Davy Crockett
"King of the Wild Frontier"
Biography
History
The Origins of Davy Crockett
The Ballad of Davy Crockett
Crockett's Narrative
Crockett's Almanacs
Crockett's Speech
-The Life of David Crockett-
David Crockett was born August 17, 1786, in what is now Greene County, Tennessee, just east of Knoxville, at the mouth of Limestone Creek, of dirt-poor pioneer stock. His grandfather and grandmother on the Crockett side had been killed by Indians in 1777 and his father, John, had battled for American independence with other "over-mountain men" at King's Mountain, North Carolina. About seven years after David became their fifth son, the Crocketts purchased a little log tavern on the road between Knoxville and Abingdon, Virginia.
At age twelve David was hired out as an indentured servant by his father to a rough Dutchman from Virginia. After a year of bad treatment the boy ran away, but found no warm welcome at home. As punishment for breaking out of his servitude the youngster was forced to attend school. This he could not abide, so he spent his days cavorting in the woods. His truancy was quickly discovered and John Crockett, no early disciple of enlightened child rearing, decided to beat some education into the boy. In his autobiography David remembers that his father "had been taking a few horns, and was in good condition to make the fur fly" (p. 31). The sight of his dear old pap cutting a two-year-old hickory was enough to send the boy scampering off into the forests, his father in hot pursuit. He kept running, not returning home for three years.
In 1802, reunited with his family, David went to work as a farmhand to help pay off his father's debts. Three years later he took out a license to marry a local beauty, but was jilted. He soon again embarked on courtship, winning the hand of Polly Finley. They were married on August 16, 1806, and took up sharecropping on a tiny rented farm.
They did not prosper, and in 1811 moved west in search of free land, settling on the Mulberry fork of Elk River near the Alabama border. "In this time," David relates in his autobiography, "we had two sons, and I found I was better at increasing my family than my fortune" (p. 68). Crockett proved more adept at hunting than farming, for deer and bear were plentiful in the forest and canebrakes of Tennessee. Not only did these beasts provide essential food to subsistence farm families like the Crocketts, their skins also were a marketable cash crop.
Crockett eventually won widespread fame as a hunter, killing 105 bears in one season alone. One needs to keep in mind that in Crockett's time bears were not only a threat to livestock, and even humans on occasion, but were also a source of great quantities of meat, as well as hides for clothing and lard for cooking, grease, and making soap. Bear hunting was hard, dangerous work and the image of Crockett, tomahawk and knife in hand, wrestling a huge behemoth into table meat is one of our strongest frontier images.
Crockett's hunting escapades were interrupted when, in August 1813, Creek Indians slaughtered some 550 settlers at Fort Mims, Alabama. Along with other young men of his neighborhood, he responded by joining the militia in answer to General Andrew Jackson's call to arms. On November 3, 1813, he participated in the brutal massacre of the Indian population of Tallussahatchee. Over two hundred Creek men, women, and children perished before Jackson's men reckoned that Fort Mims had been avenged and began to take prisoners. Crockett was not merely a private soldier, but rose to the rank of sergeant. Such brutal work proved rough for Crockett, and as soon as his ninety-day enlistment was up, he headed for home, thus missing Jackson's final triumphant battle against the Creeks at Horseshoe Bend on March 28, 1814.
Although he reenlisted the following September and scouted against British-armed Indians in the West Florida swamps, he was happy to leave martial glory behind him when his enlistment expired March 27, 1815. "This closed my career as a warrior, and I am glad of it," he remarks in the autobiography, "for I like life now a heap better than I did then, and I am glad all over that I lived to see these times, which I should not have done if I had kept fooling along in war, and got used up at it" (p. 124). Except for thirteen days in 1836 at the Alamo, he would not again bear arms as a soldier.
No sooner was Crockett home than tragedy struck. Polly, although seemingly well after the birth of their daughter Margaret, suddenly took ill and died in the summer of 1815. It was, as David wrote, "the hardest trial which ever falls to the lot of man" (p. 125). Being a practical man, he soon began to look around for a new mother for his three young children. His attentions were directed toward a young widow, Elizabeth Patton, whose husband had been killed in the Indian war. They were married on May 22, 1816. Elizabeth and David would have four children together, but the marriage seems to have had more to do with practical convenience than romance.
Soon after the wedding they moved to Shoal Creek in Lawrence County, Tennessee. It is there that Crockett began his political career, first as magistrate, then as justice of the peace, then as town commissioner, and in 1818 winning election as colonel of the Fifty-Seventh Militia Regiment. In 1821 he was elected to the state legislature, and was returned again in 1823.
Elizabeth, a frugal and industrious woman, watched over the farm while David hunted for bears and campaigned for votes. Endowed with a good measure of common sense, an uncommon streak of pure honesty, and a warm sense of humor, Crockett was a natural for the rough-and-tumble, down-home brand of backwoods electioneering. His strong defense of squatters' rights in the west-ern country won him good marks in the state legislature so that he was encouraged to run for Congress. He was defeated in his congressional campaign in 1825, but came back strong in 1827 to win.
His campaign style was simple and direct, fitting well in an era where political meetings usually opened with a barbecue and ended in a dance, with candidates expected to buy drinks for everyone. A wealthy friend, merchant Marcas Winchester, financed Crockett's early political career, providing the Colonel with enough cash, as he put it; "so I was able to buy a little of the creature, to put my friends in a good humour, as well as the other gentlemen, for they all treat in that country; not to get elected, of course—for that would be against the law; but just, as I before said, to make themselves and their friends feel their keeping a little" (p. 202).
Although Crockett left his hunting shirt back in Tennessee, along with Elizabeth and the children, he nevertheless quickly became a picturesque figure in Washington, winning renown as the canebrake congressman. Identified strongly with Andrew Jackson, who would win the presidency in 1828, Crockett quickly emerged as a symbol of the dawning “Age of the Common Man."
Crockett had two basic and fatal character flaws that doomed his political career from the start—he was just too independent and too honest to be a congressman, much less president. He proved unable to compromise on important issues and soon came to believe that President Jackson had ceased to support the interests of the "common man." His pet issue—the protection of the right of western squatters to purchase the land they had pioneered—ran against the interests of the wealthy planters and monied land speculators who were Jackson's financial backers. His contention that government ought to "at least occasionally, legislate for the poor" met with studied indifference in Washington.
At the very time that Jackson and his men, such as Sam Hous¬ton and James K. Polk, were attempting to enforce a party solidarity that would lead to the creation of the modern Democratic Party, Crockett insisted upon his right to vote his conscience regardless of party affiliation. "I have no other feelings towards Col. Crockett," sneered future President Polk, "than those of pity for his folly." Crockett returned the fire in kind, insisting that he was true to Jacksonian principles even if Old Hickory was not.
Crockett broke with Jackson toward the end of his first term in Congress. His most famous departure from the Jackson camp was over the notorious Indian removal bill. This was Jackson's pet measure and, as narrowly passed on May 26, 1830, appropriated $500,000 to move Indians living east of the Mississippi River off their ancestoral lands and into the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). It is now viewed as one of the darkest blots on our history. Although he realized that the bill was wildly popular with his pioneer constituents, Crockett's conscience told him that removal was immoral and he boldly spoke out against the measure on May 19, 1830.
His stand against Jackson became increasingly strident. "I thought with him, as he thought before he was President: he has altered his opinion—I have not changed mine," Crockett declared in a campaign circular letter on February 28, 1831. "I have not left the principles which led me to support General Jackson: he has left them and me; and I will not surrender my independence to follow his new opinions, taught by interested and selfish advisors, and which may again be remoulded under the influence of passion and cunning."
Crockett beat Fitzgerald to win back his old seat in Congress in 1833. Now came a period of vigorous image building, first with the publication of Crockett's autobiography and then with a grand 1834 tour of eastern cities, to promote the book as well as its author's political stock. The Whig Party was delighted with Crockett, hoping to use him as their own authentic backwoods common man and thus beat Jackson at his own symbolic game. But as the party representing eastern mercantile and industrial interests, the Whigs had little in common with Crockett's philosophy. Nevertheless, his head was turned by their blandishments so that he actually came to believe their talk of running him for president in 1836.
In 1835 came the first of fifty Crockett almanacs that would be published before the series ended in 1856. Entitled Davy Crockett's Almanack of Wild Sports of the West, and Life in the Backwoods, 1835, it carried a Nashville imprint and proved enormously popular.
Crockett's 1835 defeat at the polls made it simple for the Whigs to abandon him.
This defeat was a hard blow. He turned forty-nine in August 1835, the very month of his electoral defeat, and despite his widespread fame his family was barely better off economically than when he first won election as magistrate.
By October 1835 he had made his decision to go to Texas , because the papers were full of stories about Texas, where American settlers were growing restless under Mexican rule and there was plenty of free land just waiting for a man bold enough to take it. In Nacogdoches Crockett swore an oath of allegiance "to the Provisional Government of Texas or any future republican Government that may be hereafter declared." Crockett attached himself to a group of fifteen volunteers headed for San Antonio de Bexar, and they were dubbed "Tennessee Mounted Volunteers."
On February 3, 1836, Crockett and his fifteen companions rode into San Antonio. Twenty days later they were taken by surprise by the arrival of the Mexican advance guard. On March 6, 1836 the Mexican assault finally came, and with it, Crockett's untimely end.
So perished Colonel David Crockett of Tennessee, bear hunter, congressman, and, now, martyr on the altar of manifest destiny. He died as he had lived, boldly facing his opponents with unflinching determination to be sure he was right—and then to go ahead! That he did not fall at the height of battle, ringed by the men he had slain with his clubbed rifle and knife, is of no consequence. Such a death would have been out of character with his life. He was no warrior chieftain, but rather a pioneer turned politician who came to symbolize western egalitarianism and unbridled opportunity. He died in search of that opportunity, not lusting after the blood of his fellow man. It was a fine close to a magnificent career, and secured a glorious immortality for Crockett that a successful political career in Texas never could have.
-Bibliographical information courtesy of Paul Andrew Hutton's "Introduction" to David Crockett's A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of The State of Tennessee, Written by Himself-
Crockett wore his thick brown hair long, had a robust build, ruddy complexion marked by quite red cheeks, blue eyes, and was around five feet eight inches tall.
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American History & David Crockett
-Aug 30, 1813-
Hundreds of settlers, mixed-blood Creeks, and militia killed at Fort Mims, Alabama. In response to the massacre, Crockett enlists in volunteer militia under the command of General Andrew Jackson.
-March 27, 1815-
Crockett's enlistment ends.
-March 27, 1818-
Crockett is elected as the Lieutenant Colonel of the 57th Regiment of the Tennessee Militia.
-1830-
Crockett loses re-election to Andrew Jackson because of his oposition to Jackson's Indian Removal Act.
-1832-
Crockett beats out Col. Fitzgerald in the election for Congress.
-1824-
Crocket runs for congress and loses.
-November 3, 1813-
Crockett participates in the brutal massacre of the Indian population of Tallussahatchee, where over two-hundred Creek men, women, and children were killed to avenge Fort Mims.
-April 1814-
Creeks request peace.
-1820's-
Crockett emerges as a symbol of the dawning "Age of the Common Man."
-September 17, 1821-
Crockett is elected to the Committee of Propositions and Grievances.
Trail of Tears
-1826-
Crockett is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
-March 6, 1836-
Crockett dies at the Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio, TX where the state was fighting MExico for independence.
"This closed my career as a warrior, and I am glad of it, for I like life now a heap better than I did then, and I am glad all over that I lived to see these times, which I should not have done if I had kept fooling along in war, and got used up at it" (124).
"Capt. Matthews came to me and told me he was a candidate for the office of colonel of a regiment, and that I must run for the first major in the same regiment. I objected to this, telling him that I thought I had done my share of fighting, and that I wanted nothing to do with military appointments" (137).
"I have not left the principles which led me to support General Jackson: he has left them and me; and I will not surrender my independence to follow his new opinions taught by interested and selfish advisors."
"[People] began to talk pretty strong of running me for Congress against [Col. Alexander]...I told people that I couldn't stand that ; it was a step above my knowledge, and I knoe'd nothing about Congress matters" (172).
"The contest was a warm one, and the battle well fought ; but I gained the day, and the Jackson horse was left a little behind" (210).
"I was living ten miles below Winchester when the Creek war commenced ; and as military men are making so much fuss in the world at this time, I must give account of the part I took in the defense of the country" (71).
-The Lengend of Daviy Crocket, "King of the Wild Frontier"-
Crockett's generation, the first to face the future without the guidance of the original Founding Fathers, was an insecure lot who turned to the frontier in search of the regenerative values associated with the Revolutionary Era. They associated the West with unbounded future opportunity, viewing westerners like Crockett as the flag-bearers of a "manifest destiny" that called for the God-ordained expansion of American institutions and culture clear across the North American continent. The conquest of this vast empire reaffirmed that this new generation, like the one before, were masters of the environment and their own destiny. The rise of the West—along with men like Jackson and Crockett—represented to many the triumph of pure democracy and a complete rejection of the European values of social class and aristocracy. These were "common men" who made their economic and political fortunes through hard work coupled with natural ability.
Crockett came to symbolize a rough egalitarianism, freedom of opportunity,
manifest destiny, and a reaffirmation of the cherished principles of the Declaration of Independence.
The April 1831 New York premiere of James Kirke Paulding's successful play, The Lion of the West, gave quite a boost to Crockett's notoriety. Actor James Hackett's portrayal of the blustering but commonsensical Nimrod Wildfire was immediately recog¬nized as a caricature of Crockett. The play's popularity grew, with the public warmly embracing Nimrod Wildfire as a distinctively American hero.
When, in December 1833, Hackett appeared in Washington for a benefit performance of The Lion of the West, Crockett had a specially reserved box seat. When the buck-skin-clad, fur-cap-bedecked Hackett appeared on stage he turned and studiously bowed toward Crockett. The Colonel rose and bowed right back. The audience went wild.
It was the actor Hackett as Wildfire who established the coonskin cap as Crockett's symbolic headgear, for no authentic contemporary portrait or written account identifies such a crown upon the "King of the Wild Frontier's" regal head before 1835. The first drawing of Crockett in a fur cap (it is a wildcat skin) graces the cover of Davy Crockett's 1837 Almanack, and it is a copy of a drawing of Hackett as Nimrod Wildfire that was used to publicize the play. Contemporary drawings of the real Crockett portray him in formal eastern dress, or, in John G. Chapman's painting, with a broad-brimmed felt hat of the style popular in the mid-nineteenth century.
Nothing save his authentic famous motto—"Be always sure you're right, then go ahead!"—is more closely Identified with Crockett than his "half horse, half alligator" brag. That bold speech, however, was plagiarized from Paulding's play by Matthew St. Glair Clarke, the anti-Jackson clerk of the House of Representatives, who attributed it to Crockett in his 1833 biography, Life and Adventures of Colonel David Crockett of West Tennessee (also titled Sketches and Eccentricities of Colonel David Crockett of West Tennessee). The book proved popular and the brag became identified with Crockett's legend and the rich folk literature of the Old Southwest, even though entirely an eastern creation. Tj Clarke lifted a major passage from Paulding's play and wrote it into important sequences of his book. In the first Crockett challenges a boatman coming downriver in order to get his vote:
"Ain't I the yaller flower of the forest? And I am all brimstone but the head and ears, and that's aqua-fortis." Said he, "Stranger, you are a beauty: and if I know'd your name I'd vote for you next election." Said I, "I'm that same David Crockett. You know what I'm made of. I've got the closest shootin' rifle, the best 'coon dog, the biggest ticlur, and the ruffest racking horse in the district. I can kill more lickur, fool more varmints, and cool out more men than any man you can find in all Kentucky." Said he, "Good mornin', sir, I feel much better since our meeting"; but after I got away a piece, I said, "Hello, friend, don't forget that vote."
In relating Crockett's first trip to Washington, Clarke again called upon Paulding's skill as a playwright. Crockett supposedly introduces himself to folks along the road to the capitol thusly:
"I'm that same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half-horse, half-alligator, a little touched with snapping-turtle; can wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak of lightning, and slip without a scratch down a honey locust; can whip my weight in wild cats,—and if any gentleman pleases, for a ten dollar bill, he may throw in a panther,— hug a bear too close for comfort, and eat any man opposed to Jackson."
-Information on the Legend of Davy Crockett courtesy of Paul Andrew Hutton's "Introduction" to David Crockett's A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of The State of Tennessee, Written by Himself-
The Crockett Almanacs
"a pornography of racism and violence"
About the Almanacs
-Crockett's Daughters-
I always had the praise o' raisin the tallest and fattest, and sassyest gals in all America. They can out-run, out-jump, out-fight, and out-scream any crittur in creation; and for scratching thar's not a hungry painter, or a patent horse-rake can hold a claw to 'em.
The oldest one growed so etarnally tall that her head had got nearly out o' sight. when she got into an all-thunderin' fight with a thunder storm that stunted her growth, and now I am afraid that she'll never reach her natural size. Still, it takes a hull winter's weavin' to make her walkin' and bed clothes; and when she goes to bed she's so tarnal long, and sleeps so sound, that we can only waken her by degrees, and that's by chopping fire wood on her shins.
An' I guess I shall never forget how all horrificaciously flumexed a hull party oil Indians war, the time they surprised and seized my middle darter, Thebeann, when she war out gatherin' birch bark, to make a canoe. The varmints knew as soon as they got hold of her that she war one of my breed, by her thunderbolt kickin', and they determined to cook half of her and eat the other half alive, out of revenge for the many lickin's I gin 'em. At last they concluded to tie her to a tree, and kindle a fire around her. But they couldn't come it, for while they war gone for wood, a lot of painters that war looking on at the cowardly work, war so gal-vanised an' pleased with the gal's true grit that they formed a guard around her, and wouldn't allow the red niggers to come within smellin' distance; they actually gnawed her loose, an' 'scorted her half way home.
But the youngest o' my darters takes arter me, and is of the regular earthquake natur. Her body's flint rock, her soul's lightnin, her fist is a thunderbolt, and her teeth can out-cut any steam-mill saw in creation. She is a parfect infant prodigy, being only six years old; she has the biggest foot and widest mouth in all the west, and when she grins, she is splendifferous; she shows most beautiful intarnals, and can scare a flock o' wolves to total terrifications.
Well, one day, my sweet little infant was walking in the woods, and amusing her¬self by picking up walnuts, and cracking them with her front grindstones, when sud- denaciously she stumbled over an almitey great hungry he-barr. The critter seein' her fine red shoulders bare, sprung at her as if determined to feast upon Crockett meat. He gin her a savaggerous hug, and was jist about biting a regular buss out on her cheek, when the child, resentin' her insulted vartue, gin him a kick with her south fist in his digestion that made him hug the arth instanterly. Jist as he war a-comin' to her a sec¬ond time, the little gal grinned sich a double streak o' blue lightnin into his mouth that it cooked the critter to death as quick as think. She brought him home for dinner.
She'll be a thunderin' fine gal when she gets her nateral growth, if her stock o' Crockett lightnin don't burst her biler, and blow her up.
1835-56
-Southwest Humor With a Motive-
Crockett’s Daughters is a humorous tale that criticizes patriarchal society and the constraints forced upon women by a strict female gender role. Through his “daughters,” Crockett emphasizes the importance of breaking away from the stereotypes of the country’s roots (namely England). Crockett suggests that it is more important to pass on traits to one’s children than a mere name, because, as in Franklin’s American model, one is not valued for their family’s legacy, but rather by their merit. Through this tale, Crockett reveals that the model Yankee female or model Southern Bell do not fit in with the wild frontier because such women simply aren’t useful.
Through this tale, as well as in his other works, Crockett emphasizes the importance of language. He is a story-teller and language is his device. It is not only entertaining, but inspirational how Crockett complements his larger-than-life stories with a vibrant vocabulary that is all his own.
-A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee,
Written by Himself-
Crockett's autobiography is a book of enduring popularity. It has often been reprinted in authentic, abridged, bastardized, and plagiarized editions. It falls within the tradition of American auto-biography pioneered by Benjamin Franklin. Like Franklin's work, it is peculiarly American in form and tone, recounting one of the most beloved of our national obsessions: the success story of the self-made man. It is also a literary and folk document, capturing the humor and backcountry dialect eventually enshrined in our highest literary traditions by Mark Twain.
The hard-edged, brutal reality of frontier life is recounted with skill and clarity. Crockett's humor, in fact, often appears as a method of dealing with the cruel whims of a harsh environment. Thus the book also serves as an important social history of day-to-day pioneer life on the frontier. And, of course, the book is also a political document. It attempts to promote the author's own congressional career, as well as his presidential aspirations, while at every opportunity justifying his break with the political forces of Andrew Jackson.
Although doubts have often been raised concerning authorship, the book appears to be authentic. There is no doubt, however, that Crockett employed the services of his friend and fellow congressman, Thomas Chilton of Kentucky, to edit and correct the manuscript. The original manuscript for the book was in Chilton's handwriting, and the Kentuckian received half of the royalties from the publisher.
Crockett remained adamant that he was the sole author of the work, despite Chilton's obviously important role. Crockett explained, "The manuscript is in his hand writing though the entire substance of it is truly my own."
The question of authorship was important to Crockett because of his unhappiness with an 1833 "unauthorized" biography, Sketches and Eccentricities of Colonel David Crockett of West Tennessee, anonymously written by Mathew St, Clair Clarke. Although Crockett must have cooperated with Clarke, the Whig clerk of the House of Representatives, in preparing the book he at least feigned dismay at the exaggerations of his character that appeared in it. He seems to have been surprised by its success and concerned that others should profit by writing of his life. In a presentation inscription of his autobiography dated March 19, 1834 (which may well be the publication date for the book) Crockett writes: "I David Crockett of Tennessee do certify that this Book was written by myself and the only genuine history of my life that ever has been written. The first work is a counterfit and was written without authority.”
-Information courtesy of Paul Andrew Hutton's "Introduction" to David Crockett's
A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of The State of Tennessee, Written by Himself-
Click here for the full PREFACE to Crockett'sNarrative(including supplementary analysis).
PREFACE.
FASHION is a thing I care mighty little about, except when it happens to run just exactly according to my own notion ; and I was mighty nigh sending out my book without any preface at all, until a notion struck me, that perhaps it was necessary to explain a little the reason why and where¬fore I had written it.
Most of authors seek fame, but I seek for justice,a holier impulse than ever entered into the ambitious struggles of the votaries of that fickle, flirting goddess.
A publication has been made to the world, which has done me much injustice; and the catchpenny errors which it contains, have been already too long sanctioned by my silence.
I don't know the author of the book--and indeed I don't want to know him; for after he has taken such a liberty wit my name, and made such an effort to hold me up to public ridicule, he cannot calculate on any thing but my displeasure.
If he had been content to have written his opinions about me, however contemptuous they might have been, I should have had less reason to complain.
But when he professes to give my narrative (as he often does) in my own language, and then puts into my mouth such language as would disgrace even an outlandish African, he much himself be sensible fo the injustice he has done me, and the trick he ahs played off on the publick.
I have met with hundreds, if not with thousands of people, who have formed their opinions of my appearance, habits, language, and every thing else from that deceptive work.
They have almost in every instance expressed the most profound astonishment at finding me in human shape, and with the countenance, appearance, and common feelings of a human being. It is to correct all these false notions, and to do justice to myself, that I have written.
It is certain that the writer of the book alluded to has gathered up many imperfect scraps of information concerning me, as in parts of his work there is some little semblance of truth.
But I ask him, if this notice should ever reach his eye, how would he have liked it, if I had treated him so?--if I had put together such a bundle of ridiculous stuff, and headed it with his name, and sent it out upon the world without ever even condescending to ask his permission? To these questions, all upright men must give the same answer.
It was wrong; and the desire to make money by it, is no apology for such injustice to a fellow man.
But I let him pass; as my wish is great-ly more to vindicate myself, than to con-demn him.
In the following pages I have endeavoured to give the reader a plain, honest, home-spun account of my state in life, and some few of the difficulties which have attended me along its journey, down to this time. I am perfectly aware, that I have related many small and, as I fear, uninteresting circumstances; hut if so, my apology is, that it was rendered necessary by a desire to link the different periods of my life together, as they have passed, from my child¬hood onward, and thereby to enable the reader to select such parts of it as he may relish most, if, indeed, there is any thing in it which may suit his palate.
I have also been operated on by another consideration. It is this:—I know, that obscure as I am, my name is making con-siderable deal of fuss in the world. I can't tell why it is, nor in what it is to end. Go where I will, everybody seems anxious to get a peep at me ; and it would be hard to tell which would have the advantage, if I, and the " Government," and " Black Hawk," and a great eternal big caravan of wild varments were all to be showed at the same time in four different parts of any of the big cities in the nation. I am not so sure that I shouldn't get the most custom of any of the crew. There must therefore be something in me, or about me, that attracts attention, which is even mysterious to myself. I can't understand it, and I therefore put all the facts down, leaving the reader free to take his choice of them.
On the subject of my style, it is bad enough, in all conscience, to please critics, if that is what they are after. They are a sort of vermin, though, that I sha'n't even so much as stop to brush off. If they want to work on my book, just let them go ahead; and after they are done, they had better blot out all their criticisms, than to know what opinion I would express of them, and by what sort of a curious name I would call them, if I was standing near them, and looking over their shoulders. They will, at most, have only their trouble for their pay. But I rather expect I shall have them on my side.
But I don't know of any thing in my book to be criticised on by honourable men. Is it on my spelling ?—that's not my trade. Is it on my grammar ?—I hadn't time to learn it, and make no pretensions to it. Is it on the order and arrangement of my book?
--I never wrote one before, and never read very many; and, of course, know mighty little about that.
Will it be on the authorship of the book ?—this I claim, and I '11 hang on to it, like a wax plaster. The whole book is my own, and every sentiment and sentence in it. I would not be such a fool, or knave either, as to deny that I have had it hastily run over by a friend or so, and that some little alterations have been made in the spelling and grammar; and I am not so sure that it is not the worse of even that, for I despise this way of spelling contrary to nature. And as for grammar, it's pretty much a thing of nothing at last, after all the fuss that's made about it. In some places, I wouldn't suffer either the spelling, or grammar, or any thing else to be touch'd; and therefore it will be found in my own way.
But if any body compains that I have
had it looked over, I can only say to him, her, them—as the case may be—that while critics were learning grammar, and learn¬ing to spell, I, and "Doctor Jackson, L.L.D." were fighting in the wars; and if our books, and messages, and proclama¬tions, and cabinet writings, and so forth, and so on, should need a little looking over, and a little correcting of the spell¬ing and the grammar to make them fit for use, its just nobody's business. Big men have more important matters to attend to than crossing their t’s—, and dotting their i's—, and such like small things. But the "Government's" name is to the proclamation, and my name's to the book; and if I didn't write the book, the " Go¬vernment" didn't write the proclamation, which no man dares to deny !
But just read for yourself, and my ears for a heel tap, if before you get through you don't say, with many a good-natured smile and hearty laugh, "This is truly the very thing itself—the exact image of its Author,
DAVID CROCKETT”
WASHINGTON CITY,
February 1st, 1834.
In the 'Preface" to Crockett's Narrative, he declares his frustrations over having someone write under the guise of being David Crockett and fabricate events and details about his life. While chastising this anonymous writer, Crockett reveals intimate aspects of his personality to the reader, such as his awkward self-consciousness. He claims not to care about the opinions others hold of him, but it is apparent that he is genuinely concerned about his reputation; otherwise he would not be so upset over the narratives published about him. He attempts to control the myth that has already been forged about him. Crockett is also sure to address his critics. He makes the declaration that his narrative is for the “common man” like himself, and not for the critics who would criticize his skills as a writer. By doing this, he strengthens his position as the leader of the “Age of the Common Man” and the symbol for the “Era of the Self-made Man.” Through his preface, Crockett establishes that in this country land education is more valuable than formal education with books, and in turn, the American model is more valuable than the English model. By establishing such, Crockett is supporting the model of Benjamin Franklin, in which one’s hard work and merit allows them to rise socially, rather than their family legacy.
Lyrics to Davy's Ballad--
Born on a mountain top in Tennessee,
greenest state in the land of the free
Raised in the woods so's he knew ev'ry tree,
kilt him a b'ar when he was only three
Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!
In eighteen thirteen the Creeks uprose,
addin' redskin arrows to the country's woes
Now, Injun fightin' is somethin' he knows,
so he shoulders his rifle an' off he goes
Davy, Davy Crockett, the man who don't know fear!
Off through the woods he's a marchin' along,
makin' up yarns an' a singin' a song
Itchin' fer fightin' an' rightin' a wrong,
he's ringy as a b'ar an' twic't as strong
Davy, Davy Crockett, the buckskin buccaneer!
Andy Jackson is our gen'ral's name,
his reg'lar soldiers we'll put to shame
Them redskin varmints us Volunteers'll tame,
'cause we got the guns with the sure-fire aim
Davy, Davy Crockett, the champion of us all!
Headed back to war from the ol' home place,
but Red Stick was leadin' a merry chase
Fightin' an' burnin' at a devil's pace,
south to the swamps on the Florida Trace
Davy, Davy Crockett, trackin' the redskins down!
Fought single-handed through the Injun War,
till the Creeks was whipped an' peace was in store
An' while he was handlin' this risky chore,
made hisself a legend for evermore
He give his word an' he give his hand,
that his Injun friends could keep their land
An' the rest of his life he took the stand,
that justice was due every redskin band
Davy, Davy Crockett, holdin' his promise dear!
Home fer the winter with his family,
happy as squirrels in the ol' gum tree
Bein' the father he wanted to be,
close to his boys as the pod an' the pea
Davy, Davy Crockett, holdin' his young'uns dear!
But the ice went out an' the warm winds came,
an' the meltin' snow showed tracks of game
An' the flowers of Spring filled the woods with flame,
an' all of a sudden life got too tame
Davy, Davy Crockett, headin' on West again!
Off through the woods we're ridin' along,
makin' up yarns an' singin' a song
He's ringy as a b'ar an' twict as strong,
an' knows he's right 'cause he ain' often wrong
Lookin' fer a place where the air smells clean,
where the trees is tall an' the grass is green
Where the fish is fat in an untouched stream,
an' the teemin' woods is a hunter's dream
Davy, Davy Crockett, lookin' fer Paradise!
Now he's lost his love an' his grief was gall,
in his heart he wanted to leave it all
An' lose himself in the forests tall,
but he answered instead his country's call
Davy, Davy Crockett, beginnin' his campaign!
Needin' his help they didn't vote blind,
They put in Davy 'cause he was their kind
Sent up to Nashville the best they could find,
a fightin' spirit an' a thinkin' mind
Davy, Davy Crockett, choice of the whole frontier!
The votes were counted an' he won hands down,
so they sent him off to Washin'ton town
With his best dress suit still his buckskins brown,
a livin' legend of growin' renown
Davy, Davy Crockett, the Canebrake Congressman!
He went off to Congress an' served a spell,
fixin' up the Govern'ments an' laws as well
Took over Washin'ton so we heered tell,
an' patched up the crack in the Liberty Bell
Davy, Davy Crockett, seein' his duty clear!
Him an' his jokes travelled all through the land,
an' his speeches made him friends to beat the band
His politickin' was their favorite brand,
an' everyone wanted to shake his hand
Davy, Davy Crockett, helpin' his legend grow!
He knew when he spoke he sounded the knell,
of his hopes for White House an' fame as well
But he spoke out strong so hist'ry books tell,
When he come home his politickin' done,
the western march had just begun
So he packed his gear an' his trusty gun,
an' lit out grinnin' to follow the sun
Davy, Davy Crockett, leadin' the pioneer!
He heard of Houston an' Austin so,
to the Texas plains he jest had to go
Where freedom was fightin' another foe,
an' they needed him at the Alamo
His land is biggest an' his land is best,
from grassy plains to the mountain crest
He's ahead of us all meetin' the test,
followin' his legend into the West
Disney's Davy
50's Hype
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