AMERICAN SAMURAI VOL:1

Davey Crocket and American Mythos

Davy Crockett, is most likely more myth than reality, but who cares? Crockett is an American myth worth telling. Solider, politician, hunter, and outdoorsmen par excellence, dies in a hail of gunfire at the Alamo, portrayed by John Wayne. I don’t give a damn if it is all fluff, give me that mythos over having to hear about Ruby Bridges and Nelson Mandela any day.

Crockett is everything you ever thought was cool about America, hell he was what the gunfighters in the wild west thought was cool. He was born to a poor family where his grandparents were murdered by Creek and Cherokee Indians, and his uncle was held captive for seventeen years by said Indians. His father sold him into indentured servitude twice. He fought the Creek Indians under Andrew Jackson, came home fathered six kids, became a senator, quit, and went out in a blaze of glory at the Alamo.

The details don’t matter. What does matter is what he represents. He was the physical embodiment of what American men idolized in the 19th century. He is the spirit that exists in us all to tame the wild, the Faustian desire to conquer infinite space (to channel Spangler). Going into the frontier and becoming a master of the unknown.

Four legends from the Ballad of Davy Crockett are important here.

• He killed a bear when he was three

• Fought the Creek Indians single-handedly

• Went to Washington to “drain the swamp”

• Died in a blaze of glory at the Alamo

Each of these myths listed above represents an important expression of the American Frontiersmen as an incarnation of the American Spirt.

Photo by anvesh baru on Unsplash

First, three-year-old Davy Crockett, still in the 18th century equivalent of pampers didn’t kill a bear. However, this legend provides us with the understanding that Davy is born on the frontier. He is not a man from Europe coming to chase adventure, he is adventure. Davy is the American with no memory of Europe, born here and molded by the experience alien to their grandfathers. Killing the bear shows the mastering of the frontier and the taming of the wild. Just like Davy Americans will have to do this from a young age because the frontier gives no quarter even to children. So, Davy is born in America, thrown into the untamed wilderness, and conquers the beast.

Fighting the Creek Indians single-handedly. Davey Crockett had a small and insignificant role in the war against the Creek Indians. What this legend represents is relatively self-explanatory. If you’re on the frontier you’re going to have to fight Indians at some point, therefore, you might as well fight as Davey did. You may find yourself alone in new territory when off in the distance a group of hostile Indians appears on the horizon. There is nowhere to run and if you do you will only die tired. So, you think back to Davy and how he single-handedly bested some Creek Indians, and you muster up the courage to do the same. Results may vary ,but fighting Indians was part of the job, and Davy Crockett taught you that. Again, it's a myth but it serves a greater purpose of transmitting the dangers of the frontier and how to face them.

Mr. Crockett goes to Washington; it didn’t turn out like the Frank Capra film and Crockett probably didn’t go to “drain the swamp”. In fact, he did the typical political dance and made deals and mostly squabbled over land rights. The purpose of this element of the Davey Crockett story is to exhibit the desire of Americans to clear out the crooked politicians and have it done by a “good ole boy”. Just like Mr. Smith in the aforementioned Frank Capra film he doesn’t really do much and is pretty disillusioned with the whole process. Crockett did go to Washington and here the legend tells Americans that when the government is being, the government you might just have to go and fix it yourself, just wear a coonskin cap not a red one, and when that doesn’t work well, you can always go to Texas.

Last and most importantly we have the last stand at the Alamo. Savagely disillusioned with politics (the Whigs had hoped to run him for President), Crockett said “Since you have chosen to elect a man with a timber toe to succeed me, you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.” At the Alamo Davy Crockett and less than two hundred men fought to the death against Santa Anna and two thousand of his troops. The actual events are shady, and it probably didn’t go down like John Wayne said it did. The result was the same Texas gained independence (if only for a little bit) and Santa Anna ran away in drag. The imagery is important two hundred brave Texans fighting to the last man in hand-to-hand combat to slow the Mexican Army. Every decent nation needs a last stand, the Greeks have Thermopylae, the Brits have Rorke’s Drift, the Scots have Bannockburn, etc. Americans found theirs at the Alamo. Crockett dying in a blaze of glory in many ways symbolize the death of the frontier. Just as Davy Crockett’s mythological life represented the life of the young American nation so his death was a precursor to the fall of the frontiersman and the rise of the cowboy right in the heart of Texas.

Davy Crockett was the prototypical frontiersman, the perfect representative for a newly formed nation ready to expand. His myth carries the elements that help build the nation. The traits of heritage Americans that founded and built America. When people ask “what is American culture?” remember that buried deep beneath the rainbow flags and the fast-food restaurants, lies men like Crockett waiting to be repurposed for a new generation of Americans.

- TJ. Slaughter