America was built on the backs of minorities and not on White exceptionalism. The history books and the entertainment industry have created the illusion of a White America. Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison are among the faces that most Americans recognize because that has been the White Americans intent.
Very few Americans have heard of Crispus Attucks. Attucks died in 1770 during the Boston Massacre. Attucks, a runaway slave was one of five colonists killed that day. Likewise, Salem Poor, a slave who bought his own freedom, fought at Saratoga and at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Fellow American soldiers described Poor as a “brave and gallant soldier”. Poor is credited with killing British Lieutenant Colonel James Abercrombie. These names of Black patriots are not generally mentioned in history books because they do not fit the narrative of a White America. Yet, without their contributions there would be no America today.
Likewise, the governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Galvez, a Spaniard was a key ally of the American revolutionaries. First, Galvez provided weapons and ammunition to the Continental Army. After Spain declared war on England in 1779, Galvez attacked British West Florida, forcing the British to fight on two fronts. In 2014, Galvez was made an honorary U.S. citizen by Congress for his contributions to the Revolutionary War. (Congress 113-229) In addition to Galvez, there was also Jorge Farragut and Francisco de Miranda who are also ignored by American historians for the most part, yet they contributed to the American cause.
But many Americans have never heard of Bernardo de Galvez, or the others because he is not part of the national dialog on what makes America.
Davy Crockett and Sam Houston fought for slavery, but history has distorted their fight was one of freedom from tyranny. They fought to keep Texas as a slave-holding country. American history books are filled with Crockett lies. The lies are designed to bury the unsavory truth about the Texas rebellion.
Many history books recount the story that Crockett was executed by Mexican general Santa Anna. He wasn’t, notwithstanding what the history books say.
Stephen F. Austin and James Bowie were slave owners. That is a fact established by history. Austin advocated that the success of Texas meant that Texas should join America as a slave state. Bowie not only traded in slaves, but he traded in stolen slaves.
After 1808, although slavery was permitted by law, the importation of new slaves was prohibited. To circumvent the law, the Bowie brothers sold and traded slaves illegally imported into America by slave-pirate Jean Laffite who raided slave ships to steal their slaves. But Bowie wasn’t just illegally trading slaves, he was also a fraudster selling land that wasn’t his to sell. The United States Supreme Court reaffirmed this in Sempeyreac and Stewart v. The United States.
Shortly after the land fraud surfaced, Jim Bowie left the United States and moved to Texas, a Mexican territory at the time. He brought with him over 100 slaves, he dubbed them “indentured servants” to circumvent Mexico’s anti-slavery laws.
Most important is that the history books glorify such dubious names like Bowie and Crockett while completely ignoring the names of Latinos who also died at the Alamo. Names like Gregorio Esparza and José Toribio Losoya. Esparza was the last Tejano defender to die at the Alamo, defending it from Santa Anna’s army. Toribio deserted from Santa Anna’s army. He died defending the Alamo.
Why are names like Austin, Bowie and Crockett part of the history of the Alamo but not Esparza or Toribio? It is because they do not fit the Anglo superiority narrative.
America is not the Anglo-centric country that history books have tried to impose on Americans. It is the many minorities that helped to build the country from its birth on through today. They are the names ignored by history books because they do not fit the narrative of White supremacy that many believe in.
