Santa Anna's Cook Ben

[cje]

What do we know about Santa Anna's black cook known as Ben? Where did he come from? How did he ever become Santa Anna's Cook? What kind of a cook was he? What happened to him after the battle of the Alamo? Am I right in recalling that he escorted Mrs. Dickinson out of San Antonio?
With some historical figures we only see them for a brief bit of time in a certain time period and then it seems they are not heard of again.
I wonder how his skills caught the Mexican high command's attention. Then I have to wonder just what kind of meals Santa Anna liked to eat and could have eaten on such a campaign? Thanks.

[Rich Curilla]

To begin with, Ben was not Santa Anna's cook. He was Col. Juan N. Almonte's cook. Santa Anna sort of took him over. He was American and, if I remember correctly, had been a cook on a Mississippi River steamboat. Not sure how Almonte acquired him, but Almonte was educated in New Orleans and spoke English fluently.

Santa Anna did indeed send Ben to escort Mrs. Dickinson to Gonzales. Travis' slave Joe, who had been spared by Santa Anna's army because he was a slave, apparently excaped from Bexar on his own after he was made to watch a review of the army, and joined Ben and Mrs. Dickinson somewhere along the road to Gonzales.

I know nothing of Ben's menu or Santa Anna's taste.

[Hollowhorn]

See Here

[timniesen]

The best view of Ben Harrison/Harris in action is found by looking at the classic travel account of E. G. Squier, Nicaragua, 2vol., 1852. There is an online version of this rare book. The account of Ben at the Alamo have to be taken with a grain of salt, for their veracity depends on the authors. That Ben accompanied Capt. Gillespie in the Mexican-American War on his spy mission across Mexico is some indication of the respect held for him by the American executive. (George Bancroft, historian and Secretary of the Navy, sent them to the wilderness of Alta California to find and deliver to Col. Fremont the orders from Secretary of state James Buchanan.) Although now obscure, the Squier mission to Central America to sign a Nicaraguan Canal Treaty was likewise considered very important. Ben was armed to the teeth with two colt revolvers, a double barreled rifle (a very expensive and hand crafted weapon now and then,) and a Bowie knife, and to me this indicates his bodyguard role in this diplomatic mission. He was a spy in the Mexican-American War and an American agent in Central America. (I thank Stuart for pointing the difference between these two quite different terms in the old Alamo website.) He was the master cook and latte maker for Gen. Santa Anna and plenipotentiary Squier. Tim

[sloanrodgers]

Feb 13, 2013 14:55:12 GMT -5 timniesen said:

The best view of Ben Harrison/Harris in action is found by looking at the classic travel account of E. G. Squier, Nicaragua, 2vol., 1852. There is an online version of this rare book. The account of Ben at the Alamo have to be taken with a grain of salt, for their veracity depends on the authors. That Ben accompanied Capt. Gillespie in the Mexican-American War on his spy mission across Mexico is some indication of the respect held for him by the American executive. (George Bancroft, historian and Secretary of the Navy, sent them to the wilderness of Alta California to find and deliver to Col. Fremont the orders from Secretary of state James Buchanan.) Although now obscure, the Squier mission to Central America to sign a Nicaraguan Canal Treaty was likewise considered very important. Ben was armed to the teeth with two colt revolvers, a double barreled rifle (a very expensive and hand crafted weapon now and then,) and a Bowie knife, and to me this indicates his bodyguard role in this diplomatic mission. He was a spy in the Mexican-American War and an American agent in Central America. (I thank Stuart for pointing the difference between these two quite different terms in the old Alamo website.) He was the master cook and latte maker for Gen. Santa Anna and plenipotentiary Squier. Tim

This is very interesting. I've read over the years that several African Americans served as hard-charging rangers and spies in various companies, but I never heard that Santa Anna's old cook was one
of them. Ben seems to have been a multi-talented man in an age of oppression.

[timniesen]

Here is one place where TRL and I disagreed. Indeed, all of the scholars on Squier have called him a servant. There is a difference in spelling between Harrison in the Alta California campaign and Harris in Nicaragua. Yet, there is no other Afro-Americans involved with the Fremont Expedition other than Jacob Dobson (free servant of Senator Benton,) and he canot be Harrison. The story rests on Squier's famous travel narrative and his book reviewer critic, Dr. James McCune Smith.
The former was among the most famous scholars in the world, and the latter was the smartest Black man in America. They were both brilliant, although I suspect that Squier's wife, the notorious Mrs. Frank Leslie was smarter than her husband. (Has anyone read her great but undocumented biography, The Purple Passage?)
Squier founded the American Geographical Society, and Dr. McCune was its only Black member. They were both racial theorists. Squier was linked with the racial theories about the separate and inferior races of the world. Dr. McCune stood Squiers and friend's theories on their head, arguing that mixed races were superior to pure bred races. Tim

[sloanrodgers]

Feb 18, 2013 11:11:17 GMT -5 timniesen said:

Here is one place where TRL and I disagreed. Indeed, all of the scholars on Squier have called him a servant. There is a difference in spelling between Harrison in the Alta California campaign and Harris in Nicaragua. Yet, there is no other Afro-Americans involved with the Fremont Expedition other than Jacob Dobson (free servant of Senator Benton,) and he canot be Harrison. The story rests on Squier's famous travel narrative and his book reviewer critic, Dr. James McCune Smith.
The former was among the most famous scholars in the world, and the latter was the smartest Black man in America. They were both brilliant, although I suspect that Squier's wife, the notorious Mrs. Frank Leslie was smarter than her husband. (Has anyone read her great but undocumented biography, The Purple Passage?)
Squier founded the American Geographical Society, and Dr. McCune was its only Black member. They were both racial theorists. Squier was linked with the racial theories about the separate and inferior races of the world. Dr. McCune stood Squiers and friend's theories on their head, arguing that mixed races were superior to pure bred races. Tim

Yes, the contemporary evidence on Ben Harris/ Harrison's later adventures do seem a bit lacking, but I've done little research on him. I couldn't find him listed in Capt. James Gillespie's Mexican War muster roll or within the Fremont Expedition. After the settlement of the frontier, many rocking-chair warriors wished they had taken part in those exciting times. Capt. Louis Schilling and a few others claimed they survived the Alamo massacre, served as Texas rangers and guided Fremont with Old Kit Carson. Some of these entertaining tales were written on tissue. Ben's root story might be based on stronger stuff, but apparently the evidence needs to be strengthened by more documentation. I don't have a judgement on the preeminent fame and brilliance of Squire and Smith as I have not rated them against other 19th Century men. Chuck Darwin was fairly bright and famous.

[timniesen]

Indeed, Ben disappears after Capt. Gillespie and him meet Col. Fremont in the wilderness of Northern Alta California. I suspect that Ben had more important things to do. They both had traveled thousands of miles after meeting Secretary of Navy George Bancroft. Capt Gillespie memorized the secret message to Col. Fremont from Secretary of State James Buchanan and he and Ben sailed from the east coast to Vera Cruz, crossing central Mexico in disguise as British merchant and servant. They arrived in Alta California and escaping Mexican detection, they started out to find Col. Fremont. Tim

[sloanrodgers]

I realized yesterday that you meant that Ben Harris served with Capt. Archibald Gillespie's spy missions in Mexico and not Capt. James Gillespie's spy or ranger company in the Mexican War. I know little about the former's activities beyond what you have stated here.

[timniesen]

skr, Charles Darwin's ideas were not accepted by the American scientific elite until the 1880s, when the German scientific elite accepted them. Until then the racial ideas of Harvard's German naturalist Louis Agassiz ruled those who did not accept the scientific racial theories of Squier and Nott. Americans in the Nineteenth Century looked to Germany and not to Britain for knowledge. The misunderstanding of Darwinism and its transformation into Social Darwinism caused the Color Line to harden and intensify by the 1890s. Tim

[sloanrodgers]

Well, I said I couldn't judge and stated Darwin was "fairly" bright and famous. Maybe I should have said he was infamous.

[timniesen]

skr, Perhaps, we should not judge Darwin too harshly. If the Squier/Gliddon/Nott racial theories about the shape of the human head and the facial angles had prevailed rather than the obviously correct theories of Darwin, the racist state of the world in 1900 might have been worse. Tim

[sloanrodgers]

Still not judging.