WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.459 If I say the name Davy Crockett, I know exactly 00:00:02.459 --> 00:00:04.780 what image just popped into your head. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:05.099 --> 00:00:07.320 You're seeing the coonskin cap. You're seeing 00:00:07.320 --> 00:00:09.779 the fringed buckskin jacket. You're probably 00:00:09.779 --> 00:00:12.419 hearing the faint humming of a song about the 00:00:12.419 --> 00:00:14.560 King of the Wild Frontier. Maybe Fess Parker. 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:18.359 Maybe John Wayne. Right. Maybe you're picturing 00:00:18.359 --> 00:00:21.219 John Wayne on the big screen swinging a rifle 00:00:21.219 --> 00:00:24.600 in a last stand. It's an image so... you know, 00:00:24.620 --> 00:00:27.179 baked into the American consciousness, that it 00:00:27.179 --> 00:00:30.980 feels less like history and more like a folk 00:00:30.980 --> 00:00:33.219 tale. It does. It's right up there with Paul 00:00:33.219 --> 00:00:35.719 Bunyan and his blue ox. It's one of the most 00:00:35.719 --> 00:00:38.119 durable brands in American history, really. It 00:00:38.119 --> 00:00:40.060 is a brand. That's a great way to put it. But 00:00:40.060 --> 00:00:41.859 that's the problem with brands, isn't it? Especially 00:00:41.859 --> 00:00:44.320 ones that get the full Hollywood treatment. They 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:47.829 tend to... flatten out the actual human being. 00:00:47.869 --> 00:00:51.609 They turn a messy, complex life into a two -dimensional 00:00:51.609 --> 00:00:54.429 sticker that fits on a lunchbox. Exactly. And 00:00:54.429 --> 00:00:56.570 that's why we're here today. Our mission really 00:00:56.570 --> 00:00:59.130 is to peel back that legend. We're going to put 00:00:59.130 --> 00:01:01.329 the coonskin cap on the shelf for a moment and 00:01:01.329 --> 00:01:03.070 look at the man underneath it. And there's a 00:01:03.070 --> 00:01:05.469 lot to look at. Oh, yeah. We have a massive stack 00:01:05.469 --> 00:01:08.510 of sources here. Biographical records, legislative 00:01:08.510 --> 00:01:11.090 history from the Tennessee Statehouse, congressional 00:01:11.090 --> 00:01:14.370 transcripts from Washington. And some very controversial 00:01:14.370 --> 00:01:17.109 eyewitness accounts from the Alamo. Very controversial. 00:01:17.370 --> 00:01:19.150 And when you dig into these records, you don't 00:01:19.150 --> 00:01:21.870 find a cartoon character. No, you certainly don't. 00:01:21.870 --> 00:01:25.450 You find a man who was, well, deeply flawed, 00:01:25.670 --> 00:01:29.250 incredibly principled, and just consistently 00:01:29.250 --> 00:01:32.609 struggling. You find a failed businessman who 00:01:32.609 --> 00:01:35.060 couldn't keep his finances straight. Right. a 00:01:35.060 --> 00:01:37.060 politician who committed what was essentially 00:01:37.060 --> 00:01:40.500 career suicide for a moral cause, and of course, 00:01:40.519 --> 00:01:43.700 a man whose death is arguably the subject of 00:01:43.700 --> 00:01:46.140 a century -long heated controversy. And just 00:01:46.140 --> 00:01:48.099 to give you a taste of how complicated this gets 00:01:48.099 --> 00:01:50.239 before we dive into the chronology, we're talking 00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:52.500 about a guy who is famous for fighting Indians 00:01:52.500 --> 00:01:54.700 in the movies, right? That's the whole persona. 00:01:54.700 --> 00:01:56.879 That's the Indian fighter persona that got sold 00:01:56.879 --> 00:01:59.439 to kids in the 1950s. That's the label. But looking 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:01.280 at the congressional record, he was the only 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:03.819 member of the entire Tennessee delegation to 00:02:03.819 --> 00:02:06.060 vote against Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal 00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:09.719 Act. That vote is, in my opinion, the most defining 00:02:09.719 --> 00:02:12.099 moment of his life. Really? Even more so than 00:02:12.099 --> 00:02:14.870 the Alamo. Really? I think so. It's the central 00:02:14.870 --> 00:02:17.969 tension of his story. You have to ask, how does 00:02:17.969 --> 00:02:20.150 a man who fought in the militia, who lived on 00:02:20.150 --> 00:02:22.930 the frontier, and who we should note owned slaves, 00:02:23.189 --> 00:02:26.370 end up risking everything to defend Native American 00:02:26.370 --> 00:02:28.909 land rights? against the head of his own party. 00:02:29.050 --> 00:02:31.370 That is the hook. That is the contradiction we 00:02:31.370 --> 00:02:33.750 need to solve. So let's separate the man from 00:02:33.750 --> 00:02:36.090 the myth. Let's unpack the real David Crockett. 00:02:36.150 --> 00:02:38.289 Let's do it. And honestly, we have to start with 00:02:38.289 --> 00:02:40.789 the name itself. You think Crockett. You think 00:02:40.789 --> 00:02:44.629 rugged Scots -Irish Appalachian pioneer. It sounds 00:02:44.629 --> 00:02:47.360 hard. Sure. It sounds like rock or cricket. It 00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:50.259 sounds earthy. It sounds American. It does. But 00:02:50.259 --> 00:02:52.439 if we go back a few generations, the family name 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:55.819 wasn't Crockett. It was de Croquetin. De Croquetin. 00:02:55.819 --> 00:02:58.900 That sounds surprisingly aristocratic and French. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:01.340 It is French. His ancestors were French Huguenots. 00:03:01.560 --> 00:03:05.300 These were Protestants who were essentially persecuted 00:03:05.300 --> 00:03:07.240 out of France during the religious wars. Okay, 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:09.580 see. They fled to Ireland and then eventually, 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:11.979 like so many displaced groups, they made their 00:03:11.979 --> 00:03:15.280 way to America. The name got anglicized to Crockett 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:17.939 over time, likely just to make it easier to spell 00:03:17.939 --> 00:03:20.400 and say. That's fascinating. But I think that's 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:22.719 a great reminder right off the bat that the American 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:26.080 frontier was this melting pot of displaced people 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:28.539 trying to reinvent themselves. It wasn't just 00:03:28.539 --> 00:03:30.159 people born into the woods. It was refugees. 00:03:30.900 --> 00:03:34.460 And speaking of reinventing, Davey, or David 00:03:34.460 --> 00:03:36.740 as he preferred to be called, he didn't exactly 00:03:36.740 --> 00:03:39.960 start with a silver spoon. We have this romantic 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:43.240 idea of the frontier life, but looking at his 00:03:43.240 --> 00:03:46.039 father, John Crockett, the reality was much, 00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:48.879 much harsher. Oh, John Crockett was what they 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:51.500 called an over -mountain man. He fought in the 00:03:51.500 --> 00:03:53.360 Revolutionary War at the Battle of Kings Mountain, 00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:55.900 which sounds impressive on a resume. It does. 00:03:56.139 --> 00:03:58.479 But financially, the man could not catch a break. 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:01.219 It was just one disaster after another. I was 00:04:01.219 --> 00:04:02.860 reading about the gristmill. That seemed like 00:04:02.860 --> 00:04:07.199 the breaking point for the family. It was. John 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:10.060 Crockett tried to pivot from farming to industry. 00:04:10.219 --> 00:04:12.939 He built a gristmill, which is a huge capital 00:04:12.939 --> 00:04:14.819 investment for a family that didn't have any 00:04:14.819 --> 00:04:17.660 capital. He partnered with another man. They 00:04:17.660 --> 00:04:20.379 put everything into it. Labor, borrowed money, 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:23.579 time. And right before they could even start 00:04:23.579 --> 00:04:26.360 grinding corn. Let me guess. A massive flood 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:28.579 came through the river valley and wiped the entire 00:04:28.579 --> 00:04:32.240 thing away. Just erased it. Wow. So the family 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:35.579 is constantly on the edge of ruin. This is where 00:04:35.579 --> 00:04:37.180 the story gets a little heartbreaking, honestly. 00:04:37.699 --> 00:04:40.680 We have this image of Davy Crockett as this free 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:43.399 spirit roaming the woods, living off the land 00:04:43.399 --> 00:04:45.939 because he loved nature. Right, the noble hunter. 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:49.060 But his childhood was defined by debt, serious 00:04:49.060 --> 00:04:52.579 crushing debt. It was. And we have to contextualize 00:04:52.579 --> 00:04:55.600 debt in the late 1700s. It wasn't just a hit 00:04:55.600 --> 00:04:57.279 to your credit score. You could go to debtor's 00:04:57.279 --> 00:05:00.529 prison. It was a shackle. When David was just 00:05:00.529 --> 00:05:03.350 12 years old, his father essentially rented him 00:05:03.350 --> 00:05:05.730 out. Rented him out. He indentured him to a man 00:05:05.730 --> 00:05:07.930 named Jacob Seeler to pay off the family's debt. 00:05:08.129 --> 00:05:10.529 12 years old. I mean, imagine that. You're barely 00:05:10.529 --> 00:05:12.769 out of childhood and you're being traded as labor 00:05:12.769 --> 00:05:15.550 currency. And it wasn't light work. He was working 00:05:15.550 --> 00:05:18.970 as a cattle driver. He had to walk, not ride, 00:05:19.089 --> 00:05:22.769 walk 400 miles on a trip to Virginia. 400 miles 00:05:22.769 --> 00:05:26.889 at 12. In bad shoes, presumably. If any shoes. 00:05:27.799 --> 00:05:30.500 And he did it. He was dutiful. But here's the 00:05:30.500 --> 00:05:32.639 interesting part that gives us a glimpse into 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:36.000 his personality. After doing that service, he 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:38.620 comes back home, he's done his duty, and a year 00:05:38.620 --> 00:05:41.100 later, his father tries to whip him. Why? I mean, 00:05:41.100 --> 00:05:43.000 what could he have done to deserve that after 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:45.379 saving the family? He played hooky from school. 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:48.339 Oh, come on. Which, to be fair, after walking 00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:51.339 400 miles driving cattle to save the family farm, 00:05:51.620 --> 00:05:54.040 sitting in a schoolhouse probably felt a little 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:57.120 confining. Exactly. But David had a line. He 00:05:57.120 --> 00:05:59.379 wouldn't accept the whipping. So he ran away. 00:05:59.459 --> 00:06:02.259 He was 13. So kind of gone. And he didn't just 00:06:02.259 --> 00:06:05.160 run to the neighbor's barn. He spent years roaming. 00:06:05.500 --> 00:06:07.439 He worked for Teamsters. He worked for Hatters. 00:06:07.540 --> 00:06:10.040 He was walking hundreds of miles completely on 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:12.860 his own, fending for himself from age 13 to 15. 00:06:13.060 --> 00:06:14.980 This is the wild frontier part, but it's not 00:06:14.980 --> 00:06:17.620 romantic at all. It's survival. It's homelessness, 00:06:17.800 --> 00:06:20.379 essentially. It is. But there's this moment of 00:06:20.379 --> 00:06:22.959 reconciliation that I found really touching in 00:06:22.959 --> 00:06:26.100 the source material. He eventually comes back 00:06:26.100 --> 00:06:28.019 home, right? Oh, he does. And this tells you 00:06:28.019 --> 00:06:29.600 everything you need to know about his character. 00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:32.319 He returns to his father's tavern. He's been 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:34.699 gone for years. He's grown taller, stronger. 00:06:35.160 --> 00:06:38.639 The family barely recognizes him at first. It's 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:41.379 this emotional reunion. But then he finds out 00:06:41.379 --> 00:06:43.819 his father is in debt again. Oh, of course. The 00:06:43.819 --> 00:06:47.060 cycle continues. Specifically, John Crockett 00:06:47.060 --> 00:06:51.600 owed $36 to a man named Abraham Wilson and $40 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:54.199 to a man named John Kennedy. Which is real money 00:06:54.199 --> 00:06:56.639 back then. That's not pocket change. That's a 00:06:56.639 --> 00:06:59.300 fortune for a frontier family. It's a significant 00:06:59.300 --> 00:07:03.439 sum. And David... Having just regained his freedom, 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:06.259 having established his independence, he voluntarily 00:07:06.259 --> 00:07:08.959 goes back into indentured servitude. No way. 00:07:09.100 --> 00:07:11.180 He works for six months for Wilson and six months 00:07:11.180 --> 00:07:13.839 for Kennedy just to clear his father's ledger. 00:07:13.899 --> 00:07:15.980 That is a level of maturity and loyalty that 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:18.000 is. Yeah. It's hard to wrap your head around. 00:07:18.139 --> 00:07:20.920 He basically gave a year of his life to fix his 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:23.920 father's mistakes. And that experience, the weight 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:26.259 of debt, the precariousness of land ownership, 00:07:26.540 --> 00:07:29.629 the feeling of being owned by a creditor. It 00:07:29.629 --> 00:07:31.930 shaped his entire political philosophy later 00:07:31.930 --> 00:07:34.930 on. It had to. He knew what it felt like to be 00:07:34.930 --> 00:07:37.170 the little guy who owed money to the big guy. 00:07:37.290 --> 00:07:39.850 Yeah. That wasn't an abstract concept to him. 00:07:39.910 --> 00:07:42.769 It was his daily reality. So let's jump forward 00:07:42.769 --> 00:07:45.670 a bit. He grows up, he pays his dues, he marries, 00:07:45.670 --> 00:07:49.029 starts a family, and eventually history catches 00:07:49.029 --> 00:07:51.829 up to him in the form of the Creek War in 1813. 00:07:52.290 --> 00:07:54.550 This is where the Indian fighter reputation really 00:07:54.550 --> 00:07:57.509 starts. He enlifts as a scout. He does. This 00:07:57.509 --> 00:08:00.050 was right after the Fort Mims massacre, which 00:08:00.050 --> 00:08:02.029 is a brutal event where Red Stick Creeks attacked 00:08:02.029 --> 00:08:05.290 a fort and killed hundreds of settlers. It really 00:08:05.290 --> 00:08:07.449 rallied the militia across Tennessee. Right. 00:08:07.670 --> 00:08:09.850 But if you look at Crockett's own accounts, and 00:08:09.850 --> 00:08:12.209 he wrote about this in his autobiography, he 00:08:12.209 --> 00:08:14.290 wasn't a bloodthirsty warrior. That is a nuance 00:08:14.290 --> 00:08:16.129 you don't see in the movies. The movies show 00:08:16.129 --> 00:08:18.269 him eager for the fight, you know, charging in. 00:08:18.370 --> 00:08:21.589 In reality, he actually admitted that he preferred 00:08:21.589 --> 00:08:24.370 hunting game to feed the troops rather than killing 00:08:24.370 --> 00:08:27.639 Creek warriors. He saw the necessity of the war 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:30.160 from the settlers' perspective, defending their 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:33.450 homes, but he didn't revel in the violence. I 00:08:33.450 --> 00:08:36.070 see. He was there to support the unit using the 00:08:36.070 --> 00:08:38.629 skills he had, which were tracking and hunting. 00:08:38.789 --> 00:08:40.769 Right. He was a provider more than a frontline 00:08:40.769 --> 00:08:43.610 soldier in some respects. But this service is 00:08:43.610 --> 00:08:46.230 crucial because it connects him with a very specific 00:08:46.230 --> 00:08:49.889 man. Drew Jackson. Old hickory. Yes. Jackson 00:08:49.889 --> 00:08:52.090 was the major general of the Tennessee militia 00:08:52.090 --> 00:08:55.129 at the time. He was the rising star. That relationship, 00:08:55.470 --> 00:08:57.590 Crockett and Jackson, is going to drive the rest 00:08:57.590 --> 00:08:59.850 of the story. But at this point, they're on the 00:08:59.850 --> 00:09:02.169 same side. They're both Tennessee men fighting 00:09:02.169 --> 00:09:04.929 for the safety of the frontier. They are, for 00:09:04.929 --> 00:09:07.389 now, allies. So how does he make the leap from 00:09:07.389 --> 00:09:10.490 scout and bear hunter to politics? Because the 00:09:10.490 --> 00:09:12.190 gentleman from the cane doesn't sound like your 00:09:12.190 --> 00:09:14.450 typical congressman. Today, you need a law degree 00:09:14.450 --> 00:09:17.769 and a super PAC. What did he have? He had a voice. 00:09:18.549 --> 00:09:21.570 And he has stories. He started small local commissioner, 00:09:21.750 --> 00:09:24.289 then a justice of the peace, and he realized 00:09:24.289 --> 00:09:26.870 he had a gift. He wasn't educated in the traditional 00:09:26.870 --> 00:09:28.950 sense. He barely had any schooling, as we mentioned. 00:09:29.389 --> 00:09:31.909 But he could talk to people, not above them. 00:09:32.220 --> 00:09:35.039 The sources call it anecdotal oratory. Exactly. 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:38.019 I mean, imagine a political debate in the 1820s. 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:41.000 His opponents are these well -educated men giving 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:44.639 dry, polished Latin quoting speeches about tariffs 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:47.120 and judicial reform. The crowd is falling asleep. 00:09:47.320 --> 00:09:49.679 Totally asleep. Then Crockett gets up. He doesn't 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:51.960 talk about tariffs. He tells a funny story about 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:53.960 a raccoon hunt he went on last week. And somehow 00:09:53.960 --> 00:09:56.559 connects the raccoon to the economy. Precisely. 00:09:56.700 --> 00:09:59.679 He would use the story as a metaphor. He'd make 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:01.919 the crowd laugh, he'd make them feel understood, 00:10:02.220 --> 00:10:04.220 and he'd make his opponent look stiff and out 00:10:04.220 --> 00:10:06.240 of touch. He was the original guy you want to 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:08.860 have a beer with. Politician. Or in his case, 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:11.299 a whiskey. He was a populist before the term 00:10:11.299 --> 00:10:14.200 really existed. He was. But I want to be clear, 00:10:14.360 --> 00:10:17.220 he wasn't just a clown. It's easy to dismiss 00:10:17.220 --> 00:10:20.059 him as just a storyteller. But when he got to 00:10:20.059 --> 00:10:22.740 the Tennessee General Assembly, and later the 00:10:22.740 --> 00:10:25.200 U .S. House of Representatives, he had a very 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:28.820 specific, very serious agenda. Which was? He 00:10:28.820 --> 00:10:31.039 was the champion of the impoverished settler. 00:10:31.139 --> 00:10:34.120 This goes back to his dad. It is all about his 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:37.000 dad. He spent his career fighting for fair land 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:39.940 titles. The state of Tennessee had a system that 00:10:39.940 --> 00:10:42.980 was incredibly complicated, and it favored land 00:10:42.980 --> 00:10:46.320 speculators, rich guys from out of town who would 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:49.289 buy up huge tracts of land. And the poor settlers 00:10:49.289 --> 00:10:51.330 who were actually doing the work. The ones actually 00:10:51.330 --> 00:10:53.350 clearing the forest and building the cabins, 00:10:53.389 --> 00:10:55.330 they often found themselves being evicted because 00:10:55.330 --> 00:10:57.429 they didn't have the cash to buy the title. So 00:10:57.429 --> 00:11:00.730 Crockett wanted a system where labor equaled 00:11:00.730 --> 00:11:03.009 ownership. Basically, yes. He wanted to make 00:11:03.009 --> 00:11:04.529 sure that if you worked the land, you could own 00:11:04.529 --> 00:11:06.789 the land. He felt the system was rigged against 00:11:06.789 --> 00:11:09.509 the poor, and he was loud about it. He called 00:11:09.509 --> 00:11:13.899 the speculators land sharks. He rides this populist 00:11:13.899 --> 00:11:16.480 wave all the way to Washington, D .C. He's elected 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:19.799 to Congress in 1827. Andrew Jackson becomes president 00:11:19.799 --> 00:11:23.039 in 1828. You would think this would be Crockett's 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:25.259 golden age. You would think. His old commander 00:11:25.259 --> 00:11:27.179 is the president. They're both Tennessee men. 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:30.039 They both hate the Eastern elites. It should 00:11:30.039 --> 00:11:32.440 be a slam dunk alliance. It should have been. 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:34.899 But Crockett had a stubborn streak of independence 00:11:34.899 --> 00:11:38.639 that is almost pathologically strong. He started 00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:40.360 drifting away from Jackson almost immediately. 00:11:40.909 --> 00:11:43.889 He opposed Jackson on land policies because he 00:11:43.889 --> 00:11:46.049 felt Jackson's plans still favored the government 00:11:46.049 --> 00:11:49.289 over the individual settler. He even introduced 00:11:49.289 --> 00:11:52.470 a resolution to abolish West Point. West Point, 00:11:52.590 --> 00:11:55.230 the military academy, why? He thought it was 00:11:55.230 --> 00:11:57.330 using public money to educate the sons of the 00:11:57.330 --> 00:11:59.669 wealthy aristocracy. He thought it was elitist, 00:11:59.710 --> 00:12:02.309 which is very on brand for him. It is. But those 00:12:02.309 --> 00:12:04.169 are minor skirmishes compared to what happens 00:12:04.169 --> 00:12:06.830 next. The break, the absolute shattering of their 00:12:06.830 --> 00:12:08.649 relationship came with the Indian Removal Act 00:12:08.649 --> 00:12:11.009 of 1830. This is the moment. This is where the 00:12:11.009 --> 00:12:14.490 story pivots from local politician to man of 00:12:14.490 --> 00:12:16.759 principle. Let's unpack this because this is 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:19.059 the moment that makes him a true individual in 00:12:19.059 --> 00:12:22.259 my eyes. Andrew Jackson wants to forcibly remove 00:12:22.259 --> 00:12:24.860 the Native American tribes, the Cherokee, Creek, 00:12:25.159 --> 00:12:28.519 Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole from the southeast 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:31.360 and push them west of the Mississippi to what 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:34.320 is now Oklahoma. The Trail of Tears. This is 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:36.620 the prelude to that. Exactly. And we have to 00:12:36.620 --> 00:12:38.879 understand the political pressure here. This 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:42.100 policy was incredibly popular in Tennessee. The 00:12:42.100 --> 00:12:45.019 settlers wanted that land. They wanted the tribes 00:12:45.019 --> 00:12:47.120 gone so they could expand cotton production. 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:49.940 For a Tennessee politician to oppose Jackson 00:12:49.940 --> 00:12:53.059 on this was unthinkable. It wasn't just a disagreement. 00:12:53.200 --> 00:12:55.559 It was political suicide. It was absolute career 00:12:55.559 --> 00:12:58.059 suicide. And yet. And yet Davy Crockett voted 00:12:58.059 --> 00:13:00.700 no. He was the only member of the Tennessee delegation 00:13:00.700 --> 00:13:03.480 to vote against it. He stood completely alone. 00:13:03.720 --> 00:13:05.940 He did. Why? I mean, we just established he was 00:13:05.940 --> 00:13:12.809 a scout in the Creek War. He was. Because he 00:13:12.809 --> 00:13:15.570 had a code. He believed that the treaties the 00:13:15.570 --> 00:13:17.929 government had signed with these tribes were 00:13:17.929 --> 00:13:20.789 binding legal documents. He believed that the 00:13:20.789 --> 00:13:23.429 government had given its word and that breaking 00:13:23.429 --> 00:13:25.610 that word was dishonorable. It was a matter of 00:13:25.610 --> 00:13:28.629 integrity for him. I think so. And he also had 00:13:28.629 --> 00:13:31.690 a certain empathy for the underdog. He saw the 00:13:31.690 --> 00:13:34.490 government using his massive power to crush a 00:13:34.490 --> 00:13:37.799 group of people and he just... He didn't like 00:13:37.799 --> 00:13:40.320 it. There's a quote from his autobiography about 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:42.379 this vote that I have highlighted here. I know 00:13:42.379 --> 00:13:50.940 the one. It's powerful. He wrote, Not ashamed 00:13:50.940 --> 00:13:53.039 in the day of judgment. That gives me chills 00:13:53.039 --> 00:13:54.840 every time I hear it. He wasn't thinking about 00:13:54.840 --> 00:13:56.440 the next election. He was thinking about his 00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:59.200 soul. He knew he was nuking his career. And he 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:01.100 was right. He paid the price immediately. He 00:14:01.100 --> 00:14:05.120 did. He lost the next election in 1831. His constituents 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:08.299 voted him out. They saw him as a traitor to the 00:14:08.299 --> 00:14:10.360 Tennessee interest. That is the definition of 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:12.559 integrity. I mean, doing the right thing when 00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:14.639 you know it's going to cost you your job. It 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:17.240 is. He did manage to win his seat back in 1833 00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:19.799 for one more term, mostly because the districts 00:14:19.799 --> 00:14:23.139 were redrawn and he campaigned hard, but the 00:14:23.139 --> 00:14:25.539 writing was on the wall. The Jackson political 00:14:25.539 --> 00:14:29.480 machine was just too strong. By 1835, he lost 00:14:29.480 --> 00:14:31.940 again. To a man named Adam Huntsman? A man who 00:14:31.940 --> 00:14:34.139 was a pro -Jackson candidate with a wooden leg. 00:14:34.460 --> 00:14:36.500 Losing to a man with a wooden leg, that had a 00:14:36.500 --> 00:14:40.179 sting. It did. And that loss leads us to one 00:14:40.179 --> 00:14:42.000 of the most famous quotes in American history. 00:14:42.139 --> 00:14:44.320 I feel like we have to say it. Go ahead. He apparently 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:47.200 stood up and said, I told the people of my district 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:49.399 that I would serve them as faithfully as I had 00:14:49.399 --> 00:14:52.159 done, but if not, they might go to hell and I 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:54.620 would go to Texas. It is such a mic drop moment. 00:14:54.700 --> 00:14:57.919 It's the ultimate, I quit. It is. But we have 00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:00.740 to look past the bravado. Why Texas? Was he just 00:15:00.740 --> 00:15:03.419 running away again like when he was 13? Was it 00:15:03.419 --> 00:15:05.860 just sour grapes? Sources suggest it was financial 00:15:05.860 --> 00:15:09.299 again, right? Always land. Always. Texas represented 00:15:09.299 --> 00:15:12.179 opportunity. You have to remember, Texas was 00:15:12.179 --> 00:15:15.179 part of Mexico then, but there was unrest. A 00:15:15.179 --> 00:15:17.820 revolution was brewing. And where there's revolution. 00:15:18.220 --> 00:15:20.519 There are land grants for volunteers. Exactly. 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:22.600 So he wasn't going there to die. He was going 00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:24.700 there to get rich. Or at least to get a fresh 00:15:24.700 --> 00:15:27.259 start. Right. Crockett was expecting to help 00:15:27.259 --> 00:15:30.220 settle things, maybe fight a little, and then 00:15:30.220 --> 00:15:33.120 claim his reward. Volunteers were being promised 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:36.779 huge tracts, something like 4 ,600 acres. That's 00:15:36.779 --> 00:15:39.399 a kingdom. It is. He thought he could go down 00:15:39.399 --> 00:15:42.000 there, help out, get his land, and then bring 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:44.279 his wife and children down to start a new empire. 00:15:44.639 --> 00:15:47.740 He was pushing 50, and he still didn't have that 00:15:47.740 --> 00:15:50.240 financial security his father had chased. That 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:53.159 is a key detail. He didn't abandon his family. 00:15:53.220 --> 00:15:56.470 He intended to send for them. His daughter, Matilda, 00:15:56.669 --> 00:15:59.090 later wrote about watching him leave. I remember 00:15:59.090 --> 00:16:01.250 that account. She said he was dressed in his 00:16:01.250 --> 00:16:03.750 hunting suit, wearing that famous coon skin cap, 00:16:03.990 --> 00:16:06.370 and he was confident. He didn't think he was 00:16:06.370 --> 00:16:08.529 going to die. He thought this was his third act. 00:16:08.750 --> 00:16:11.769 He viewed Texas as a fresh start. He traveled 00:16:11.769 --> 00:16:14.429 with about 30 men, arriving in Arkansas first. 00:16:14.809 --> 00:16:16.889 And it's worth noting, he was a celebrity by 00:16:16.889 --> 00:16:19.769 now. A real folk hero in his own lifetime. Oh, 00:16:19.789 --> 00:16:22.250 yeah. Plays were being written about him in New 00:16:22.250 --> 00:16:24.850 York. So as he traveled toward Texas, he's giving 00:16:24.850 --> 00:16:27.149 speeches. People are cheering him. He feels like 00:16:27.149 --> 00:16:29.870 he's on a victory tour, not a death march. So 00:16:29.870 --> 00:16:33.070 he crosses into Texas, signs an oath to the provisional 00:16:33.070 --> 00:16:37.190 government in January 1836. But the timing, I 00:16:37.190 --> 00:16:39.090 mean, looking at the calendar, it's just tragic. 00:16:39.210 --> 00:16:41.710 It's incredibly tight. He arrives in San Antonio 00:16:41.710 --> 00:16:44.970 on February 8th. Santa Ana's massive Mexican 00:16:44.970 --> 00:16:48.370 army shows up on February 23rd. Just over two 00:16:48.370 --> 00:16:50.389 weeks later. If he had lingered a few weeks longer 00:16:50.389 --> 00:16:52.929 in Arkansas, or if he had stopped to hunt for 00:16:52.929 --> 00:16:55.389 a week, history would be very different. He walked 00:16:55.389 --> 00:16:58.049 right into the trap just as it was snapping shut. 00:16:58.309 --> 00:17:00.690 So he's trapped in the Alamo. The siege begins. 00:17:01.129 --> 00:17:03.269 And this is where we need to look at what he 00:17:03.269 --> 00:17:06.109 actually did during those 13 days. Because the 00:17:06.109 --> 00:17:08.170 movies show him swinging a rifle. But what do 00:17:08.170 --> 00:17:10.630 the military sources say? Was he effective? He 00:17:10.630 --> 00:17:12.809 was a critical asset. And here's where the myth 00:17:12.809 --> 00:17:15.099 actually matches the reality pretty well. First, 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:18.160 there's the marksmanship. Crockett and his Tennessee 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:20.519 Mounted Volunteers were armed with long rifles. 00:17:21.259 --> 00:17:24.180 Most of the soldiers on both sides had smoothbore 00:17:24.180 --> 00:17:26.500 muskets. What's the practical difference there 00:17:26.500 --> 00:17:29.099 for the listener who might not be a gun enthusiast? 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:32.539 Well, a smoothbore musket is accurate to maybe 00:17:32.539 --> 00:17:35.839 50 or 75 yards. It's kind of point and pray. 00:17:36.660 --> 00:17:39.680 A rifled barrel spins the bullet, making it accurate 00:17:39.680 --> 00:17:42.740 at 200 yards or more. Crockett and his men were 00:17:42.740 --> 00:17:45.079 snipers before the turn existed. So they could 00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:47.200 do real damage from the walls. They could reach 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:49.460 out and touch the enemy from a distance where 00:17:49.460 --> 00:17:51.619 the enemy couldn't touch them back. There's a 00:17:51.619 --> 00:17:53.980 specific detail about a skirmish on February 00:17:53.980 --> 00:17:57.900 25th that highlights this. Yes. The Mexican army 00:17:57.900 --> 00:18:00.700 was trying to set up artillery positions closer 00:18:00.700 --> 00:18:03.900 to the walls. They were digging trenches. Crockett 00:18:03.900 --> 00:18:06.799 and his men provided cover fire for a group of 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:09.319 Texans who went out to burn some wooden huts 00:18:09.319 --> 00:18:11.279 that were providing cover for the enemy. And 00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:13.779 it worked. The fire from Crockett's men was so 00:18:13.779 --> 00:18:16.160 accurate and deadly that it actually forced the 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:18.299 Mexican troops to retreat and abandon that position. 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:21.200 They got the defender's time. And beyond the 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:22.980 shooting, there's the morale factor. We have 00:18:22.980 --> 00:18:25.900 accounts that he played the fiddle. He did. You 00:18:25.900 --> 00:18:28.799 have to imagine the atmosphere. It's cold. It's 00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:31.559 damp. They're surrounded by thousands of troops 00:18:31.559 --> 00:18:34.599 they know no help is coming. Terrifying. Commander 00:18:34.599 --> 00:18:37.980 Travis was stressed, rigid, sending out desperate 00:18:37.980 --> 00:18:41.299 letters. Colonel Bowie was sick in bed, likely 00:18:41.299 --> 00:18:43.640 with typhoid or pneumonia, barely conscious. 00:18:44.660 --> 00:18:47.019 Crockett was the one walking the perimeter, telling 00:18:47.019 --> 00:18:49.200 those funny stories, playing music, challenging 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:51.759 the Mexicans to shooting contests. He was the 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:53.980 glue holding those terrified men together. But 00:18:53.980 --> 00:18:57.500 then comes the morning of March 6th. The final 00:18:57.500 --> 00:19:01.059 assault. It happened before dawn. Santa Ana had 00:19:01.059 --> 00:19:03.640 been bombarding the fort constantly for days 00:19:03.640 --> 00:19:07.059 to keep the Texans awake. Then suddenly, he stopped 00:19:07.059 --> 00:19:09.680 the cannons. The silence probably let the defenders 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:12.059 fall into a deep, exhausted sleep. And then the 00:19:12.059 --> 00:19:14.539 attack. Then thousands of Mexican soldiers attacked 00:19:14.539 --> 00:19:16.420 from all sides. The battle only lasted about 00:19:16.420 --> 00:19:18.259 90 minutes. That's staggering when you think 00:19:18.259 --> 00:19:19.940 about the casualty count and the fame of the 00:19:19.940 --> 00:19:23.400 battle. It was intense, chaotic, and short. Crockett 00:19:23.400 --> 00:19:25.299 and his men were defending the low wall in front 00:19:25.299 --> 00:19:27.819 of the church, the palisade. The fighting became 00:19:27.819 --> 00:19:30.240 hand -to -hand almost immediately. It was too 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:32.680 fast to reload those long rifles. So they were 00:19:32.680 --> 00:19:34.619 basically clubs at that point. They were using 00:19:34.619 --> 00:19:37.519 them as clubs. They were using knives. And this 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:39.759 brings us to the most controversial part of this 00:19:39.759 --> 00:19:43.339 deep dive, the death of Davy Crockett. This is 00:19:43.339 --> 00:19:46.680 the deep dive into death, if you will. We have 00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:49.039 two very different versions of how this ends, 00:19:49.140 --> 00:19:51.019 and people get very emotional about which one 00:19:51.019 --> 00:19:53.799 they believe. Version A is the John Wayne version. 00:19:54.059 --> 00:19:57.440 The glorious last stand. He's the last man standing, 00:19:57.640 --> 00:20:01.220 swinging old Betsy, surrounded by a pile of enemy 00:20:01.220 --> 00:20:03.680 corpses fighting until the very last breath. 00:20:03.859 --> 00:20:06.720 That version comes largely from a former slave 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:09.440 named Ben, who was a cook for one of Santa Ana's 00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:12.640 officers. After the battle, he claimed he saw 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:15.140 Crockett's body surrounded by no less than 16 00:20:15.140 --> 00:20:17.799 Mexican corpses, with Crockett's knife buried 00:20:17.799 --> 00:20:20.039 in one of them. It's the heroic, defiant end 00:20:20.039 --> 00:20:22.359 we want to believe. It fits the brand. It's the 00:20:22.359 --> 00:20:24.299 end we want for our heroes. But then there's 00:20:24.299 --> 00:20:26.900 version B, and version B makes a lot of people 00:20:26.900 --> 00:20:29.400 very angry. Version B comes primarily from the 00:20:29.400 --> 00:20:31.619 diary of a Mexican officer named Jose Enrique 00:20:31.619 --> 00:20:33.720 de la Peña. Tell us about this diary. Where did 00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:36.240 it come from? So this surfaced in the mid -20th 00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:39.140 century. De la Peña wrote a memoir of the campaign. 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:42.619 In it, he claims that Crockett did not die in 00:20:42.619 --> 00:20:45.019 the fighting. He claims that Crockett and a handful 00:20:45.019 --> 00:20:47.980 of others, maybe five or six men, were overwhelmed 00:20:47.980 --> 00:20:50.660 and surrendered or were captured at the very 00:20:50.660 --> 00:20:52.640 end of the battle. They were brought before Santa 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:56.559 Ana alive. Alive. De La Pena writes that General 00:20:56.559 --> 00:20:58.859 Castrillon, a Mexican officer, tried to save 00:20:58.859 --> 00:21:01.660 them, presenting them to Santa Ana as brave soldiers 00:21:01.660 --> 00:21:04.640 who should be spared. But Santa Ana was furious. 00:21:04.859 --> 00:21:07.750 He ordered them executed on the spot. So captured 00:21:07.750 --> 00:21:11.289 and then executed by sword or firing squad minutes 00:21:11.289 --> 00:21:13.630 later. Yes. Della Pena writes that the soldiers 00:21:13.630 --> 00:21:16.470 hacked them down with swords. He describes Crockett 00:21:16.470 --> 00:21:18.609 specifically as enduring this torture without 00:21:18.609 --> 00:21:20.849 complaining and dying with a moan. When this 00:21:20.849 --> 00:21:23.589 diary was published in English in 1975, people 00:21:23.589 --> 00:21:26.150 lost their minds. It was a massive scandal. Yeah. 00:21:26.210 --> 00:21:28.750 The translator, Carmen Perry, received hate mail. 00:21:28.849 --> 00:21:31.920 People accused her of blasphemy. To suggest that 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:34.160 Davy Crockett surrendered, it was seen as an 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:36.220 unpatriotic attack on the American character. 00:21:36.500 --> 00:21:39.000 People wanted the diary burned. They did. There 00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:41.319 were editorials written against it. But is the 00:21:41.319 --> 00:21:44.400 diary real? Because for a long time, people claimed 00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:47.099 it was a forgery planted to embarrass Texas. 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:49.839 That is the big question. And for a long time, 00:21:49.859 --> 00:21:53.539 it was debated. But in 2001, a very serious forensic 00:21:53.539 --> 00:21:56.599 analysis was done on the paper and the ink. They 00:21:56.599 --> 00:21:58.440 looked at the chemical composition, the oxidation, 00:21:58.660 --> 00:22:01.299 everything, and the results showed that the materials 00:22:01.299 --> 00:22:04.180 were authentic to the period. Wow. The handwriting 00:22:04.180 --> 00:22:06.619 matched other military documents written by de 00:22:06.619 --> 00:22:09.680 la Peña in the Mexican archives. So most professional 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:11.700 historians now accept that the document itself 00:22:11.700 --> 00:22:14.099 is genuine. So does that mean he definitely surrendered? 00:22:14.519 --> 00:22:17.140 Not necessarily. It means de la Peña wrote that 00:22:17.140 --> 00:22:20.079 he surrendered. But we have to remember. Eyewitness 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:23.660 testimony in war is notoriously tricky. Other 00:22:23.660 --> 00:22:26.079 Mexican officers didn't mention it. Santa Ana's 00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:28.460 own memoir just says Crockett was found among 00:22:28.460 --> 00:22:31.019 the corpses, implying he died fighting. And what 00:22:31.019 --> 00:22:33.339 about the survivors from inside the Alamo? Right, 00:22:33.380 --> 00:22:34.960 like Susana Dickinson, the wife of one of the 00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:37.799 defenders. She said Crockett paused to pray and 00:22:37.799 --> 00:22:39.960 then ran to his post to fight to the death. So 00:22:39.960 --> 00:22:43.460 we have conflicting eyewitnesses. We do. And 00:22:43.460 --> 00:22:45.960 we have to ask, does de la Pena have a reason 00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:49.759 to lie? Well, he hated Santa Ana. Maybe he invented 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:51.940 the execution story to make Santa Ana look like 00:22:51.940 --> 00:22:54.420 a butcher, a man who kills prisoners of war. 00:22:54.579 --> 00:22:56.359 Or maybe Ben the Cook wanted to tell a story 00:22:56.359 --> 00:22:59.019 that honored the brave defenders to please his 00:22:59.019 --> 00:23:02.400 Texas audience. Exactly. So, synthesis time? 00:23:02.779 --> 00:23:05.420 If you're the listener, what should you believe? 00:23:05.660 --> 00:23:07.859 Yeah, what's the takeaway? Here's how I see it. 00:23:08.059 --> 00:23:10.240 Whether he died swinging his rifle in the heat 00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:13.059 of combat at 6 a .m. or whether he was overwhelmed, 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:16.619 surrounded, and executed at 6 .15 a .m., he died 00:23:16.619 --> 00:23:18.940 a defender of the Alamo. That's a great point. 00:23:19.079 --> 00:23:21.339 An execution doesn't make him a coward. Not at 00:23:21.339 --> 00:23:25.059 all. He stayed. He fought. He refused to leave 00:23:25.059 --> 00:23:26.660 when he probably could have slipped out in the 00:23:26.660 --> 00:23:29.180 early days of the siege. He stood his ground 00:23:29.180 --> 00:23:32.380 against impossible odds. The execution theory, 00:23:32.599 --> 00:23:35.440 if true, simply adds a tragic war crime to the 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:37.819 story. It doesn't subtract from his bravery. 00:23:38.220 --> 00:23:39.759 I think that's the healthy way to look at it. 00:23:39.799 --> 00:23:41.940 We don't need the John Wayne ending for him to 00:23:41.940 --> 00:23:44.160 be a hero. Exactly. The bravery wasn't being 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:46.259 there in the first place. So let's zoom out to 00:23:46.259 --> 00:23:49.119 his legacy. Because after he died, he didn't 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:52.440 just stay a politician. He became a myth. It 00:23:52.440 --> 00:23:54.380 started almost immediately, didn't it? Immediately. 00:23:54.619 --> 00:23:56.640 The Crockett Almanac started coming out in the 00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:00.279 1830s and 40s. These were like comic books. They 00:24:00.279 --> 00:24:02.160 turned him into a Superman. They had stories 00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:04.299 where he could grin a raccoon out of a tree, 00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:06.960 ride lightning bolts, and wring the tail off 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:10.200 a comet. And then the 1950s Disney series just 00:24:10.200 --> 00:24:12.599 exploded that into the stratosphere. It did. 00:24:12.660 --> 00:24:15.180 Fess Parker became the face of Crockett. But 00:24:15.180 --> 00:24:17.319 that series also cemented the contradictions. 00:24:17.319 --> 00:24:19.720 We have this king of the wild frontier who fights 00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:22.160 for freedom. But we have to address the elephant 00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:23.819 in the room that we touched on in the outline. 00:24:24.099 --> 00:24:27.700 Slavery. Yes. David Crockett is often held up 00:24:27.700 --> 00:24:29.400 as a champion of the poor and the oppressed. 00:24:29.640 --> 00:24:32.500 And he was when it came to white settlers and 00:24:32.500 --> 00:24:35.039 surprisingly Native Americans during the Removal 00:24:35.039 --> 00:24:37.359 Act. Right. But the historical record shows that 00:24:37.359 --> 00:24:40.380 despite opposing slavery as an institution in 00:24:40.380 --> 00:24:42.859 some of his rhetoric, saying it was a bad system, 00:24:43.220 --> 00:24:46.319 he did enslave people. He owned slaves. He did. 00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:49.420 At various points in his life, he purchased and 00:24:49.420 --> 00:24:52.640 held enslaved people to work his land. And that 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:55.539 is the complexity of historical figures. He could 00:24:55.539 --> 00:24:57.940 have this incredible moral clarity regarding 00:24:57.940 --> 00:25:00.359 the treatment of Native Americans, which was 00:25:00.670 --> 00:25:03.069 way ahead of his time for a Tennessee politician 00:25:03.069 --> 00:25:06.390 while still participating in the system of slavery. 00:25:06.569 --> 00:25:09.130 It prevents us from making him a saint. He was 00:25:09.130 --> 00:25:11.289 a man of his time who transcended his time in 00:25:11.289 --> 00:25:14.390 some ways and was completely bound by it in others. 00:25:14.609 --> 00:25:16.869 Perfectly put. We can't cherry pick the parts 00:25:16.869 --> 00:25:18.910 of history we like. We have to take the whole 00:25:18.910 --> 00:25:22.150 man. And yet, despite the complexity, pop culture 00:25:22.150 --> 00:25:25.190 loves him. Did you know Mythbusters tested one 00:25:25.190 --> 00:25:27.930 of his legends? The bullet splitting. Don't tell 00:25:27.930 --> 00:25:30.150 me they actually did that. Yes. The legend was 00:25:30.150 --> 00:25:32.410 that he could split a bullet on the blade of 00:25:32.410 --> 00:25:34.710 an axe from 40 yards away. It sounds like pure 00:25:34.710 --> 00:25:36.990 Hollywood nonsense. It does. But they tested 00:25:36.990 --> 00:25:39.130 it, and they ruled it plausible. You're kidding. 00:25:39.289 --> 00:25:41.390 They proved that with a period -accurate rifle 00:25:41.390 --> 00:25:44.170 and a skilled shooter, it is physically possible 00:25:44.170 --> 00:25:47.509 to split a lead ball on an axe blade. Which brings 00:25:47.509 --> 00:25:49.849 us back to the fact that underneath the hype, 00:25:49.910 --> 00:25:52.069 underneath the almanacs in the movies, the guy 00:25:52.069 --> 00:25:54.170 could actually shoot. He had the skills. He could 00:25:54.170 --> 00:25:56.549 shoot, he could speak, and he could stand his 00:25:56.549 --> 00:25:59.220 ground. Always be sure you are right, then go 00:25:59.220 --> 00:26:03.299 ahead. That was his motto. And looking at his 00:26:03.299 --> 00:26:05.880 life, from the indentured servant boy walking 00:26:05.880 --> 00:26:09.380 400 miles to the congressman who defied the president 00:26:09.380 --> 00:26:13.079 to save the Cherokee, he lived by that. So we've 00:26:13.079 --> 00:26:15.960 unpacked the name, the politics, and the death. 00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:18.559 What does this all mean for us today? I think 00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:21.500 it's a lesson in the cost of principles. Crockett 00:26:21.500 --> 00:26:23.799 wasn't a successful politician in the sense of 00:26:23.799 --> 00:26:27.190 having a long, powerful career. He lost. He was 00:26:27.190 --> 00:26:29.990 pushed out. He died in a failed military operation 00:26:29.990 --> 00:26:32.470 in a foreign land. By the metrics of a resume, 00:26:32.690 --> 00:26:35.430 he failed. But by the metric of character. Exactly. 00:26:35.569 --> 00:26:38.009 We remember him because he represented a certain 00:26:38.009 --> 00:26:40.190 kind of gritty American spirit, the willingness 00:26:40.190 --> 00:26:42.349 to start over, the willingness to say no to power 00:26:42.349 --> 00:26:44.349 even when it hurts you, and the willingness to 00:26:44.349 --> 00:26:46.450 fight for what you believe is your patch of ground. 00:26:46.609 --> 00:26:48.410 That brings me to a thought I want to leave you 00:26:48.410 --> 00:26:51.490 with. We always look at the Alamo as the climax 00:26:51.490 --> 00:26:54.599 of his life. It's the end of the movie. But I 00:26:54.599 --> 00:26:57.119 want you to imagine for a second that Santa Ana 00:26:57.119 --> 00:27:00.579 decided to bypass the Alamo. Imagine Crockett 00:27:00.579 --> 00:27:02.819 survived the war. That is an interesting what 00:27:02.819 --> 00:27:05.779 if. If he had lived, would he be remembered as 00:27:05.779 --> 00:27:08.940 an American icon today? Or would he just be a 00:27:08.940 --> 00:27:12.140 footnote, a former congressman who moved to Texas 00:27:12.140 --> 00:27:15.180 to speculate on land, maybe served a few terms 00:27:15.180 --> 00:27:17.940 in the Texas legislature, and died of old age? 00:27:18.099 --> 00:27:21.150 That is the provocative question. Did his martyrdom 00:27:21.150 --> 00:27:23.950 create the legend? Does the manner of his death 00:27:23.950 --> 00:27:26.650 matter more than the substance of his life? It's 00:27:26.650 --> 00:27:29.309 something to chew on. Indeed. Sometimes the ending 00:27:29.309 --> 00:27:31.109 writes the whole story. Thank you for diving 00:27:31.109 --> 00:27:33.109 deep with us today into the life of the real 00:27:33.109 --> 00:27:35.369 David Crockett. Always a pleasure. We'll see 00:27:35.369 --> 00:27:37.650 you on the next Deep Dive. Be sure you are right, 00:27:37.730 --> 00:27:38.390 then go ahead.