I remember my first visit to the Alamo. My father took me to the location where the battle had taken place. He was a native Texan and proud of his heritage. We had been living out of state and had moved back to Texas. My father wanted to teach me the facts about Texas history. We were shown the place that the bullet-ridden body of James Bowie had been found.
James Bowie: Hero of the Alamo.
His name must be revered beyond all others.
I will always remember the pride my father taught me about James Bowie. I was a ten-year-old child at the time and I was inspired to learn as much as possible about the Texas I call home. In later years when I began to research Texas history, I found evidence that Bowie was aiding Jean Laffite in illegally pirating black slaves into Texas, unloading captured slaves on Galveston Island, marching them through alligator infested swamplands under the most vile and cruel circumstances.
James Bowie: Hero of the Alamo?
My family made regular trips from our home in Laredo to the Alamo city to see my dentist, Dr. Gorman, who treated me in his eleventh floor office of the Medical Arts building, which looked down upon the structure where the Battle of the Alamo had taken place. From the dentist chair, the Battle scene looked so peaceful. Could the grounds I viewed from above be the place where such a violent battle occurred as the battle where James Bowie, hero of the Alamo died? Years later, after much research I would wonder, was this James Bowie, hero of the Alamo, capable of pirating black slaves, profiting and gaining great wealth from slave trading? Where was his wealth while he was dying on the Alamo Battle Ground, which looked so peaceful from my dentist’s office?
I eventually ceased to simply wonder and began much research on Texas history. Was it possible that James Bowie, hero of the Alamo, was also James Bowie, Slave Trader? The more I researched my father’s hero of the Alamo, the more evidence I found to convince me that James Bowie was the perpetrator of the greatest of possible crimes against humanity, pirating black persons to points on the Texas coast, subjecting them to unbelievable harm in order to make James Bowie, slave trader, a rich man in his own time. I found evidence that James Bowie boasted that he had sold slaves to Louisiana planters at ten times their actual field worker value. The facts were beyond any shadow of doubt. Bowie had led countless persons of African origin to horrible death.
James Bowie: Hero of the Alamo?
or
James Bowie: Pirate trading black slaves?
Another name surfaced in my research to find the realities of the history of Texas:
Jean Laffite, Hero of The Battle of New Orleans.
The President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, granted Jean Laffite, because of his participation and supplying ammunition and manpower with technical know-how in the Battle of New Orleans, a full pardon.
Two other persons, a.k.a. “pirates”, had been granted a similar pardon:
Dominique Youx and Renato Beluche.
Youx, had accepted his pardon and settled down in the post New Orleans Battle as a hero of his time, masterfully spending his remaining years as a barroom spinner of tales.
Beluche, also pardoned as a hero of the Battle of New Orleans, took up residence in Venezuela and because of his skill as a cannoneer became a member of the nation’s seagoing military force. In time he became admiral and died, venerated by his Venezuelan peers.
Jean Laffite, hero of the Battle of New Orleans, moved the base of his operation to Galveston Island and resumed his practice of supporting outright piracy.
Jean Laffite, Youx and Beluche:
Heroes of The Battle of New Orleans?
or
Jean Laffite, Youx and Beluche: Pirates?
There is no evidence that Laffite personally took part in actual piracy battles on the sea, but there is ample evidence that he was on shore, providing safe harborage for the remaining seafarers, pirates who roamed the seas in search of saleable plunder.
Pirates commanded by Laffite who were willing to bring Negro slave into the Gulf of Mexico began to dwindle because of fear of United States frigates seeking to enforce laws against the importation of slaves. Laffite then gave orders to set adrift ships with 100 or more slaves to let natural forces destroy the ships, leaving helpless black slaves to die. The untold suffering of those who were set adrift can only be imagined as a hundred or more person died in chains without food or water. I found evidence that this occurred on more than one circumstance.
Jean Laffite: Hero of The Battle of New Orleans?
or
Jean Laffite: Pirate Trading Black Slaves?
There is evidence James Bowie, while working with Laffite and later as hero in the Alamo, boasted that he had made an unbelievable profit by selling black slaves to southern planters. After Bowie’s death in the Alamo and Laffite’s demise as pirate on the sea, the last of two vicious pirates ceased to be.
James Bowie: Hero of the Battle of The Alamo?
or
James Bowie: Pirate?
Hardback. 209 Pages.
Appendices, Notes,
Extensive Bibliography,
Supportive documentation,
Index.
