21. The Texas Revolution and the Alamo
Films about the stand of the defenders at the Alamo have been produced since the days of silent movies (With Davy Crockett at the Fall of the Alamo, 1926). They have starred John Wayne, Fess Parker, and Billy Bob Thornton in the role of Crockett, as well as others. All of them have depicted the battle as a heroic stand of the Americans against the tyranny of the Mexican dictator, Santa Anna. None of them have ever presented the true nature of the Texas Revolution. The Mexican government had abolished slavery. The revolutionaries wanted slavery to remain legal in Texas. It was just one grievance which led to the revolution, but it was an important one.
Most of the Americans in Texas, including Crockett, had arrived there lured by the promise of land for the taking, hoping to establish estates in their new country. They had abandoned America for new opportunities in what was then a state in Mexico. Desirous of retaining slavery, and opposing Catholic rule, they rose in revolt. Crockett arrived in Texas when he thought the fighting was over. Instead, the Mexican army was on the way to put down the revolt. The stand at the Alamo was no less heroic, but it wasn’t the gallant stand against tyranny depicted so often in film, on television, and in books, comic books, and periodicals.