The Alamo

The Alamo

"To the people of Texas and all Americans in the World:

I shall never surrender or retreat ... I Am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what it is due to his honor and that of his country-VICTORY OR DEATH." This was a letter sent by William Barret Travis during the siege of the Alamo on February 24, 1836. It was a cry for help to anybody and everybody willing to listen.

It all started in 1830 with Stephen Austin, a leader of American pioneers in the wild, living in Texas, under the rule of the Mexican government, who had solved two major problems that the settlers had with the government. The colonist were now allowed to keep slaves in Texas, even though no other areas under Mexican rule owned slaves, and the second was the government made sure that Texans would be protected by the Mexican government from suits to collect debts that they had contracted in the United States before their immigration to Texas. All over the South were signs on bankrupt homes homes saying "Gone to Texas" were they did not have to pay off their debts .

Austin and his followers were very hot tempered and ready to start up with any government that they disliked. They soon found a chance to stir up trouble under the changeable Mexican rule. Mexican authorities began to worry that too many Americans were coming into their country. About thirty thousand settlers came to Texas in a ten-year span after Austin had established his settlement. The Mexican government under the urging of President Bustamante made harsh laws against arrival of new immigrants into Texas in 1830. Trade was also restricted with America. All borders were closed to newcomers but the Louisiana border could not be patrolled and settlers continued to arrive in Texas. American settlers were put into jail for the ruckus they caused due to these new laws, among them was Stephen Austin.

On July 1833 Austin traveled to Mexico City to plead the cause of the colonists. The colonists wanted to obtain full Mexican statehood and have total control over themselves. Mexican officials would not listen to the Texans. On his way home Austin was arrested for treason on January 3, 1834. The government had intercepted a letter from Austin that said that if his appeal had failed the Texans should establish themselves as a separate state of Mexico. He was j...

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...their might charging at the enemy screaming " Remember the Alamo".

Their incentive in winning was the one hundred and eighty deaths at the Alamo. This inner strength that they obtained from the defeat at the Alamo helped the others defeat the Mexicans and finally win their freedom from the yolk of the Mexican government and eventually being accepted as the twenty-eighth state in the United States of America. But the acceptance would not come easily. They had problems being accepted due to the fact that the ownership of slaves was considered all right in Texas but the North did not want to accept more slave states. Eventually on February 19, 1846 they were accepted as a state.

I never really knew what it was before this and was always wondering why it was such an important event in Texan history. The one thing that confuses me is why the State of Texas would choose a war that they were totally destroyed in as an event that is considered greater than most other events throughout Texan history. But for one thing I truly admire Travis and his followers for fighting to the death like heroes in order to establish freedom and their rights they believed that in all truth deserved.