The Washington Post had an article on May 8, 2021 discussing the renovations the Alamo requires. Although most everyone agrees that the Alamo needs a makeover, what it teaches about history is controversial. The United States has taught a distorted history minimizing or ignoring the part that slavery had on the country’s economic prowess. In the case of the Texas Revolution, the slavery question has been largely absent in the history books in Texas schools.
Many Texas school children never hear that the Texas Revolution was about slavery.
As I discussed in 2020 slavery is the most important issue that led to the Texans to rebel from México. Most Texans are not taught this inconvenient fact and many Texans will argue today that slavery wasn’t the issue.
They are wrong.
The Alamo renovation “has devolved into a five-year brawl over whether to focus narrowly on the 1836 battle or present a fuller view that delves into the site’s indigenous history and the role of slavery in the Texas Revolution,” according to the Washington Post.
William Travis and Davy Crockett, as well as James Bowie were slave owners. El Paso’s showcase school for the Latino majority of the city is Bowie Highschool. It is named after James Bowie a defender of the Alamo and a slave trader.
Many El Paso Latinos had no inkling about this inconvenient fact.
Likewise, the slave ownership of Crockett and Travis are also obscured, ignored or minimized in Texas schools today.
As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until 2018 that the Texas Board of Education changed the way Texas students are taught the Civil War. Beginning in 2019, Texas students are now taught that slavery is the “central role” of the Civil War.
Although groups, including Republicans, insist that the Texas Revolution was not about slavery, historians “argue that support for slavery was indeed a motivating factor of the Texas Revolution,” according to the Washington Post article.
The Big Lie
Today, many Republicans believe in The Big Lie that Joe Biden lost the election to Donald Trump. Many ask themselves how The Big Lie can be perpetuated across America and believed by many.
The reason is America’s penchant for revisionist history. Americans refuse to face the facts and instead believe what is taught to them or they hear without taking a moment to ask the simple question, is this true?
The fact is that México lost almost half of its territory simply because some Americans wanted to enslave other people to Make America Great.
The Civil War and the Texas Revolution were about slavery. To argue otherwise shows a clear lack of wanting to know facts over lies.
