|
Post by timniesen on Feb 6, 2012 12:30:30 GMT -5
Hollowhorn, That is a good observation-I have been so far removed from Alamo topics that they tend to blend together. Forgive me, I have been away in Lancaster County. I will be soon done there, at least with my massive newspaper data collection.
Ben Harris/Harrison history: 1.Almonte's servant 2.Houston's cook 3.Gillespie's servant 4.E. G. Squier's servant
Note that in three and four, Ben was in the direct employ of the American executive branch. In his third role, Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft and the Navy Department. In his four role, Minister E. G. Squier and the The State Department. Whether or not Ben was in the employ of the Jackson Administration is in the realm of speculation. Tim
|
|
|
Post by Allen Wiener on Feb 6, 2012 12:43:03 GMT -5
If Ben remained a free person (which, presumably, he did) it is odd that he would be Houston's cook (depending on when that was). As I recall, the Texas Republic's constitution forbid free blacks from residing in Texas and barred the abolition of slavery.
|
|
|
Post by timniesen on Feb 6, 2012 13:30:35 GMT -5
Allen, Well, I think that the Texas Republic did allow exceptions for Afro-American veterans of the Texas Revolution. The color line was softer in Texas and Arkansas than it was in Louisiana and Mississippi. The color line in Texas was somewhat like the color line in Virginia, where 1/8 rather than 1/32 was the definition of a Black man or women. For instance, there is evidence that the two very light-skinned daughters of Vice President Richard Johnson married two Confederate Generals! His daughters no doubt looked very fine to a lonely Texan at those magnificent dances held by the American hero and American Vice-President. For more information on the soft color line in the Texas Republic, see also the dissertation on Afro-Americans in Texas written at the University of Texas at Austin. Tim
|
|
|
Post by garyzaboly on Feb 6, 2012 13:40:38 GMT -5
I've long had the sneaking suspicion that the "Mexican deserter" who gave Houston many details of the March 6th attack, as reported in the newspaper account from information supplied by Jesse Badgett, was actually Ben.
Ben, it will be remembered (if not, see my book, pp. 291-92) accompanied Susannah Dickinson along with an escort of Mexican cavalry, the latter turning back as they neared Gonzales. Ben carried a flag of truce as well as Santa Anna's proclamation declaring that all armed rebels would be shown no mercy. That he was chosen to deliver this is natural, since he was evidently one of the few men in Santa Anna's army who spoke English. It has been assumed that Houston probably forcibly detained Ben; but if he was indeed the "Mexican deserter" (he was, after all, of the Mexican army, being Almonte's servant) then that tells us that Ben preferred to be with the Texians, possibly seeing easier treatment in their company, and switched sides.
Maybe Houston just gave him an offer he couldn't refuse.
|
|
|
Post by timniesen on Feb 6, 2012 13:44:39 GMT -5
And let us not forget the Texas Republic's offer to a group of Afro-Americans lead by Martin Delany to found an territory somewhere within the Texas Republic. I suspect but cannot prove that this proposed colony was within the limits of what is now New Mexico. I have never been able to date this event, but I have found a letter from a fellow prominent Afro-American who was with Delany when he traveled to the Texas Republic. The Delany website in his home state of West Virginia, dates Delany's trip to the Texas Republic as 1839. Tim
|
|
|
Post by timniesen on Feb 6, 2012 13:59:41 GMT -5
Indeed, Ben was a master of Spanish dialects. And, according to the Lack book, Afro-Americans slaves were a great source of intelligence information for both sides in the Texas Revolution, and who would have been better to interpret these fugitive slaves for Gen. Almonte and Gen. Santa Anna than Ben himself? Tim
|
|
|
Post by Allen Wiener on Feb 6, 2012 15:03:58 GMT -5
Lack's book is highly under-read and under-rated.
|
|
|
Post by timniesen on Feb 6, 2012 15:20:47 GMT -5
Late in the Nineteenth century, there was a newspaper article about the death of free Afro-American who remained in the Texas Republic after the passage of the law expelling all free Afro-Americans. He was an honored veteran of San Jacinto and participated in nearly all of the Texas Republic filibuster expeditions to New Mexico. I will try to find the article over the next coming months. Tim
|
|
|
Post by timniesen on Feb 8, 2012 12:29:53 GMT -5
Gary, I agree with you in your speculation in regard to Ben as that source. An interesting question is if Ben was in a Mexican Army uniform when he approached the Texan Army's lines. I have to review my computer files to find the heretofore unseen newspaper document that supports my speculation. However, occasionally my memory makes up stuff while dreaming. In fact, I have found myself reading microfilm in my dreams. Tim P. S. For clarification purposes, I add the following: This New Orleans newspaper account depicts a uniformed Mexican officier accompanying the group from the Alamo into the Texas Army lines. Ben is not mentioned.
|
|
|
Post by timniesen on Feb 10, 2012 11:55:26 GMT -5
"which Ben efficiently returned with his double-barrelled gun, while Pedro blew another nerve-cracking blast on his conch—that awful conch ! The view of San Carlos, from the lake, was picturesque in the extreme, and the accompanying sketch of it will be sufficiently curious twenty years hence, when i…" Ben is thus described by Squier on page 122, Vol 1, of Nicaragua as having a double barreled gun. What type of weapon could this have been? A shotgun? A rifle? Earlier in the book Ben shots a black eagle. This description is from 1849 when Squier and Ben travelled by a large bungo from Greytown up the Rio San Juan into the Central American interior. They had just reached the eastern shore of Lake Nicaragua where this large body of water meets the Rio San Juan, and they were approaching Fort San Carlos. Tim
|
|
|
Post by ronaldlivingston on Dec 15, 2013 15:40:32 GMT -5
|
|