Joe, The Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend
Joe 's life as a slave is the real story here: born in Kentucky in 1815, taken to a fledgling plantation in Missouri, and then on to Texas, none of it by choice.
This week in 1837, an important figure of early Texas, known only as Joe, apparently made good his escape from slavery. He was a slave of William B. Travis and one of the few survivors of the battle of the Alamo. Joe was born about 1813. He claimed that as the famous battle began he armed himself and followed Travis into the fray. After the battle the Mexican troops searched the buildings and called for any blacks to reveal themselves. Joe responded and was struck by a pistol shot and bayonet thrust before a Mexican captain intervened. Joe was taken to Bexar, where he was detained and interrogated by Santa Anna about Texas and its army. He somehow made his way to Sam Houston's camp at Gonzales. He was questioned at Groce's Retreat about the events at the Alamo. He was then returned to Travis's estate, and on the anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto he and an unidentified Mexican man escaped. A notice offering a fifty-dollar reward for his return was published in the Telegraph and Texas Register for three months and discontinued on August 26, 1837. Joe was last reported in Austin in August 1875.
If we do in fact “remember the Alamo,” it is largely thanks to one person who witnessed the final assault and survived: the commanding officer’s slave, a young man known simply as Joe. What Joe saw as the Alamo fell, recounted days later to the Texas Cabinet, has come down to us in records and newspaper reports.
The twenty-year-old Joe stood with his master, Lt. Colonel Travis, against the Mexican army in the early hours of March 6, 1836. After Travis fell, Joe watched the battle’s last moments from a hiding place. He was later taken first to Bexar and questioned by Santa Anna about the Texan army, and then to the revolutionary capitol, where he gave his testimony with evident candor.
Joe was the younger brother of the famous escaped slave and abolitionist narrator William Wells Brown, as well as the grandson of legendary trailblazer Daniel Boone. He took part in the Texans’ battle for independence— was returned to slavery and eventually escaped and disappeared into the shadows of history.
Joe 's life as a slave is the real story here: born in Kentucky in 1815, taken to a fledgling plantation in Missouri, and then on to Texas, none of it by choice.
This week in 1837, an important figure of early Texas, known only as Joe, apparently made good his escape from slavery. He was a slave of William B. Travis and one of the few survivors of the battle of the Alamo. Joe was born about 1813. He claimed that as the famous battle began he armed himself and followed Travis into the fray. After the battle the Mexican troops searched the buildings and called for any blacks to reveal themselves. Joe responded and was struck by a pistol shot and bayonet thrust before a Mexican captain intervened. Joe was taken to Bexar, where he was detained and interrogated by Santa Anna about Texas and its army. He somehow made his way to Sam Houston's camp at Gonzales. He was questioned at Groce's Retreat about the events at the Alamo. He was then returned to Travis's estate, and on the anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto he and an unidentified Mexican man escaped. A notice offering a fifty-dollar reward for his return was published in the Telegraph and Texas Register for three months and discontinued on August 26, 1837. Joe was last reported in Austin in August 1875.
If we do in fact “remember the Alamo,” it is largely thanks to one person who witnessed the final assault and survived: the commanding officer’s slave, a young man known simply as Joe. What Joe saw as the Alamo fell, recounted days later to the Texas Cabinet, has come down to us in records and newspaper reports.
The twenty-year-old Joe stood with his master, Lt. Colonel Travis, against the Mexican army in the early hours of March 6, 1836. After Travis fell, Joe watched the battle’s last moments from a hiding place. He was later taken first to Bexar and questioned by Santa Anna about the Texan army, and then to the revolutionary capitol, where he gave his testimony with evident candor.
Joe was the younger brother of the famous escaped slave and abolitionist narrator William Wells Brown, as well as the grandson of legendary trailblazer Daniel Boone. He took part in the Texans’ battle for independence— was returned to slavery and eventually escaped and disappeared into the shadows of history.