Remember the Alamo

Thanks to my new blogger friend, Bowietreks for reminding me that today is the anniversary of the Mexican victory over the Texians in San Antonio which is forever remembered as the Battle for the Alamo.  My great-great-grandpa, Adna Samuel Droddy, almost wasn't my gggrandpa.  [To help you keep my many ancestors straight, so to speak, A.S. is my mother's father's grandfather.]  On this day in 1836, he and his company of men under the command of Capt. James Chessher were camped out on the banks of the Guadalupe River enroute to San Antonio to reinforce the Texian forces at the Alamo.  If they'd have hurried, there would have probably been an additional 20 or 30 dead Texians, including great-greatgrandpappy.  I know this because after the courthouse in Newton County burned in 1852 or 53, they had to recreate the title transfer of this huge amount of land.  To quote the deed:  "...being at the time encamped near the town of Victoria on the Guadalupe river in said republic, did then and there for the sum of six hundred dollars to me in hand paid by Wm S.Keaghey a brother soldier and member of said company,..."  WTF?  Nobody had that much money.  They were on their way to sure death, doing what young men do in situations like that.  They were drinking and playing poker.  GGGrandpappy lost that hand.

My Ashworth ancestors were not welcome to serve in the Texas militia.  When the Texians declared their independence, my Ashworth ancestors went to the front of the lines, only to be told that they were now considered Black by the Texians who were for the most part Southerners.  One of my ancestors insisted on hiring someone to go in his stead, even if they wouldn't accept him because of their decision to consider him NOT White.  Gipson Perkins, his cousin whom William paid to go in his stead, was also a person of color.  Even as they rewarded us with humiliation, we continued to support them.

Other members of the family donated money and materiel to the Texians in their revolution against Mexico.  The Texians repaid them by immediately negating all of the promised rewards because promises made to people of color didn't mean anything. 

We never accepted their designation of us as Free Blacks.  We denied we had any Black ancestry.  We fought and killed people who suggested otherwise.  We even served in the Confederate Army.   Not all of us.  The branch from which I descend avoided the Civil War completely.  This is an aside, but another of my branches, the Droddys, were deserters and Jay Hawkers.  I am very proud of them.  They were poor whites in Rapides Parish.  They and another branch of my family, the Willises, were not enthusiastic in their support of the Confederacy and did everything they could to not participate. 

Anyways, back to Texas.  Do you know that to this day, Texas continues to use the one-drop rule against my family when they tell their story?  If you search Ashworth Family in Texas, you'll come across a site that says that Moses Ashworth, a White man, and his four free Black sons, came to Texas around 1830 and became wealthy.  We have offered to engage them in a discussion as to the nature of the Ashworth family's racial make-up, but they didn't need the facts in 1836 and they're not interested in them now. 

Is this a good story though, or what?   If anyone knows Steven Spielberg and can get me ten minutes to pitch this story, I know it'll be a blockbuster movie.  Mr. Spielberg, have your people call my people and let's do lunch.  Ten minutes is all I ask, and I'll pay for lunch.

Anyway,  thanks  to Bowietrek for giving me an excuse to talk about my people.  My grandmother was an Ashworth, as were both of her parents.   My goal in life is to annoy the people at the University of Texas enough to get them to reconsider and acknowledge their own complicity in their racist history.  Tall order?  Perhaps, but I've got time.

Another branch of my family, the Hortons and Bullocks (my paternal grandmother's maternal people) were big time early Texas revolutionaries.  In 1832, four years before the rest of Texas joined him in revolting against Mexico, my gggggrandfather, Col. James Whitis Bullock, surrounded the Mexican garrison at Nacogdoches demanding that they declare for the Mexican Constitution of 1824.  His brother-in-law, Col. Alexander Horton, my ggggreat uncle, was General Sam Houston's aide-de-camp.  That just goes to show my affinity for Sam Houston has historical roots.  We also share two names, and just as Sam Houston always referred to himself in the third person, I do as well, annoying more than a couple of close friends.

Anyways (Piggy's favorite word),  the Texans won the war because the Mexicans were both stupid and corrupt.  When they finally threatened to get their shit together 9 years later, the United States stepped in and whipped their sorry asses, humiliating them in a way that annoys them even to this day.  I had a group of Mexican queens attempt to give me grief about this one holiday and I stopped them cold and told them that Mexico was a piece of shit Republic then just as it is today, and that hispanic culture did not lose in that war, just their corrupt political structure.  Today the second largest Spanish speaking city in the world is Los Angeles.  San Jose, California is probably third.    The Southwest is as hispanic today as it was 160 years ago, and continues to be more brown and more Spanish speaking with each new day.  We are not, thank god in heaven, Mexicans.  If we think the rich have it good at the expense of the poor here, check out Mexico.

Happy Fucking Remember the Alamo Day, my dear fellow Texans.  Look back on your history and remember what low-lifes you were.  Then.  And now.

(Go Longhorns.)
 

Comments

[Bowietrek]

I enjoyed reading more of your family history in this post. And thanks to you for inspiring me to finally add a Typepad friends list to my site.

[Vickie]

I always enjoy reading about your family. I just enjoy reading anything you want to write. You have a way with words that just reach out and grab me holding my attention to the very end. I think you need to write a book.

[cbeck]

That's pretty cool. (I meant that in a way much less lame than the overused colloquialism comes out). I wish I knew something about my family, as neither my mother or father does. Hell, in keeping up family tradition, I don't even talk to my father anymore. Sad, but he's got some appoligies to make to some of the rest of my family before I will reestablish communication, and he knows it.

But do you know of any good web sites or what resource I can use to track lineage? I'm a bit ignorant in the matter, but i think i'm gonna start looking.

[cbeck]

oh, and not to hog your comments, but i agree with that book thing, heck best way to get a movie is start with a book! ;) (and you got the writing style for it, don't sell yourself short)

[Houston]

When I walk on the trails worn by my ancestors along the bayous and rivers of western Lousiana and eastern Texas, I know I am not alone because the memory of two hundred years of living in this place has left plenty of echos.

I probably should have been a writer. I probably should have been born a lot richer than I was. I probably should never had to spend as many years as I did just getting my shit together, but I believe I have come together now in a perfect storm, so to speak. All of my experience has brought me here to this moment and time for whatever reason I articulate.

I'm practicing that articulation part.

[Brenda]

Oh man, I LOVE this piece! I had an ancestor hung as a horse thief way back there somewhere. I love finding out these little bits of skeletonized history.

[cbeck]

Practice on!

Not every Mexican was involved in the Alamo and back then like today, corrupted people exist everywhere, not everyone is that way, has nothing to do with race. I have ran into corrupted, ignorant people from all races, but I like the best people of each race, they are the hope for society as a whole, I hope you get to be around the best people of each race, and quit spending time with the ones you know are corrupted. I enjoyed part of your article,specially about your roots, but would like to have seen you not associate every Mexican with the corrupt ones, I understand you have been somewhat affected by it in the past, but your a great writer, Smart man, There's corruption all over the world it's a fact, we need to focus on the good people regardless of race. This country has many people who came from places where their government was corrupted, and somewhat ignorant. It just happens that Mexico and the Alamo occurred in the past 200 years. England and France would kill their people because of their religious beliefs, Their immigrants came for God, Gold, and For some Glory...

[Houston]

Pilgrim,

I think if you read my post carefully, you'll see it's more an homage to the Mex-Indian peoples who are becoming a dominant force in the evolution of the American culture. Their politics may suck, but they are a force with whom to be dealt in the near and far future. I want them to be partners with me in that cultural-political evolution. Thang God they've mostly voting for Obama, despite the dominating influence of their religion.

[Diane]

Hi, I read your post and I'm an Ashworth by birth. Enjoy the read and love my family history.

[Diane]

I'm from Moses Ashworth family.

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