Davy Crockett and the River Pirates

Davy Crockett: The King of the Wild Frontier...These first two movies are going to be more fictional than factual. But there were so many legends about Davy Crockett that that is part of the charm and history of him. Great discussions can be built around this. See my blog post here.

A&E Biography: Davy Crockett...not yet viewed, recently purchased from the clearance rack in the Colonial Williamsburg gift shop!  Having recenetly moving from San Antonio to Virginia, the kids and I will be scrutinizing this carefully to see if they got their facts straight! Stay tuned! =) 

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers...view during the Oregon Trail studies. Probably more fun than historical.  Iit would make a great comparison with the TOG studies!  

Les Miserables...My daughter and I read this book in Rhetoric literature.  It is an old French made movie, nothing flashy.  But it was extremely accurate to the book and therefore well done. Because of heavy material, I do not recommend it for young kids. I was warned to preview the movie first, even for my older kids. My then  15yo daughter, who had read the book, and my 13yo son, who couldn't be left out, handled the movie well.  I purchased this particular copy for a few dollars from CBD.

Jane Eyre...Written in 1847, the book is a classic by Charlotte Bronte and would be great for a Rhetoric student learning the styles of writing in each era.  We've not watched this movie yet. Stay tuned. 

Wuthering Heights...Written in 1847 by Emily Bronte, this book is another classic. My rhetoric daughter is interested in this movie, which we have not viewed yet.  It will be interesting to analyze after our rhetoric literature studies this past year of the Romantic style of writing. Stay tuned.

     Saturday night was our unit celebration.  That morning we had had our last run through during rehearsal and the kids were ready to roll!  This was going to be good, simple, and a bit different...little did I know how different!  A sort of comedy of errors took over the evening and what could we do but roll with the laughter.  I hope we're not developing a pattern here. Last year I  got stuck in my Queen Elizabeth dress and kept the guests waiting for an hour.  Then at our last unit celebration, my son's boot busted right before the guests arrived.  I had to sew it back together again.  My son couldn't believe how fast I had sewn it but we had guests waiting and the show must go on! 

     Let's start at the beginning.  Can you guess who we are?

     I allowed the kids to choose whomever they wanted to represent from our most current era of historical study, 1826-1850.  My son was Davy Crockett.  He has had this planned for almost a year.  In fact when he saw the gun and powder horn at the historical reenactor's booth, he asked if he could have them for his birthday in preparation for this unit celebration.  My daughter was Narcissa Whitman.  I didn't represent a particular person in history this time.  I focused on directing...and ahem, laughing.  More on that in a bit. 

     We began by calling everyone to dinner, just like a good pioneer cook would.  I put my son in charge of this, since I knew he'd be hankerin' to make a bit of noise!  He banged on a pan with a spoon and yelled, "Come and get it!"  Everyone seemed surprised by the lack of formality.  Formality, for pioneers?  Are you kidding?  Make yourself at home and sit down to some grub! 

     We had rabbit (chicken) stew (to represent a meal cooked on the trail), sourdough bread (to represent the infamous bread from San Francisco ever since the Gold Rush days), apple cider, and peach pie (to represent a homey dessert once the pioneers got settled). 

     The children had decided they wanted to stay in character throughout the evening, just like they've seen Lafayette do at Colonial Williamsburg. They used information they learned from one of their electronic field trips to put their characterization together. I was excited that they wanted to do this and I didn't even have to talk them into it!  I supported them the whole way and just let them take the course they wanted to take with it.  Little did I know where the path would lead...

   During dinner, everyone started asking them questions.  My husband asked why pioneers moved West.  Ah, a great opportunity to discuss Manifest Destiny, dwindling land supplies that were no longer fertile, etc. As my son started explaining the lack of land in the East, he got onto the topic of large families and he emphasized that all families back then had 10-12 children.  That made my parents and husband laugh, as he sounded so definitive about it. 

     After talking about that awhile, they started asking my daughter about who she was, because they had never heard of Narcissa Whitman before.  She was a missionary who traveled from New York to Oregon with her husband, to minister to the American Indians.  My husband asked her how much help her children gave her, (after all, everyone had 10-12 children back then to help on the farm).  She was sort of stumped at that, not being used to doing a first person characterization.  She said she had only been married a short time when they set out for Oregon, then she had a baby, but the baby drowned in the river on the way.  She said this so matter of factly with such intensity that I couldn't help but laugh.  Trying to compose myself, I encouraged her to express some remorse, like she did when our cat Slipper died earlier last week.   As she was trying to process that I added, "Lafayette added lots of emotion to his presentation.  He didn't just say things matter of factly."  She got it then and you could tell she was trying to work that into her character.  At that time my husband asked her if she and her husband had tried to have anymore children.  (I choked when I heard that question!)  She thought a moment, then very matter of factly told him, "Well...no!" (as if why would they want to try to have more children?) That just did me in and I laughed and laughed some more.  Everyone else laughed too, except the kids who thought we were nuts! My dad told her she needed to have more children to attain that required 10-12 amount to help around the farm.  She sat there trying to figure that out and then very matter of factly said that she adopted 7 children.  At this point she was asked lots of questions about those 7 kids and they were teasing her about whether she ever got the 10-12 children.  Finally we composed ourselves, finished dinner, and went on with the program.  

     Whew!  Time for a little composure with musical compositions.  My daughter read the history of "My Country 'Tis of Thee",

which my son played it on the fife.

Then my son read the history of "The First Noel", 

which my daughter played on the piano.

Then my daughter read the history of "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" 

which my son played on the piano.

     Then the kids did the power point presentation, based on their recent research paper on the Comparison of American and Texan Independence.  My daughter had a couple of giggle points in here, when she discussed Lafayette, during rehearsals.  Whenever she mentioned Lafayette, she giggled, because she got to actually "meet" him at Colonial Williamsburg and he made our time there quite memorable when he called my son "the young historian."  (Actually she did a lot of giggling while at Colonial Williamsburg too.  I've heard that teenage girls do a lot of giggling.  I was relieved to hear it was a phase, because I can't imagine where she'd get the giggles from otherwise!)  She was still giggling when mentioning Lafayette during rehearsal Saturday, but she did a superb job that evening and got through the slide show without a single giggle!  (Those were to come later...)  I was willing to advance their power points for them but they wouldn't let me.  They insisted on doing everything themselves. 

     Then the kids did their character interpretations.  There was one point my daughter was always giggling through during rehearsal, and that is the moment where "Narcissa" says she was pregnant and gave birth.  Once again that part made her giggle, reducing me to laughter that I tried in vain to supress while trying to keep my camera still. (Due to reaching maximum capacity in my photobucket account, and wishing to retain the free service, I've had to take out a lot of videos.)

      After that I said with a smile, "The floor is open to question and answers...even though many have already been asked during dinner."  Then we all started laughing again.  My mom did ask "Narcissa" if she got to see her 7 children grow up.  "Narcissa" looked at me for a prompt because she was portraying Narcissa a year before she and her family were massacred.  So to be in character, she does not know what happens in her future.  Even though we've discussed this previously in preparation for the evening, it simply isn't the same as thinking on your feet with unexpected questions before an audience.  I reminded her to think about how Lafayette answered these types of questions by hinting about his future, expressing what he would hope or feared or desired while sort of hinting at the facts of what would be.  So she thought a moment and said, "I hope we don't have any Indian massacres that could destroy the family."  Then everyone looked at me, and my mom asked, "Is there a place for us to go to for answers?"  I guess our guests weren't able to pick up the hints. Hmmmm...then I got an idea.  I told them we could do this like the Colonial Williamsburg Electronic Field Trips.  They always have a question and answer session with a few 18th century characters and 21st century historians.  I told them I'd represent the 21st century historian to back up the 19th century characters.  That allowed the kids to stay in character and merely to give hints as to the future and I gave the extra details. 

     Then it was my son's turn to do his character interpretation of Davy Crockett.  There was one part which is a quote that I told him, during rehearsal, that he really needed to memorize instead of referring to his note cards.  It is long and fun. Although I couldn't talk him into it when we were planning his character several weeks ago, he now agreed it had to be memorized.  Within about 30 minutes he knew it perfectly and with excellent expression.  He nailed it for every rehearsal since then. However, during the unit celebration, what can I say?  We were on a roll. Poor guy.  He was doomed. When he got to his quote, I did a bad thing.  I looked at my dad, who was trying to suppress a smile...because my son was just SO good and it is a really fun quote and you HAVE to smile.  Well that just set me off again and to my shame I started to giggle, my son started to giggle, and, sigh, all was lost.  Here it is...

 My son insisted we pause the camera and begin again from the top.  He really wanted to do it perfectly.  I tried to cover myself by saying we were laughing with Lafayette all the time and he never missed a beat!  He thought that was funny and was able to loosen up a bit. Take 2! Roll 'em!

By this time my batteries were running down so I apologized profusely (in between giggles) and told him if he got more batteries for me, we'd do another take. I was hoping the time it would take to do this would help us to compose ourselves.  Take 3! 

     Whew!  Well, now it was time for Q & A with Davy Crockett.  There were lots of questions here because we found some great stuff on Davy Crockett.  Having lived here in San Antonio most of our lives and having visited the Alamo umpteen times, I wondered how in the world to present Davy Crockett in a fresh way, so that everyone would not be bored?  Like my son said in his speech, Davy had no intention to fight in the Alamo.  He was fed up with politics due to the Indian Removal Act and decided to come to Texas to explore and eventually settle with his family.  Like Lafayette in Williamsburg presents his story on the eve of Yorktown, "Davy Crockett" wanted to tell his story on the eve of the Alamo, before he even arrives in Texas.  Everyone wanted to know how he ended up at the Alamo, so once again I became the 21st century historian after he gave excellent hints. I explained that of course when Davy arrived, there wasn't much he could do to avoid the fight for independence.  As it was, Santa Anna was on the march across Texas and all the settlers rightly feared for their lives. Santa Anna threatened "no quarter" which means no one they battled would be left to live.  The Runaway Scrape occured, where all the settlers fled East as quickly as they could.  It was impossible to live in Texas during this time and not be caught up on one side or the other. This was a life or death situation for all and daily life as they knew it was suspended in fear of Santa Anna.  It was a lot of fun for everyone to learn something new about our legendary "hometown" hero from Tennessee.

     Interestingly, my mom asked about the Compromise of 1850 (I forget how we got to that).  I exclaimed, "We just learned about that this week!"  In fact, the next thing that happened was the very thing I blogged about previous to this post.  My daughter emphasized with big eyes "that Mirabeau B. Lamar lived up to his name.  Guess what his name is?" Then her eyes got even bigger and she exclaimed, "Bonaparte!" Everyone started laughing.   

Then my daughter gave a recitation on Henry Wadsworth Longfellows' "The Village Blacksmith." 

Finally the kids shared the crafts they had made.  Here is my daughter's patchwork quilt.  It is hand pieced and hand quilted.  It is still a work in progress...

Here is her yarn doll...

Here is a cornhusk angel my son made...

Laying down is a yarn soldier with a musket that my son made.  He made a smaller cornhusk soldier and wove a tent for him to sleep in...

He made this whirligig...

Here are the books that were used for this unit including history, dialectic literature, rhetoric literature and rhetoric government.  There are also a few movies we watched.

     I hope that by sharing our bloopers, you too will be encouraged to have a little fun with history.  If things don't go as perfectly planned, just enjoy the moment and make a memory!  I'm glad my kids were able to laugh about it too.  The kids have a new appreciation for the actor/interpretors at Colonial Williamsburg who can stay in character during questioning and laughter. They learned to let loose and laugh at themselves. They learned to keep giving it their best effort.  And I think that we all learned that first person interpretation is a lot of fun!     

     I had to laugh at some comments my kids have made while studying Texas. 

     One day my son chuckled and said, "Hey Mom, Stephen F. Austin was Texas' first real estate agent!"  Hmmmmm, well I never quite thought of it that way.  Stephen F. Austin was actually an empresario who contracted with the Spanish/Mexican government to bring Americans to live in Texas. 

     Then my daughter approached me another day with a laugh and this comment: "Mirabeau B. Lamar really lived up to his name when he tried to expand Texas into New Mexico!"  Mirabeau Lamar was the second president of Texas. Apparently when Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, they thought they had rights to land as far west as New Mexico.   Lamar put this idea into action, by sending a group of men on the ill fated Texan Santa Fe Expedition. 

     Although Texas was its own country, they were in debt and had been seeking to become part of America.  But the northern states in the US Congress did not want Texas to enter the Union, because it would be a slave state. Eventually, Texas became part of America in 1845 as the 28th state. 

     Soon after, the Mexican American War began, partly because the Mexicans continued to insist they owned the land between the Rio Grande and Nueces River. It was interesting to read a few weeks ago that President Polk, on the other hand, was anxious to enter this war to fulfill the Manifest Destiny.

     Finally Mexico lost the war and gave up much of its land in the Southwest to America.  This week we studied the Compromise of 1850, which confused my kids.  So I found some interesting sites that are included here as links.  Did you know that Texas was even bigger than it is today?  This became part of a huge debate in the US Congress over how to deal with the new land aquired from Mexico and how they would eventually enter the Union.  The North wanted the new states to enter as free, whereas the South was fighting for the admission of slave states.  I asked the kids if they had ever noticed a different map of Texas with different boundary lines.  "Oh yes, it used to be bigger!" After four different proposals to redraw the Texas borders, Texas lost some land in today's Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico.  This was part of several concessions in the Compromise of 1850, that delayed the Civil War for ten years.  In return for giving up all that land, Texas got $10,000,000!  Finally, they had a little cash to pay off their debts! All of this (partly) because of a guy who lived up to his name...Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar. 

     It began with a key.  A simple, iron key.  It is prodigious compared to the keys of today. Previously used to unlock massive doors in the "fortress of despotism," in 2004 I first saw it prominently displayed in the central passage of Mount Vernon.  I was flabbergasted. What in the world was the key to the Bastille doing there? It was a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette, who led the National Guard in storming the notorious prison at the beginning of the French Revolution.  "It is a tribute which I owe as a son to my adoptive father, as an aid de camp to my general, as a missionary of liberty to its patriarch."  Can you imagine the emotion George Washington must have felt as he held this key in his hand?  Received by the young Frenchman whom he considered as a son, whom was instrumental in America winning the American Revolution, President Washington was obviously moved.  He had it showcased in a lovely glass case, above a picture of the Bastille, in the central passage of his lovely home.  He meant for the numerous visitors to his estate to see this.  What would it have been like to have been one of those visitors, to discuss with George Washington the meaning behind that key?  Designed to open prison doors for political prisoners in France, it is now showcased as an end to tyranny and the beginning of liberty that first struck its spark in America, and spread to France, and later to the rest of the world, like wildfire.  Thus began my search to further understand the man behind the gift of the key, the Marquis de Lafayette.

     I was fascinated to learn that as a teenager, he volunteered to serve under General George Washington and that he expected no pay for himself.  In fact, he spent his own money to supply the men in his regiment.  He was instrumental in influencing France to supply America with money, food, ammunition and weapons and providing America with the French Army and Navy to secure victory at Yorktown and the successful end to the American Revolution.   

     I marveled that he was an ardent abolitionist. He quite openly worked to persuade his friends, Washington, Jefferson, and others, to free their slaves.  Even William Wilberforce, the man who drove the English Parliament to bring an end to the slave trade, met with Lafayette in his home.  Lafayette established on the French colony of Cayenne, today's French Guiana, a plantation where he attempted to bring freedom to slaves.  

     I was surprised to learn that the French flag we see today is attributed to Lafayette.

     I was touched when I learned that Lafayette fought for the freedoms of French Huguenots.  I am a descendant of French Huguenots. 

     I was terribly saddened when I read that Lafayette had died and was buried next to his wife in Paris. His grave was covered with soil from America. An American flag was posted at his grave. During World War II, even the Germans did not disturb his grave or the flag. 

     America in turn honored Lafayette when he died.  They mourned for 30 days and draped Congress in black. John Quincy Adams, known as Old Man Eloquent, gave a lengthy eulogy and encouraged making Lafayette's name known to future generations.  Towns, schools, counties, and streets across the country were named after him.  Probably each of us has a nearby location in memory of Lafayette. La Grange, Texas is located in Fayette County.   La Grange was the name of one of Lafayette's homes.  In a small Alsatian town not far from where we live, there is a street

 and a shop

that bears his name.  

     The other day some books about Lafayette arrived that I had ordered from Mount Vernon.  The kids were so excited, that they stopped their afternoon history reading to skim the books and look at all the pictures and captions with me.   We had so much fun catching tidbits of new information about Lafayette. 

     Then I got teary eyed.   When Lafayette was imprisioned during the French Revolution, President George Washington and Congress collected $24,424 that would have been equal to the pay Lafayette never received during the American Revolution, since he was a volunteer, to ransom his release from prison.  (Wow, what a George Bailey moment!) Actually, this was a drop in the bucket compared to the amount that Lafayette contributed to the American Revolution out of his own pocket. 

     However, I was most moved, when I read about World War I, where all of Europe was pulled into war.  France was houndered by Germany.  Eventually, America entered the war and arrived in force to the great hope of France.  After arriving in Paris, General Pershing and his aide, Col Stanton, visited Lafayette's grave, where Col Stanton declared, "Lafayette, we are here!" 

     If I had read that in isolation in a history book somewhere, and perhaps I have in my school past, it would have meant nothing to me.  Yet in context of having studied extensively Lafayette's contributions to American Independence, I was moved.  Every time I read a fascinating new fact about Lafayette, I excitedly tell my family.  When I built up the WWI story to my husband over dinner the other night, even he was moved emotionally by imagining the scene. 

     Our current school studies are moving us into the 1840's.  Sadly, this means we are leaving an era of our Founding Fathers and their contributions to American Independence.  If I understand correctly, from what I have read, even Lafayette is considered a Founding Father of America!   I have been saddened during our studies, after reading of the death of each one: Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and now Lafayette.  My husband teases me about this, but he also smiles because he understands where I am coming from.  I have been powerfully moved by these men, who were Providentially used at their time in history, to set the ball of Independence in motion.  Of them all, Lafayette has intrigued me the most. 

     My husband sometimes talks of us visiting Europe someday.  If we ever do, I hope we can go to France.  There are many things I'd like to see there, but the first would be a stop by Lafayette's grave. If I ever get to go there, I know I will be completely moved as I reflect on his impact on the world.  I know that personally, I will never impact the world like he did.  Yet as a teacher, I have the opportunity to touch the future, to show others that their future is influenced by the past.  As I teach, I am impacted by what I myself have learned. I will never view French or American history the same way again. I will never think of Independence the same way again.  I will never look at a map, with Lafayette's name all over it, the same way again.  I will never see the American or the French flag the same way again.  And to think, it all began with...a key.  

     This past week in TOG, we studied the Alamo!  During our socratic discussion, my daughter commented that it was pretty cool to study a TOG topic on our own state.  We've caught several errors in our various books and have learned that our most trustworthy sources come from Texas. ;)  Today we visited the Alamo and this information came in "mighty handy" as Davy Crockett would say.  

     Interestingly, while we were in the gardens of the Alamo looking at huge placards of the history of Texas under each of its six flags, I overheard my daughter explaining some of the Spanish history of Texas to some men.  Then my son jumped in and answered a few of their questions.  I was exceedingly pleased at the amount of information they had retained from their reading. The group was amazed as well and said they really should read the placards themselves, since they were English teachers from New York.  lol They complimented the kids on their terrific education and they said they were homeschooled. The men looked at me in amazement and chuckled and said that they now have a more favorable impression of homeschoolers. Then they started asking me several questions about the Alamo.  I'm not sure if they were part of a large group, or if others overheard and started gathering around, but there I was giving a tour of the Alamo history in the gardens!  It was a lot of fun!

 

     While we were inside the Alamo,  I told the kids to look for the list of names of the defenders of the Alamo and find out where they came from.  They might be surprised!  Did you know that the defenders came not only from Texas, but also several states in America and several different countries in Europe?  We were surprised by some of the names of the defenders as well, which probably revealed a lot about the loyalties of their parents.

George Washington Cottle of Missouri

Andrew Jackson Harrison of Tennessee

Patrick Henry Herndon of Virginia

William J. Lightfoot of Virginia

George Washington Main of Virginia

Napoleon B. (Bonaparte?) Mitchell

     Then there was Benjamin Rush Milam. (he was likely named after the Benjamin Rush who  signed the Declaration of Independence) Milam died in an early skirmish in San Antonio.  He is famous for saying a famous phrase while trying to enlist men to journey with him to fight for Independence, "Who will go with old Ben to San Antonio?" 

Then there was the early Texas settler, Washington Lafayette Denman.

     Naturally, after Texas Independence, many babies were named after William Travis, Davy Crockett and Sam Houston.  We've all probably known someone personally with at least one of these names.

     Tonight we watched the Davy Crockett movie with Fess Parker.  Since my son and I had read Davy Crockett's journal a few weeks ago, we were able to more accurately separate myth from reality in the movie.  Throughout the movie, my son kept saying, "He really did that.  No, that's a bit different." 

     Davy Crockett did fight in the Creek Wars with Andy Jackson.  When Davy insisted on leaving the Creek Wars for a while to provide for his family, he did face cannons. However it was the General and not the Major who threatened to fire at him if he left. Andrew Jackson did make his classic comment, although in more colorful language, when Davy Crockett called his bluff.  Davy did live by the motto, "Be always sure you are right, then go ahead."  Davy did represent Congress in his state legislature in Nashville.  Davy did represent Tennessee in the US House of Representatives in Washington DC under the Jackson administration.  Davy did open his first session of Congress with his famous descriptive yarn.  Davy did get in a heated argument with President Jackson over the Indian Removal Act and left Congress. Davy did travel to Texas to see about becoming a land agent. Davy did accurately shoot the Mexicans from the Alamo. Whenever they saw him over the walls of the Alamo with his gun, they fled!  Partly due to him, Santa Anna lost 10 men for every man killed in the Alamo.  Santa Anna suffered huge losses during that seige. Although he considered it a victory, his officers knew another victory like that would do them in.

     Davy did not enter Texas in the desert fighting Indians! Despite the movie set for the Alamo being in West Texas, the real Alamo is near a river in a city that had buildings (even in 1836) in South Central Texas where the hill country meets the blackland prairie. Within this region is an aquifer from which bubbles numerous rivers such as the San Antonio River.   After a long, hot, dry journey through the desert from Mexico City, the Spaniards found this area to be an oasis. As a result, the Spanish established San Antonio de Bexar as the seat of government and built the Spanish Governor's Palace, presidio and five missions, such as the Alamo, there.  Davy actually entered Texas from the Northeast and into the Piney Woods.  Yes, there are Piney Woods in Texas.  In fact, East Texas is home to Davy Crockett National Forest as well as Sam Houston National Forest.  Texas is far more diverse than movies typically show.    

     The New Yorkers' questions allowed me to see the missing pieces of the Texas puzzle for them.  I tried to help them put the pieces in place. 

     Moses Austin, an entrepreneur from America, negotiated an arrangement with Spain to bring settlers from America to Texas.  Spain had tried unsuccessfully for years to bring their own colonists.  Some Canary Islanders had settled in San Antonio but that was about all that came.  Then the French claimed Texas for a while which angered the Spanish.  Additionally the Comanches kept invading from the north and west.  Therefore Spain realized that American settlers on the untamed Texan frontier could make this a win-win situation for all.  Unfortunately Moses Austin died about the time that Mexico gained its independence from Spain.  His son, Stephen Austin, renegogiated with Mexico and successfully brought the first settlers into East Texas, called The Old Three Hundred.  Men who brought settlers into Texas under these terms were land agents who were called empresarios.  Another empresario was the Baron de Bastrop who was a delightful gentleman with a secret past from Holland who helped the early settlements of Texas in numerous ways. Although he left Holland in disgrace, Texas loved and honored him.  Today an East Texas town is named after him.

     Seeking land on which to settle and begin new lives, many Americans chose Texas due to better land prices than they could get in America.  As the settlers immigrated into the Mexican territory of Texas, they willingly made agreements with the Mexican government to become Mexican citizens and convert to the Roman Catholic religion. 

     In time, Santa Anna  declared himself not only dictator of Mexico, but also the Napoleon of the West.  (My kids thought we were done with Napoleon!  I keep telling them that Napoleon is classic.  He will not quietly go away.  In fact, he's like the Energizer bunny.  His influence will continue to pop up in history again and again and again...)  Santa Anna destroyed the Constitution and took away the rights of the Texas settlers.  As a result, they had taxation without representation.  Hmmmmm, is this sounding a little familiar????  When Stephen Austin went to Mexico City to negotiate, he was thrown into prison for over a year.  Hmmmm, isn't this called tyranny? As a result the Texians (American settlers) and Tejanos (Mexican citizens living in Texas) banded together to seek a return to the original consitution.  Hmmmm, doesn't this sound like the Colonists' first efforts with England in the 1770s?  Unable to come to terms, the Texans finally declared Independence.  

     In my reading last week, I found it fascinating to read how the massacre of every gallant defender of the beseiged Alamo, under the valiant leadership of William Barret Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett, has been added to the pages of history with heroic figures of yore like King Leonidas and Roland.  King Leonidas led the Spartans who were annihilated by the Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae.  Only one man escaped to warn Athens of the loss, which inspired the victorious Greek success over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. 

      Roland, part of Charlemagne's army, led his men against Spain.  When the Basques killed Roland and every one of his men, their heroism spread through the land.  The Song of Roland is a classic piece of literature that commemorates his heroism.  Likewise, the massacres at the Alamo and Goliad led to the infamous battle cries during the final battle at San Jacinto.  "Remember Goliad!" "Remember the Alamo!"  On April 21, 1836, Sam Houston captured Santa Anna and Texas became a Republic.  Texas is the only state in the nation to have been a Republic. (Edited July 10, 2009-I have recently learned of another American state that was a republic before entering the Union. Can you guess?)  Every April 21, San Antonio celebrates Texas Independence with Fiesta with parades by the Alamo and on the San Antonio River.

 

     Because of the uniqueness of Texas history, I am having the kids write a research paper on the similarities of American Independence and Texas Independence.  It has been a fascinating study for me to outline the direction this paper will take.  Using the IEW methods of doing a research paper, the kids will do one paragraph a week over the next several weeks.  They add to their "Works Cited" page weekly. Then at the end they will put all the paragraphs in order, write the transitional sentences between paragraphs and write the introductions and conclusions.  Done!  To guide them, each week I present the kids with the topic of their paragraph. Then they have to pull the resources from the shelves and learn to use the index or table of contents to find the pages with appropriate information. Although this is not really difficult, my kids prefer to "write from the brain" instead of taking the time to back up their facts from sources.  So I guide them in their thinking, by asking questions and giving them tips if needed.   

     Although we have studied Texas history before, my kids have enjoyed studying some of their own state's history within the TOG curriculum.  It will be interesting to see which aspects of this, if any, will makes its way to our next unit celebration. Stay tuned!