(Alamo oldest known photo 1849)
It happened 180 years ago. The Alamo fell. Those brave souls who fought for their cause died behind the decaying walls of an abandoned mission. All of the anglo male combatants were slain and their bodies not given a proper burial. Their corpses were burned like trash.
We love to view past events in light of modern thought, perspectives, and opinions. This is an enormous mistake.
The opinions, morays, moral dogmas, religious viewpoints, and spirit of the times was different among the human populace at different points in the past. Applying modern (or current) opinion to actions taken by people in the past is as inane as it can be. What about if we reversed it. Don't you think that our sacred cows would seems pretty odd to George Washington if he could see us with his 18th century eyes?
So why do we do this? Why do humans apply modern thought to judge past events? This is very popular now, for instance, vis a vis homosexual rights. Some among us like to judge historical figures by current opinion. At the moment "gay rights" are popular among some. So many of these people look at historical people and criticize them for not sharing their current up-to-the-second political perspective.
This is madness!!
This is common among people who look at the Alamo battle. Today it is spun as a bunch of "white guys" (a modern term), some of whom were slave owners (the unpardonable sin), who went down to northern Mexico and tried to cheat them out of land and territory. Oh those poor Mexicans. They are seen as sweet, kind and simple people who were just defending their land from northern imperialist yankee meddlers.
The truth is a good bit different from this highly skewed 21st century version of the past.
While it is true that Travis owned a slave and Bowie was a slave trader at one point, the institution of slavery was not illegal at the time. Though morally reprehensible by today's standpoint, in their day, these heroes of the Alamo were only carrying on a tradition that began over a hundred years prior. many of these men's families had owned slaves for generations. Whatever they thought about it on a personal level was overshadowed by the fact that they were operating within the confines of accepted behavior at the time. Slaves provided a convenient and useful service. Obviously, sitting here now, it seems unfathomable to "own" another human like cattle, but back then, their minds were shaped by what was acceptable for the time. And slavery was acceptable to many. It wouldn't be for another 27 years that the U.S.A. finally made slavery illegal across the board. The heroes of the Alamo didn't "hate black people". They saw them as servants. Bowie saw them as a way to make a profit. Does this bother us now? Of course. Was it morally wrong then? Not so much.
So should we celebrate Bowie and Crockett and Travis for their brave stand? Of course! They had flaws in their character like all great figures of history do. But, they made a courageous stand for their principles, and lay down their lives for a cause. This spirit is admirable and we should never lose sight of it because of political correctness.
I think most people can separate the flaws from the greatness. But it seems a growing number of people want the two to go hand in hand.
In the end, Travis, Bowie, and Crockett don't care a whit about what we think of them anyway.
