The Texas Revolution was about a small ragtag group of people intent on avenging their dead at the Alamo while protecting their way of life from an onslaught of a bloodthirsty invading army trying to kill them. That is the gist of the history taught in American schools today.
Thousands of visitors visit the Alamo in San Antonio each year listening to stories of heroic Americans defending themselves from evil. Never mind that those in the Alamo were criminals who had rebelled against the government that allowed them to live in Tejas. Never mind that most at the Alamo were traitors to their nation.
None of that is taught in the history books.
What is taught is that the Texans heroically proclaimed independence and liberated themselves from tyranny.
What is not taught is that the Texans weren’t fighting tyranny. They were rebelling to create a nation where slaves could be kept.
That is the underlining truth hidden all the bluster of a ragtag righteous army fighting a tyrannical dictator. It is part of the original lie that “all men are created equal” in America.
The reason that the Texas Revolution was about slavery is lost in many readers because American schools teach the glamorized version of why the Mexicans marched upon the Alamo.
Here is what the schools do not teach.
In 1829, México abolished slavery. Unlike the northern states, slaves that escaped the southern states to México were not returned to their slave masters. There are many scholarly works that show many Mexican Tejanos helped slaves reach México. Also, an underground railroad for slaves has been documented.
This led the Anglo Texans who had settled in Texas at the invitation of the Mexican government to rebel against México. Many will argue that this is not true.
In 1835, some Texans, mostly white-Anglos rebelled from México. The rebellion was about slavery as demonstrated in Section 9 of the General Provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas which made slavery legal in Texas and defined slaves as “people of color”.
México lost almost half of its national territory because it forbade slavery.
But the resulting U.S.-Mexico War created another class of colored people in America – the Mexicans.
Although the treaty ending the war between México and the United States made no provisions for the Mexicans remaining in the U.S. as to their culture and language, almost immediately the newly created U.S. citizens of Mexican descent were disfranchised. Several attempts to eradicate the Mexican culture or take Spanish out of America continues to this day.
As with the Black population in America, Mexicans were also segregated. Mexicans had now become the “other persons” referred to by America’s founding documents.
Equal but not equal is what allows some Americans to label undocumented immigrants as “illegals” or why some are not bothered by securing the southern border while ignoring the northern border where the real danger exists as documented by historical facts.
It is why Latinos are not electable in today’s America and why the electoral college disfranchises the Latinos in California. It keeps the majority from usurping the authority of the minority.
In tomorrow’s post we will tie everything together to explain why the electoral college exists to keep women and gays from being electable.
