Tennessee native Davy Crockett was a legendary frontiersman and congressman. His already towering image as a symbol of the American pioneer and democratic spirits was enlarged and immortalized by his death at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. His enduring stature and the continuing historical debate about his life, death, and place in American history has served to illustrate the role of media and culture in the development of the nation’s historical memory.
David “Davy” Crockett was born on the North Carolina frontier in what is now Tennessee and left home to fight alongside Andrew Jackson in the Creek War in 1813. He served in the Tennessee General Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives before joining the rebels in Texas at the Alamo, where he died heroically in 1836 at the hands of Mexican forces. (Library of Congress)
While debate continues about the exact circumstances surrounding his death, Crockett’s foray to Texas in the aftermath of his defeat for reelection to Congress cemented his reputation as a symbol of the hard-driving, courageous people who were central to the emergence of a widespread democracy in the expanding United States. His willingness to oppose Andrew Jackson on the issue of Indian removal as well as his determined advocacy to get cheap Western land for the poor made him a symbol of democracy and freedom. This image and his folksy persona enmeshed in tall tales from the frontier made Crockett a legendary figure during his life and after his death.
David Crockett was born in 1786 in what is now Greene County, Tennessee. Crockett’s father, American Revolution veteran John Crockett, traced his ancestry to Scotland and Ireland, while Crockett’s mother, Rebecca, had ancestors originating from England. Davy Crockett was the fifth son of their nine children—six boys and three girls—and he was named after his paternal grandfather who was killed by Native Americans. Always looking for ways to support the growing family, John Crockett moved his family to Morristown, Tennessee, in the 1770s. There they built and operated a tavern.
Twelve-year-old David Crockett ran away from home rather than confront his father about an incident at school. Wandering from town to town, he made his way up the East Coast to Baltimore by hiring himself out for work. In Baltimore, he prepared to ship out and seek his fortune at sea until his traveling companion refused to allow him to go. Reversing course, Crockett slowly made his way back to Tennessee. He alternately hired himself out and lived off the land, developing and honing the hunting and trapping skills for which he would become famous. He returned home after almost three years away, unrecognizable even to his family. His family was pleased that he had returned, but they soon hired Crockett out to a local farmer because of the debts his father owed.
In 1806, Crockett married Mary (Polly) Finley after previously being jilted when his fiancée broke off their engagement to marry another man. Crockett and Polly settled in Jefferson County, Tennessee, and together they had two sons and a daughter. Crockett moved his family to Franklin County near the Alabama line early in 1813. That summer he enlisted in the army, serving primarily as a scout in the Creek War. His service was short-lived as he returned home in December, but then he reenlisted the following September. Having served under Andrew Jackson in Pensacola, he was eventually mustered out at the end of March 1815 as a third sergeant. Before he returned, Polly gave birth to their third child. Tragically, Polly died the following summer. Responsible for their three children, including an infant, Crockett went looking for another wife. In 1815 he married Elizabeth Patton, a local widow whose husband had been killed in the Creek War. The former Mrs. Patton brought a farm of 200 acres, $800 in savings, and two children to the marriage. Elizabeth was highly organized and a strong manager, making her a good balance to Crockett, whose life was characterized by his never-ending efforts to improve the financial fortunes of his family. He was always on the move, searching for new opportunities, mostly in the West. In his political career, Crockett’s signature issue became making low-cost land available for the poor. This impacted his family because he was often absent for long periods of time in search of new and greater opportunities.
Shortly after remarrying, Crockett went to Alabama to explore real estate possibilities. There he suffered a major illness, probably malaria. He became so ill that his traveling companions left him behind and reported back to his wife that he had died. Consequently, his subsequent return surprised his family while also enhancing his legend. In 1817, Crockett moved his family to Lawrence County, Tennessee. He quickly established a public persona as a humorous, self-deprecating man, one possessing common sense. He was a man of his times, and given his background, he was the right man to speak for the “squatter democracy” that characterized the developing western frontier. He was soon appointed magistrate of the small town. In 1821, he was elected to the Tennessee state legislature where he served for two years. He made an unsuccessful run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1825, but two years later won election to Congress. Although originally a Jackson Democrat, Representative Crockett was known for his independence. This was no small feat for a congressman from a state that produced two of the leading national Democrats, Andrew Jackson and later James K. Polk. For example, Crockett opposed Jackson’s Indian Removal Act. This stand is said to be the key to his reelection defeat in 1831 after his second term in office. He regained his seat in 1833, although he was now seen as a member of the anti-Jackson faction. This stature hampered his effort to achieve legislation for his most ardent passion, securing cheap land for the poor who needed it most.
Beginning with his first foray when he wandered in the woods for three years in fear of his father and continuing with each subsequent scouting and exploring expedition, Crockett developed the skills—shooting, hunting, and scouting—that would be the foundation of his legend. These adventures are the source of the stories that, coupled with his basic gift of humor and a self-deprecating style of storytelling, made him extremely popular. Considered to be the best bear hunter in the West, a man who could “grin any varmint out of a tree,” Crockett mastered the folksy style of the day (Morgan 2011, 124). Possessing a skill set that mattered made him a role model and allowed him to charm campaign audiences along with the press. Each of his appearances morphed into additional stories that fed the legend, and it eventually became a challenge to distinguish between fact and fiction. This challenge, however, only really mattered to his political opponents.
Seeking to play upon his reputation as a wisecracking, backwoods philosopher, Crockett was a frequent speaker on the floor of the House of Representatives. His homespun manner endeared him to a public fascinated by his legendary backwoods exploits. However, as the legends grew and exaggeration began to dwarf reality, Crockett tried to gain some control over his increasingly outsized public image. In 1834, he published an autobiography titled A Narrative Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee in an effort to correct some of the circulating mistaken impressions and also hoping to advance his political career. The publication was accompanied by a promotional tour of the Northeast. This effort spread both his name and his legend, but it also left him open to charges from his opponents. They said he had abandoned his principles. In fact, such charges were central to the 1835 campaign, and Crockett was turned out of office because of that as well as opposition from the state’s pro-Jackson forces.
In the aftermath of his 1835 defeat, Crockett again left his family in search of greater economic opportunity. This time, he headed to Texas where a developing conflict was coming to a head between the American settlers and the Mexican government that owned and governed the land. Crockett soon found himself at the Alamo in San Antonio, a place that would prove to be the site of the final chapter in the story of the American legend, Davy Crockett.
It is agreed that the defenders of the Alamo, whose number included Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Travis, withstood a thirteen-day siege by Mexican forces, although how intense the Mexican pressure was in the early going remains an open question. How the battle ended and the exact nature of Crockett’s death has caused much historical investigation and debate. This is because his death plays a big role in his legendary status as a martyred freedom fighter. The controversy centers on whether he fought to the end, dying at the hands of the invading Mexican forces, or whether he surrendered, pleading for his life only to be executed on the order of Mexican dictator and president Santa Anna. Neither version undermines the legend of frontiersman Davy Crockett because that status was fully established before he headed west for the final time.
Natty Bumppo
The frontiersman hero of the five novels comprising James Fenimore Cooper’s Leather-Stocking Tales, Natty Bumppo is probably best remembered in the popular American imagination as “Hawkeye,” his nickname in The Last of the Mohicans (1826), the second of the series and by far Cooper’s most popular and enduring work. In many ways, Natty Bumppo provided the archetype for the American myth of the noble, self-reliant frontiersman, an image of independence and innate goodness, which abides in the popular imagination to this day. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Natty Bumppo’s alias, “Hawkeye,” enjoyed a renaissance in American lore through a sly pop-culture allusion: it was the nickname of the protagonist of M*A*S*H, the wildly popular television series, film, and novel. Hawkeye Pierce is a hero out of an American tradition born with Natty Bumppo: he is, like his literary namesake, iconoclastic, independent to a fault, and innately suspicious of authority.
C. Fee
Crockett’s place in the American story rose to new heights in the mid-1950s with his arrival on television screens across the country. Crockett was the subject of a tremendously popular Walt Disney–produced 1954–1955 series starring the actor Fess Parker. In the portrayal by John Wayne in the 1960 film epic The Alamo, Davy Crockett became one of the first historical figures whose image was shaped and embellished by film and television. At a time when Westerns were a film and television staple, Disney’s short-lived but highly popular Davy Crockett series offered lessons in courage and character. The series taught general American history to a generation of young people who quickly made wearing coonskin caps a staple of their attire.
While Crockett’s heroic death at the Alamo sealed his status as a legendary figure, his life would likely have been little more than a historical footnote were he not the beneficiary of advances in twentieth-century media. These advances in television and film allowed the legend of the “king of the wild frontier” to be presented to a new generation of hero-worshipping young people. Davy Crockett’s story offers a timeless lesson in the way the American story has been shaped, shared, and memorialized.
William H. Pruden III
See also Alamo; Boone, Daniel; Carson, Kit; Founding Myths; Legends
Further Reading
Crisp, James E. 2005. Sleuthing the Alamo. New York: Oxford University Press.
Morgan, Robert. 2011. Lions of the West. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
Shackford, James Atkins. 1994. David Crockett: The Man and the Legend. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Thompson, Bob. 2011. Born on a Mountaintop. New York: Crown.
Wallis, Michael. 2011. David Crockett: The Lion of the West. New York: W. W. Norton.
Crockett, Davy—Primary Document
A Collection of Political Speeches Attributed to Davy Crockett (1837, 1840, 1873)
The frontier spirit of self-reliance and opposition to cultural elites has produced a rich history of populism in the United States. Among this tradition’s earliest heroes was frontiersman Davy Crockett. Crockett’s political success was due in part to his ability to make himself a legend in his own time. His speeches were riddled with hyperbole and his stories were nearly all frontier tall tales. Taking pride in his own lack of education, Crockett earned a reputation for bringing much needed down-to-earth common sense to the halls of Congress. His emphasis on “politicians ruinin’ the country” continues to make Crockett a hero of populists to this day.
CROCKETT ELECTIONEERING
One day, when I was getting ready to go down into Green Swamp for a mess of rattlesnakes, Luke Wing, Grizzle Newcome, and Batt Wiggle, cum to my house to try to coax me to set up for Congress. I telled them I didn’t understand them kind of splunctifications; but they telled me it was sartain the country would be ruined if I didn’t go to Congress. So I seed that war no other way, and so I got ready to go round among the ‘lectors, and argufy upon it. I went down to Hay Hollow and ketched a pesky great alligator, and made a bridle for him of painter’s hides, and then I got on his back, and rid up to Bear Cleering, whar thar war a whole heap of fellows talking politicks. I driv rite in among ‘em, and my crockodile opened his mouth as wide as Black Cave, and they war all astonished. It did wonders for my election. When he opened his mouth every tooth in his head counted for a voter, and when I driv through ‘em, I yelled seven times as loud as a hull drove of injins, and then I crowed till my eyes struck out two inches. T’other candidate begun to think he had a smart chance of losing his ‘lections; so he got on the stump to speechify. But I driv my alligator right up to the spot, and he opened his mouth wider than ever, as if he was goin to shallow the feller, and he jumpt off that stump, and run and hollowed murder, and was never seen arterward, and so I won the ‘lection.
Source: Twenty-Five Cents Worth of Nonsense; or, The Treasure Box of Unconsidered Trifles. Philadelphia, New York, and Boston: Fisher & Brothers, 1840.
SPEECH OF CROCKETT DURING THE CANVASS OF 1829
Friends, fellow-citizens, brothers, and sisters: On the first Tuesday previous to next Saturday you will be called on to perform one of the most important duties that belong to free white folks—that are a fact. On that day you will be called upon to elect your members to the Senate and House of Representatives in the Congress of the United States, and feeling that in times of great political commotion like these, it becomes you to be well represented, I feel no hesitation in offering myself as a candidate to represent such a high-minded and magnanimous white set.
Friends, fellow-citizens, brothers and sisters: Caroll is a statesman, Jackson is a hero, and Crockett is a horse!!
Friends, fellow-citizens, brothers and sisters: They accuse me of adultery; it’s a lie—I never ran away with any man’s wife, that was not willing, in my life. They accuse me of gambling, it’s a lie—for I always plank down the cash.
Friends, fellow-citizens, brothers and sisters: They accuse me of being a drunkard, it’s a damned eternal lie,—for whiskey can’t make me drunk.
Source: Old Times in West Tennessee, Reminiscences—Semi-Historic—of Pioneer Life and the Early Emigrant Settlers in the Big Hatchie Country, by a Descendant of One of the First Settlers [Joseph S. Williams], pp. 175–176. Memphis: W. G. Cheeney, Printer and Publisher. 1873.
SPEECH OF COLONEL CROCKETT IN CONGRESS
Mr. Speaker.
Who—Who—Whoop—Bow—Wow—Wow—Yough. I say, Mr. Speaker; I’ve had a speech in soak this six months; and it has swelled me like a drowned horse; if I don’t deliver it I shall burst and smash the windows. The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Everett] talks of summing up the merits of the question, but I’ll sum up on my own. In one word I’m a screamer, and have got the roughest racking horse, the prettiest sister, the surest riffle and the ugliest dog in the district. I’m a leetle the savage critter you ever did see. My father can whip any man in Kentucky, and I can lick my father. I can outspeak any man on this floor, and give him two hours start. I can run faster, dive deeper, stay longer under, and come out drier, than any chap this side the big Swamp. I can outlook a panther and outstare a flash of lightening, tote a steamboat on my back and play at rough and tumble with a lion, and an occasional kick from a zebra. To sum up all in one word I’m a horse. Goliah was a pretty hard colt but I could choke him. I can take the rag off—frighten the old folks—astonish the natives—and beat the Dutch all to smash—make nothing of sleeping under a blanket of snow—and don’t mind being frozen more than a rotten apple.
Congress allows lemonade to the members and has it charged under the head of stationery—I move also that whiskey be allowed under the item of fuel. For bitters I can suck away at a noggin of aquaforis, sweetened with brimstone, stirred with a lightning rod, and skimmed with a hurricane. I’ve soaked my head and shoulders in Salt River, so much that I’m always corned. I can walk like an ox, run like a fox, swim like an eel, yell like an Indian, fight like a devil, spout like an earthquake, make love like a mad bull, and swallow a nigger whole without choking if you butter his head and pin his ears back.
Source: Davy Crockett’s Almanac, of Wild Sports in the West, Life in the Backwoods, & Sketches from Texas, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 40. Nashville, TN: Snag & Sawyer, 1837.