gen. Sam Houston's camp at Gonzales. Davy Crockett, a famous frontiersman and former U.S. congressman, was the highest-profile defender to fall at the Alamo. Older slaves were. After Travis fell . After the Alamo battle, the soldiers under Sam Houston's command were the only obstacle between Santa Anna's attempt to reincorporate Texas into Mexico. By 1835, there were 30,000 Anglo-Americans (called Texians) in Texas, and only 7,800 Texas-Mexicans (Tejanos). It's just that not everyone inside the Alamo died that day. Cook was waiting to go to medical school when he discovered Joes story and was compelled to write about the Alamo. Not until the late 1890s did two women, Adina De Zavala and Clara Driscoll, collaborate to preserve the Alamo. Every dollar helps. The Alamo has been commemorated on everything from postage stamps to the 1960 film The Alamo starring John Wayne as Davy Crockett. Even though the Texans were fighting against a certain kind of tyranny, they were also fighting for an independent republic where slavery was legal, Crisp told Fusion. It fits in nicely with a narrative that the United States has always been and continues to be dedicated to principles like individual responsibility and freedom. They had been kidnapped from their homes and were forced to work on tobacco, rice, and indigo plantations from Maryland . The siege of the Alamo was memorably depicted in a Walt Disney series and in a 1960 movie starring John Wayne. . They in turn sent Stephen Austin to Mexico City to complain. Spanish settlers built the Mission San Antonio de Valero, named for St. Anthony of Padua, on the banks of the San Antonio River around 1718. He was listed as a resident of Harrisburg in May 1833. Joe, the Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend recovers a true American character from obscurity and expands our view of events central to the emergence of Texas"-- Provided by publisher. The Mexican government was opposed to slavery, but even so, there were 5000 slaves in Texas by the time of the Texas Revolution in 1836. There has always been this great mystery of why on earth [Lt. Col. William] Travis and [James] Bowie stay, and the best argument there is probably because they believe reinforcements would be forthcoming. Joe did so and was struck by a pistol shot and bayonet thrust before a Mexican captain intervened. But Texans are deeply divided over how, exactly, to remember the Alamo. 'Born On A Mountaintop' Or Not, Davy Crockett's Legend Lives On. Trevio, who represents much of central San Antonio, said his push to move the Cenotaph had been aimed at telling a more inclusive story. He also supported carving into the monument the names of enslaved people and Tejanos native Texans of Mexican descent who were present at the 1836 battle. Every penny counts! Jim Bowie, the famous knife fighter and all-around badass (look up The Sandbar Fight sometime) made a tidy sum dealing in slaves in the years before the Alamo, says Smithsonian, and brought at least two with him into the fort, a man named Sam and a woman named Bettie. Although nearly everyone at the Alamo was killed or captured, Texas achieved independence when Sam read more, Coahuila, one of Mexicos major steel producers, straddles the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains. Martin Perfecto de Cos at Bexar arrived in late 1835 and put the Alamo into "fort fashion" by building a dirt ramp up to the top rear of the church wall and covering it with planks. The day after the council vote, Nirenberg appeared with Bush and Patrick in Alamo Plaza to unveil a new exhibit with a replica of a cannon that fired upon the Mexican army. On March 1, 32 brave men from the town of Gonzales made their way through enemy lines to reinforce the defenders at the Alamo. https://www.tshaonline.org, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/joe. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. There was no line in the sand drawn. Most of the survivors were women, children, servants, and enslaved people. Military troopsfirst Spanish, then rebel and later Mexicanoccupied the Alamo during and after Mexicos war for independence from Spain in the early 1820s. [15] Each woman was given $ 2 and a blanket and was allowed to go free and spread the news of the destruction that awaited those who opposed the Mexican government. The Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, an Indigenous group, is still fighting to have the complex treated as a cemetery and to tell the story of the Indigenous people buried there, said Ramn Vsquez, one of its leaders. Families were often split up by the sale of one or more members, usually never to see or hear of each other again. He reported the events" Historians are doubtful. James W. Russell, University Professor of Sociology at Eastern Connecticut State University, is the author most recently of Escape from Texas: A Novel of Slavery and the Texas War of Independence. Courtesy Texas Historical Commission Joseph, an enslaved person, was one of a handful of survivors at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Fannin had decided that the logistics of reaching the Alamo in time were impossible and, in any event, his 300 or so men would not make a difference against the Mexican army and its 2,000 soldiers. Their accounts provided much of the backbone of what was known about the Alamo. This famous story shows the dedication of the Texans to fight for their freedom. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger and over 2,000 federal troops arrived at Galveston Island to take possession of the state and enforce the two-year-old Emancipation Proclamation.There, he proclaimed his "General Order No. Now, neither we nor the academic authors who first found this say that this means anybody was a coward. The Mexican forces also suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of the Alamo, losing between 600 and 1,600 men. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Joe was sold four times in his life, with his most well known owner being William B. Travis, [1] a 19th century lawyer and soldier, who would later be the lieutenant colonel for The Battle of the Alamo. It has been used just anecdotally for generations to put down Mexican Americans, a big beefy white guy going up to the little Mexican guy and punching him in the arm and saying, "Remember the Alamo," that type of thing. https://www.thoughtco.com/facts-about-the-battle-of-the-alamo-2136256 (accessed March 4, 2023). But then you have to understand: The Texas revolt, for 150 years, was largely ignored by academics, in part because it was considered dclass, it was considered provincial, and because the state government of Texas, much as they're doing now, has for 120, 130 years, made very clear to the University of Texas faculty and to the faculty of other state-funded universities that it only wants one type of Texas history taught and that if you get outside those boundaries, you're going to hear about it from the Legislature. I can truly say that I hate that place and everything it stands for.. Because of Joe, a slave, we can remember as much as we do about the Alamo. In 1619, the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia, one of the newly formed 13 American Colonies. There was a problem with that, though. More information is available at http://escapefromtexas.com. The Mission San Antonio de Valero housed missionaries and their Native American converts for some 70 years until 1793, when Spanish authorities secularized the five missions located in San Antonio and distributed their lands among local residents. Forget the Alamo: Race Courses as a Struggle over History and Collective Memory. "The stunning discovery that Joethe slave of Alamo commander William Barret Traviswas the brother of the abolitionist William Wells Brown has opened an entirely new chapter in the history of Texas. Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher | Spotify. A central goal of independence would be to remove that uncertainty. This detailed timeline of Mexican history explores such themes as the read more, Mexico City, Mexicos largest city and the most populous metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere, is also known as Distrito Federal, or the federal district. Joe traveled with one of the widows, Susanna Dickinson, and her young daughter, to the other Texian forces. Texas became an independent republic, and nine years later, it was annexed as an American state. Directly or indirectly, James Bowie's (aka Jim) enigmatic illness during the siege of the Alamo resulted from his actions. This is their journey. Visitors walk around the outside of the Alamo in San Antonio. By 1835, there were 30,000 Anglo-Americans (called Texians) in Texas, and only 7,800 Texas-Mexicans (Tejanos). Most slaves came to Texas with their owners, and the vast . The Barista Express grinds, foams milk, and produces the silkiest espresso at the perfect temperature. This was mirrored very much in the kind of ethnic cleansing that went on after the revolution in which hundreds of Tejanos were pushed out of San Antonio, in Victoria and existing towns, their lands taken, laws passed against their ability to marry white women and hold public office. He was one of several slaves spared by the Mexicans, who opposed slavery, after the battle. Nifty speech, and since Wayne was directing he got to say it any way he wanted. And of course, this leads to one of the great myths, which is the bravery of the Alamo defenders, how they fought to their death and everything. The Battle of the Alamo during Texas war for independence from Mexico lasted thirteen days, from February 23, 1836-March 6, 1836. "There is a definite, deliberate attempt in mainstream Texas history to start Texas history in 1836, with the arrival of the anglos," Joe Lopez, a columnist for the Rio Grande Guardian, told Fusion. They ran out into the open where they were unceremoniously run down and killed by Mexican cavalry. Signup today for our free newsletter, Especially Texan. We may earn a commission from links on this page. They know they're coming and yet still they stay there. It was just that the place was overrun. This entry belongs to the following Handbook Special Projects: We are a community-supported, non-profit organization and we humbly ask for your support because the careful and accurate recording of our history has never been more important. The third big name at the Alamo, the commander of the force, William Barret Travis, had at least one slave with him, Joe. 10 Facts About the Independence of Texas From Mexico, The Texas Revolution and the Republic of Texas, The Battle of Concepcion of the Texas Revolution, The Life and Legend of David "Davy" Crockett, The Most Important Inventions of the Industrial Revolution, No One Knows What Happened to Davy Crockett, Who Won the Battle of the Alamo?