Davy Crockett was a respected, but unremarkable, frontier politician,
who was killed in the struggle for Texas independence from Mexico.
Due to tall tales of his heroic feats as a frontiersman, Crockett became a
legend in his own time and a central character in American folklore.
Political career
David Crockett was born in a cabin in Tennessee in 1786. As a young
man, he enlisted twice with the Tennessee militia (an army made up of
trained civilians rather than professional soldiers) commanded by
General Andrew Jackson (1767–1845). He fought in the Creek War
(1813–14).
Later, Crockett began a career in politics. He served as a justice of
the peace and a Tennessee state legislator before becoming a Democratic
congressman from Tennessee in 1827. He served two terms and lost the
election for a third term in 1831. Two years later, he ran again and won,
returning to Congress to serve a third term.
Early death
After losing his battle for reelection to a fourth term in 1835, Crockett
moved to east Texas in search of a new home. At the age of forty-nine,
he participated in the defense of the Alamo, a mission converted into a
fort by Anglo-American (non-Mexican) soldiers in Texas’s war of independence with Mexico. Mexican forces killed Crockett and all of the two
hundred other defenders of the Alamo in March 1836.
The folk hero
During his lifetime, Crockett’s frontier drawl and his tendency to tell
folksy stories always drew the attention of journalists. As a politician, he
told exaggerated stories about his feats as an Indian fighter and bear
hunter to gain votes. He wrote an autobiography in 1834 full of these
tall tales. In the 1830s, publishers released dozens of Davy Crockett
books. Filled with coarse language and remarkable (and almost certainly
untrue) exploits, the books were popular. The myth of the heroic frontiersman continued to grow even after his death. Hollywood discovered
the tall tales, resulting in many popular movies and television shows,
keeping the legend of Davy Crockett alive.