Legends of the Old West - FRONTIERSMEN Ep. 5 | Davy Crockett: “Go To Hell or Go To Texas”

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

David Crockett’s political career rises throughout the 1820s, but it begins to fall in the 1830s as he continually runs afoul of President Andrew Jackson. By the mid-1830s, he has heard so many stories about Texas that he has decided to try to build a new life on the new western frontier of the United States. When his political career ends, he starts the journey to Texas and he learns along the way that he will likely have to return to his days as a warrior because a rebellion is rising. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Following the war of 1812, the United States felt invigorated after it fended off the British for a second time. The future seemed bright, and the subsequent decade became known as the era of good feelings. The 1820s ushered in optimism. Families grew, new states entered the Union, and the country began to create its own identity through music, folklore, and tall tales. Tall tales were pivotal in crafting an American image. The tales were inspired by people, places, and professions found across the growing nation. Some characters were fictitious. Others were real people whose stories were embellished or

entirely fictionalized. Daniel Boone became one of the first subject. of tall tales and folklore. In a similar vein, David Crockett was on his way to becoming a popular folk hero as well. He was from what is today Eastern Tennessee. He became a cowboy at the age of 12, and an accomplished hunter by the time he was a teenager. He got married at 21, and he and his wife, Polly, had three children in Jefferson County, Tennessee. Shortly after he moved his family to Franklin County, he felt called to join the war of 1812. The U.S. and Great Britain were back at war, and a theater of that expansive conflict developed south of Tennessee.

The Creek War, a civil war between two halves of the Creek Nation, exploded in the modern-day state of Alabama, and Crockett rode south with a column of Tennessee volunteers. Its column was led by Colonel John Coffey, and it was one part of the larger Tennessee Army commanded by General Andrew Jackson. Coffey's column, with Crockett as a scout, fought and won the critical battle of Talashatchee against a force of Creek Warriors. Jackson's Tennessee Army, along with forces from Mississippi Territory and Georgia, successfully ended the Creek War.

And then Jackson became the hero of the War of 1812 when he won a stunning victory at the Battle of New Orleans. Davy Crockett did two tours of duty with John Coffey's command, and Crockett was thrilled to return home in the spring of 1815 when the war was over. He had had enough of soldiering to last him a lifetime, or so he thought. He said at the time that his career as a warrior was done, but his fate would have it, it wasn't. His return to soldiering would happen many years in the future, but in the present, after the war of 1812, he started his political career. His first wife, Polly, passed away of a mysterious illness soon after he returned from the war. He remarried, and he decided to move his family away from the homestead that he

and Polly and their three children had shared for nearly a decade. Crocket and his new wife Elizabeth Patton and their growing brood of children settled in Lawrence County. In the space of one year, Crockett's political career took off like a shot. He had a good reputation from his service as a soldier. He won people over with light-hearted rhetoric and creative storytelling, and they grew enamored with the 31-year-old frontiersman. They encouraged him to run for public office, and Crockett decided it was worth a try. In 1818, the people of Lawrence County elected David Crockett, Lieutenant Colonel of the 57th Tennessee Regiment of Militia. He was now the highest elected military man in the county, and his star continued to rise.

Shortly after becoming a lieutenant colonel, Crockett became Justice of the Peace. Then he became the town commissioner of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. For the first time, he had some financial stability, and he began to feel comfortable in his surroundings. But politics proved to be nearly as frustrating as farming, which he hated, and nearly as dangerous as frontier warfare. Enemies lurked everywhere in the political landscape, and they could be nearly as sneaky as Creek Warriors. There would be talk of David Crockett for President of the United States, but by the mid-1830s, he started to believe that his future did not lie to the east in Washington, D.C. It lay to the west in the new frontier of Texas. From Black Barrel Media, this is an American frontier series on Legends of the Old West.

I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the stories of two of America's most famous frontiersmen, Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. This is episode 5, Davy Crockett Part 2. Go to Hell or Go to Texas. After three years in local politics in Lawrence County, David Crockett was ready for a bigger challenge. As Justice of the Peace and Town Commissioner, he was intimately aware of the needs of the people around him, and he thought he could help by running for statewide office. When he decided to run for a seat in the Tennessee Assembly to represent Lawrence and Heckman counties,

his folksy background and demeanor worked to his advance. Instead of delivering long, boring speeches, he told campfire stories and made crowds roar at his self-deprecating jokes. He shared his tobacco and whiskey with folks in the crowd, which was a sure-fire way to win the hearts of the people. In Heckman County, he went out with the people on a massive and successful squirrel hunt, and in August 1821, it paid off. David Crockett won his election and became a member of the Tennessee legislature. That same month, while Crockett campaigned in Tennessee, an important meeting happened in San Antonio, Texas. It was unknown to virtually everyone in the U.S., but like a pebble thrown into a lake, it would have ripple effects far beyond its size and initial consequence. A 28-year-old land surveyor named Stephen F. Austin met with an official from the brand new country of Mexico to discuss an agreement to bring the first 300 American

families to the province of Tejas. It had been a whirlwind year for the Austin family in pursuit of the dream of settling American families in the province of Tejas. In January 1821, Moses, Austin, Stephen's father, secured an agreement with the Empire of Spain to take settlers to Tejas. At the time, the country now called Mexico

and all of the lands claimed by Spain in North America were called the Vice Royalty of New Spain. Tejas was one of the provinces of the vice royalty. Unfortunately for Moses Austin, he didn't live to see his colony come to fruition. He passed away in June 1821 from pneumonia, and his son, Stephen, took over the project of establishing a colony in Tejas. By that time, Spain was on the verge of losing its vice royalty. For 11 years, the people of the vice-royalty of New Spain fought a war of independence against the Spanish Empire. By August 1821, the war was all but done, and the new Mexican Empire would declare its official independence one month later. So, in August 1821, Stephen F. Austin met with Mexican officials in San Antonio to make sure his father's plan would still be granted by the new empire.

Mexican officials said yes. Austin could bring settlers to Tejas. The agreement would have its share of problems over the next few years, but by December 1821, the first of the original 300 families were arriving in Tejas. At that time, David Crockett had just finished his first session of four years in the Tennessee Assembly. He championed the causes of poor farmers. He was earnest in his beliefs, and they kept impopular. But his tenure was not without conflict. The 1820s was a time of great change in the national political landscape. Political parties collapsed or shifted or merged. As the nation moved toward the presidential election of 1824, General Andrew Jackson emerged as a dark course candidate. Like Crockett, Jackson was a plain-spoken

political outsider, which made him popular. And of course, he would was the hero of the War of 1812, and then the first Seminole War, which added the new territory of Florida to the Union. He helped expand his home state of Tennessee, and he was one of three men who co-founded a small town called Memphis on the banks of the Mississippi River. Jackson's allies and advisors convinced him to run for a U.S. Senate seat from Tennessee while he was in the middle of a two-year campaign for president, and it was the senatorial election which put him at odds with David Crockett. During the Creek War, Crockett had served in a portion of Jackson's Army of Tennessee volunteers. Eight years later, Crockett did not support Jackson for the U.S. Senate.

Until 1913, U.S. senators were appointed by state legislatures. They were not elected by a popular vote of the people in the state. When Crockett voted against Jackson for U.S. Senate, it was the start of a 10-year rift between the two headstrong, independent old fighters. Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. This fall get double points on every qualified stay. Life's the trip.

Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. The Tennessee legislature appointed Andrew Jackson to the Senate seat, and he began serving in the U.S. Senate while he ran for president. And during that time, another soon-to-be legendary Tennessean started his own political career. In 1823, Sam Houston was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee. Houston had also fought in Jackson's Army in the Creek War, and he and Crockett became friends during their time as soldiers.

Two years after Houston went to Congress, Davy Crockett decided to follow him. his old friend to Washington. After two terms in the state legislature, Crockett ran for and won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. By that time, Andrew Jackson had failed in his bid to become president, and the round-robin of the three Tennesseans continued. When Jackson lost the presidential election, he resigned his Senate seat and returned to Tennessee. After Crockett and Houston were in Congress for just one year together, Houston returned to Tennessee. to become governor. That left Crockett alone in the nation's capital,

but only for a year. In 1828, while Sam Houston was governor of Tennessee and Davy Crockett was a U.S. congressman from Tennessee, Andrew Jackson won the presidential election and moved into the White House. At first, there were no major issues between the Tennesseans. That changed when a major policy promoted by Jackson drew the ire of Crockett. In 1830, Jackson wanted to open up more land to American

settlers. A bill called the Indian Removal Act was intended to grant the president the authority to move the tribes of the southeast region off of their ancestral land. Gradually, after the war of 1812, the states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana joined the American Union. Now, Jackson wanted to move the tribes from those states to lands west of the Mississippi River. Crockett was incensed by the proposal, and he defied the majority of his fellow congressman and the president. On May 19, 1830, Crockett rose from his seat to deliver an unyielding critique of the bill. He admonished Jackson, who he had always respected and considered a friend. The bill defied tribal sovereignty and prior treachery.

In a letter, Crockett also admitted that he feared a federal government which had the strength to uproot people and trample their liberty. Crockett's bold opposition won some supporters, but not enough. Both houses of Congress voted in favor of the bill, and Jackson signed it into law. In what became known as the Trail of Tears, members of 18 tribes were forced to relocate to present-day Oklahoma. Over the next 20 years, an estimated 100,000 people were forcibly moved from the east to the west, and tens of thousands died along the way. After the disagreement over the Indian Removal Act, Crockett's time in Congress was slowly coming to an end, but it was in large part because he started to become a nationwide celebrity.

In 1831, a writer named James Kirk Paulding wrote a play called The Lion of the West. The main character was inspired by Davy Crockett, and the actor who played the role wore a Coonskin cap on stage during the performance. That was how the Coonskin cap became forever associated with Davy Crockett. Crocket and other frontiersmen definitely wore caps made from raccoon hides, but it was the play which created the everlasting image. Four years later, a series of books called the Crockett Almanacs spread Crockett's name

farther than the play. Many of the books featured stories about Crockett, which were similar to outlandish stories of dime novels. They portrayed Davy Crockett as a coonskin cap wearing backwoods Superman. He wrangled an alligator and rode it like a horse. He fought giant rattlesnakes and giant panthers. He could chop down a tree,

with a single swing of an axe. He defied gravity by going up Niagara Falls. He summoned fire from a rock in order to burn Native American warriors who were chasing him. Then, on the heels of the almanacs, Crockett wrote his autobiography with the help of a fellow congressman. It was more accurate than the outrageous stories in the almanacs, but it also helped launch the legend of Davy Crockett, especially when it came to bear hunting. Crockett was already a famous bear hunter thanks to campfire stories, but now the stories reached a wider audience. According to the stories, Crockett killed 10 bears on a single hunting trip.

In the most famous story, a bear charged into his hunting camp and meant to attack his hunting dogs. Crockett shot and killed the bear, but then a second bear started fighting with two of his dogs. With his rifle now empty, Crockett leapt at the bear and stabbed it repeatedly with his hunting knife. Before he could catch his breath, he heard barking in the nearby brush. He ran toward the sound and discovered that his dogs had chased a bear up into a tree. Crockett reloaded his rifle and killed his third bear in less than 30 minutes. Those stories and many more were wildly popular with audiences, and Crockett went on a book tour to support his publication.

The book tour increased his popularity with the general public, but it decreased his popularity as a politician. He was absent from Congress for long periods of time, and he started to face accusations that he wasn't taking his job seriously. In 1835, it all came to a head. David Crockett's final eight months in Congress began with a harrowing experience experience on the steps of the United States Capitol. On January 30, 1835, Crockett, President Jackson, and other officials gathered at the Capitol

for the funeral of a congressman. After the service concluded, Crockett followed President Jackson out of the East Portico exit. Waiting outside was an unemployed painter named Richard Lawrence. As President Jackson walked out of the building, Lawrence approached. Lawrence pulled a pistol from behind his back, aimed it at the president, and pulled the trigger. The gun misfired, but Lawrence had a pistol in his other hand as well. Jackson raised his walking cane to hit Lawrence, but Lawrence pulled the trigger before the

president could land a blow. Miraculously, the second pistol also misfired. Before Lawrence could lunge at Jackson, Crockett lowered his shoulder and rammed the would-be assassin. Crockett knocked Richard Lawrence to the ground and subdued him with the help of a naval lieutenant. When Lawrence was in custody, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It was the first attempted assassination of a president, and it had somehow failed, despite the fact that both guns were found later to be clean and in good working order. Helping the president did not turn out to be political salvation for David. Crockett. Crockett faced a serious opponent during his re-election bid in August 1835, and his opponent was an ally of President Jackson.

Crockett had criticized Jackson too often, and Jackson was determined to see Crockett lose. But even as it seemed highly possible that Crockett might lose his congressional seat in 1835, many in the relatively new Whig political party wanted David Crockett to be a presidential candidate in 1836. Crockett didn't dismiss the idea, but he had a congressional election to win first. At the same time, he seemed to know that the deck was stacked against him. And he, like many Americans, had been hearing a lot about Texas. There were stories of available land, as well as rumblings that a rebellion might be stirring. Crockett's old friends, Sam Houston, had been in Texas for more than two years,

following a series of wild events in his personal and political life. Houston had been elected governor of Tennessee in 1827. He got married in 1829, but his marriage fell apart after just a few months. He was devastated and sank into deep depression. He resigned as governor that same year and went to live with his friends in the Cherokee Nation. He drank heavily for the better part of three years, until he decided to go to Texas at the end of 1832. By that time, the original 300 American families who had been allowed to settle in the Mexican province of Tejas had grown to more than 3,000.

Two and a half years later, it looked increasingly like the people of Texas wanted to break away from Mexico and form their own republic. In the summer of 1835, in the run-up to Election Day in August, Crockett must have known that there was a decent chance he would lose. He had started talking openly about the possibility of moving to Texas if he lost the election, and then it happened. On Election Day in August 1835, he lost his congressional seat to President Jackson's ally, Adam Huntsman. David Crockett remained a man of his word. He did not end up entering the presidential race of 1836, but he did chart a course for Texas. In the spring of 1836, a short article appeared in New York.

newspapers, courtesy of the Louisville Journal. The article repeated a story which Crockett reportedly told to a group of people in Nacadocious, Texas. By way of introducing himself to the group, he explained how he came to be in their town. He said that while he was campaigning for re-election in the summer of 1835, he told the people of his district, quote, If they saw fit to re-elect me, I would serve them as faithfully as I had done. But if not, they might go to hell and I would go to Texas. That's annoying.

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Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bel Air Direct. Insurance Simplified. Conditions apply. For a while, the Mexican government hired American citizens as land agents. Land agents served as middlemen who helped Americans legally relocate to Texas, and they were compensated nicely. When Crockett heard about land agents, he thought it was the perfect job.

Crockett believed the money could pay off outstanding debts, and maybe he could find prosperous land where he could relocate his family. On November 1st, 1835, Crockett loaded his horse with supplies, gunpowder, and a rifle given to him by his constituents, which he named Betsy. He bid his family farewell, which was a common occurrence over 20 years of hunting, soldiering, and politicking. He rode with a group of about 30 men, who were all headed for Texas, and they were already running late. Crockett's old friends, Henry McCullough and his younger brother, Ben, were well on their way to join the revolution, which was sure to begin any minute. For many people in Texas, they believed the war of independence had already started.

By 1835, there were roughly 38,000 people in the Mexican province of Tejas, which American settlers called Texas. Spanish descendants in the province were called Tejanos, American settlers were called Texians, and nearly all of them wanted independence from Mexico. In 1835, the new Mexican president, Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, tore up the Mexican Constitution and started to assume authoritarian control over the country. For the Texians and many of the Tejanos, Santa Ana's actions signaled the need for rebellion.

On October 2, 1835, a group of about 100 Mexican, Mexican soldiers skirmished with about 150 Texian militiamen outside the settlement of Gonzales, about 60 miles east of San Antonio. The Mexican company had been sent there to retrieve a cannon which had been given to the town to protect it from Native American attacks. As tensions rose between Santa Ana and the people of Texas, the Mexican military wanted the cannon back. According to Texas lore, five Texian officers in Gonzales created a full which featured a crudely drawn image of a cannon, and the words, come and take it.

The flag flew over the town as the Texians attacked and pushed back the Mexican troops. The Mexican commander was in a tight spot. He had been ordered to take the cannon by force if necessary, but to avoid an actual battle if possible. So, after the Texians attacked and both sides sustained minor casualties, the Mexican commander backed off.

The Battle of Gonzales, as the skirmish was called, signaled the true beginning of the Texas Revolution. One week later, a Texian force attacked and captured a fort called Presidio La Bahia near the town of Goliad. The Texians had momentum, and Stephen F. Austin, commander-in-chief of the Texian force, coordinated a move against the most important city in South Texas, San Antonio de Behar. By the end of October, a Texian army of several hundred men, was laying siege to San Antonio, and its old Spanish mission turned Fort, the Alamo.

And while Stephen F. Austin tried to convince the Mexican military commander in San Antonio to surrender, Davy Crockett and a group of Tennesseans rode toward Texas. Crocket's first big stop was Memphis, where he and the group rested for a couple weeks. In early December, right before they resumed their journey, a surprising triumph had to be a The rising triumph happened in Texas. The Texian Army took San Antonio. Starting on December 5th, 1835, and continuing for the next five days, the Texian Army fought through the city.

It was a last-ditch effort, a move-it-or-lose-it situation. Supplies and morale were low for both armies. The siege had lasted for nearly two months, and the Texian commanders knew that if they didn't do something soon, they would lose their volunteers. volunteers. By the night of December 9th, the Texian Army had trapped the few remaining Mexican soldiers in the old Spanish mission called the Alamo. It hadn't been a religious institution for 40 years, and it had slowly evolved into a small fortress for military use. In the early morning hours of December 10th, the Mexican commander agreed to surrender. Four days later, the commander led 800 Mexican soldiers out of San Antonio. The Texians were victorious, and many believed they had won the war, but the war had barely started. When President Santa Ana learned that the Mexican commander, his own brother-in-law, had surrendered San Antonio,

Santa Ana was outraged. He had already been planning to move north from Mexico City with a huge army to crush the upstart rebels, and by the end of December, he was on the march. His first target was San Antonio, to reclaim the city, and to avenge the dishonor brought upon his family. That was the cauldron that Davy Crockett and the other Tennesseans were walking into when they left Memphis in mid-December. Crockett and the others arrived in Nacodosius, Texas, in early January 1836.

The small town in the heart of the Piney Woods of East Texas was about 350 miles from Memphis on a straight line. In Nacadocious, Crockett was happy to rendezvous with his old friend Ben McCullough, though Crockett was disappointed to learn that Ben's older brother Henry had returned to Texas. And it was in Nacadocious where Crockett reportedly regaled listeners with his now famous story of telling his constituents in Tennessee that if they didn't vote for him, they might go to hell and he would go to Texas. It was also in Nacadocious on January 14th, where Crockett signed an oath to serve

as a volunteer for the provisional government of Texas for the next six months. In return, he and the other men who took the oath would each receive 4,600 acres of land. They were now volunteers in the fledgling Texian Army, which was still a work in progress. The situation was messy, and it was evolving quickly. Stephen F. Austin had been commanding volunteers who were already fighting, but the provisional government of Texas had named Sam Houston to the role of Commander-in-Chief of the Texian Army. The problem was, a formal army didn't exist.

Houston was trying to build one, but until he did, he didn't have any real military power. On January 17th, three days after Crockett swore an oath to Texas, Houston wrote to the provisional governor and asked permission to abandon the Alamo. Houston wanted to order Colonel Jim Bowie, one of the commanders at the fort, to remove the cannon and to blow it up.

Houston believed, quote, it will be impossible to keep up the station with volunteers. Jim Bowie, a resident of San Antonio de Behar, vehemently disagreed. On February 2, 1836, six days before Davy Crockett arrived at the Alamo, Bowie wrote to the governor and said, quote, The Salvation of Texas depends in great measure in keeping Behar out of the hands of the enemy. Colonel McNeil and myself have come to the government. the solemn resolution that we will rather die in these ditches than give it up to the enemy.

And so, the stage was set for a legendary chapter of American history. The provisional governor of Texas denied permission to abandon the Alamo. Santa Ana's army crossed into Texas and was three weeks away from arriving in San Antonio, and Davy Crockett and other volunteers journeyed from Nacadocious to San Antonio to make a final stand. Next time on Legends of the Old West, Davy Crockett and his company arrive at the Alamo and prepare for battle. Two weeks later, Santa Ana and his army occupy San Antonio and begin a 13-day siege of the old Spanish fort. Crockett leads daring missions to find reinforcements, but in the end, less than 300 defenders will have to battle as many 2,000 Mexican soldiers.

The story of the Alamo is next week on the final episode of Frontiersmen and the story of Davy Crockett here on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program receive each new season to binge all at once with no commercials, as well as exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show.

show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, or subscribe directly on Apple Podcasts through the podcast show page. This series was written and researched by Michael Meglish. It was produced by Joe Garrow. Original music by Rob Valier. I'm Chris Wimmer. Thanks for listening.