Crescat Scientia: Journal of History, Volume X, 2013

              CRESCAT SCIENTIA
Utah Valley University
J o u r n a l o f Hi s to r y
Volume X
2 0 1 3
III
Crescat Scientia is an annual publication of Utah Valley University’s
(UVU) Department of History and Political Science. Issues are
available for distribution during the spring semester of each academic
year. To obtain subscription information or back copies of Crescat
Scientia, please contact the history department:
Utah Valley University
Department of History and Political Science
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Phone: (801) 863-8487
Fax: (801) 863-7013
©2013 Utah Valley University, Department of History and Political
Science. All rights revert to the authors upon publication.
We invite all current students to submit their manuscripts for review
and possible publication. Works submitted must be thematically
related to history and politic science. To submit a manuscript, deliver
a complete version of the manuscript with cover sheet to the UVU
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in accordance with the notes and bibliography documentation style
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For more specific information, please contact the UVU History
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cr escat scientia
u v u j o u r n a l o f h i s to r y
Editor-In-Chief
Justin Andersen
Assistant Editors
Pamela Gardner
Technical Editor
Ryan Krage
Faculty Advisors
Dr. William W. Cobb, Jr.
Dr. Keith Snedegar
Published annually for the Utah Valley University
Department of History and Political Science
Utah Valley University, Department of History and Political Science
800 West University Parkway, Orem, Utah 840057
Phone: (801) 863-8487 Fax: (801) 863-7013
V
F a c u lt y Not e s
To our readers:
Since the days when Utah Valley State College first emerged
from its community-college status in the 1990s, the institution has
increasingly fostered opportunities that encourage students, staff, and
faculty to engage with their disciplines and with the wider community
through a variety of channels: e.g., conferences, interdisciplinary
programs, performances, study abroad, and student journals.
And such has been the goal of Crescat Scientia since its inception
in 2003. Although the department has provided resources, guidance,
and encouragement, it is the student editorial team that has been
central to its success as a platform for historical research and articles on
a wide range of topics.
Thank you to all who have contributed, and especially to editor-in-
chief Rae Gifford and her student colleagues. The fruits of those
countless hours of promoting, reading, vetting, workshops on the
craft of journal production, revisions, and editing, lie in the pages that
follow. Enjoy!
William W. Cobb, Jr., Ph.D.
Professor and Faculty Advisor
F a c u lt y Not e s
Dear Reader,
I take singular pleasure in introducing this issue of Crescat Scientia
as it is dedicated to the senior member of our department, Professor F.
Dennis Farnsworth. Dennis has served this institution for forty years.
Along the way, he introduced Chinese language study, helped create the
Faculty Senate, and launched the Honors Program. More importantly,
he has ably taught many thousands of students; and, incredibly, he
seems to remember all of their names! This volume is a small offering of
gratitude for someone who has given so much to so many, and who has
acted as if he were giving everything to each recipient. No Utah Valley
faculty member has been more student-centered. How appropriate,
then, that Rae Gifford, the 2012 Outstanding Student of the Year in
History and Political Science, should be editor-in-chief. Rae and her
editorial staff have assembled a robust and diverse collection of writing
that represents a high standard of attainment. The authors and editors
should be proud of their exceptional work.
It is a wonder to contemplate the legacy of an educator full of years
and the potential of students full of energy. I hope both come to mind
in surprisingly revelatory ways as you leaf through this volume.
May Knowledge Grow,
Keith Snedegar
VI
History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it
illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily
life, and brings us tidings of antiquity.
Cicero
A child, from the time he can think, should think about all
he sees, should suffer for all who cannot live with honesty,
should work so that all men can be honest, and should be
honest himself. A child who does not think about what happens
around him and is content with living without wondering
whether he lives honestly is like a man who lives from a
scoundrel’s work and is on the road to being a scoundrel.
José Martí

We would like to dedicate this edition of the
Crescat Scientia to Professor Lyn E. Bennett. It was through her
eye History was first illuminated for me.
Ac k n owl e d g eme n t s
The editors of Crescat Scientia would like to take a moment to thank all
those who came together to make this journal possible.
First and foremost, our heartfelt thanks goes to our faculty advisors
Dr. William W. Cobb, Jr. and Dr. Keith Snedegar. Without their
guidance and input the journal would never have succeeded. We also
need to recognize the History and Political Sciences’ Administrative
Assistant, Paula Wankier, without her none of the little things would
have happened.
There were so many who helped us over the hurdles of editing and
publishing. We give special thanks to the UVU English Department
and especially Dr. Scott Hatch. Dr. Hatch took us under his wing and
guided us on the long journey to becoming an excellent journal. There
are not enough words to describe our gratitude for his patience, wisdom,
and skills. We would also like to thank the editors of Touchstones, Warp
and Weave, and Essais, for all of their help and support through the
publishing process. Without their friendship and support we could not
have completed this journal on time.
Finally, we would like to express thanks, not only to all those who
submitted their work, but also to those who put in countless volunteer
hours reading submissions, editing, source checking, and helping
put this journal together. Without all of you it would not have been
possible to turn out the 2013 edition of Crescat Scientia. Thank You!
IX
Volume IX 2013
Co n t e n t s
Editor’s Note . Rachel Gifford 1
Utah Valley University’s
Steadfast Beacon of Learning . Barry & Raeleen Maxfield 3
The Transition to Feudalism . Kyler Williamsen 11
Modern Economic Growth:
A Case Study of the Rising Economic Powers
of China, India, and Brazil . Jordan Greene 25
A Religious Role in Reverse:
The Military Chaplaincy . Rebekah Cousins 41
The Supreme Court’s Influence in America:
A Historical Review of Judicial
Influence on Abortion Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stephen Swensen 53
The Crossroads of Slavery
in the United States . Kathryn Robbins 75
A Superpowers Crossroads:
The United States’ Perilous
Global Future After the Afghan War . Jeremy Ruppe 87
Jazz Music: Influential Element
of the Civil Rights Movement . Robert Lister 105
XI
Volume IX 2012
Co n t e n t s
Chief Justice Roger Taney:
His Court and the Questions
of Slavery and Presidential Power . Everett Tenney 117
International Issues with
the Articles of Confederation . J. Brook Anderson 141
Demographic Winter:
Global Population Aging
and Economic Realignment . Barry McLerran 159
The Cave of Machpelah: A Study . Dr. Alexander T. Stecker 179
Comparing the Republics of Armenia,
Azerbaijan, and Georgia in the
Post-Soviet Era, 1991-2011 . Troy Bradley 189
Journal Staff. . .227
1
E d i to r ’ s Not e
“History isn’t just dry dates and statistics. History is human.
History can be a great source of strength and affirmation. An aid to
navigation, especially in dark and dangerous times.”
 David McCullough1
Our goal this year was to provide a broad view of the students that
fill our classrooms. Therefore, this year’s History and Political Science
students have written of the past, the present, and the future. This
journal takes its readers from feudal Rome to the future demographics
of our global population; from political discussions on the post-Soviet
Era to cultural discussions on the importance of Jazz to the Civil Rights
Movement.
Through such a broad lens, we see each new discovery is built on
the knowledge of the past. Knowledge which we have learned here at
the feet of our professors. Each lesson a student learns, each topic they
internalize, provides the basis for the life they will lead. The futures of
our students are as varied as the topics in this journal and the professors
here have helped guide the future of our world. For “those who are
taught, do. Those who teach, shape the future.”2
Rachel Gifford
Editor-in-Chief
1 David McCullough, In the Dark Streets Shineth: A 1941 Christmas Story,
performed December 2009 (Stevens Point, WI: Shadow Mountain, 2010), DVD.
2 Suzanne Brockmann, Frisco’s Kid (Ontario: Mira, 1997), 206.
Review of Martin Luther’s Dedicatory
Letter to Pope Leo X
Adrienne Shelley
Thousands of churches around the world can thank Martin
Luther. He went against the social and societal norms because
of his strong belief in the reformation of the Catholic Church and by
doing so allowed the evolution of new churches. Martin Luther had
different views than the Catholic Church. He believed that the selling
of indulgences was immoral and that the corruption and perversion
of the church and its leaders must be modified as well as the doctrines
being taught.
Martin Luther sent a letter to Pope Leo X explaining his own
views on religion, which he believed to be the “truth,” and invited him
to join him in the true word. In the beginning of the letter Luther de-fends
and creates a sense of loyalty to the pope. He explains how he has
never said anything that was not honorable about Leo and goes on to
say what a good person he is. He is blunt when he refers to the cardi-nals
and describes them as his enemies because of their corruption and
their efforts in overthrowing peace. He brings up similarities between
the cardinals and anti-christs to show the perversion of Leo’s court and
explains that this corruption isn’t really Christian. He goes on to write
about the purpose of these positions saying, “Christ was sent for no
other office than that of the word, and the order of apostles, that of
bishops, and that of the whole body of the clergy, have been called and
instituted for no object other but the ministry of God.”1 He implies
that if their whole calling is to the ministry of God, then those in these
1 Luther, Martin, Henry Wace, and C. A. Buchheim. First principles of the
Reformation, or, The ninety-five theses and the three primary works of Luther
translated into English. London: J. Murray, 1883.
4  Shelley Martin Luther’s Dedicatory Letter  5
and useful servant of all.”5 In this statement he touches on his earlier
declaration of what a Christian man is and relates it to his idea of faith.
Luther also suggests that people lay aside works and focus on their
faith instead. For there are many good works in faith, but there is not
always faith in good works. Good works according to Luther means
nothing. If people have faith then they are saved, their works will get
them no justification or salvation -- they can only receive those through
faith. A person who is faithful will do good works, but good works do
not mean they are faithful people. One of his related examples is of a
tree. The tree’s fruit cannot come before the tree, but if there is a tree it
can bring forth fruit. Likewise, a people cannot be called good because
of their works, but they are good because of their faith, which then pro-duces
good works. Good works have no comparison to faith. Obedi-ence
to God is shown by faith and not through the good works of man.
Luther writes about how good works are unnecessary for salva-tion,
but he goes on to explain why good works are done. Good works
are done to please God and for that reason only. He explains that Adam
and Eve were made perfect without needs to be justified or saved. God
gave them work to do on the earth, and they did it. “These would have
indeed been works of perfect freedom, being done for not object but
that of pleasing God, and not in order to obtain justification.”6 This
example shows that there is no reason to do works for justification, the
only need is to have faith, and through faith good works will spring up
in acts of pleasing God.
Faithful people will do good works to please God, but they will
also live for the Lord by trying to be Christ-like. A man may do this
by being a “Christ” to his neighbor. Part of Luther’s definition of a
Christian man (“a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all,
and subject to everyone”) is referred to in this section. He writes about
how faithful people who really believe and do good works to please
God will be serving their neighbor as they live in a Christ-like manner.
“For Man does not live for himself alone in this mortal body, in order
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
offices need replaced or to have a change in their behavior and actions.
Luther describes a Christian man as being “the most free lord of
all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of
all, and subject to everyone.”2 He goes on to explain that the soul and
the body are separate and one is not complete by itself. The soul can’t
do anything without the word of God; therefore, without the word of
God, we are nothing. The word of God is what makes our lives pros-perous.
Those who don’t believe on the word will be unfruitful. He
states, “To preach Christ is to feed the soul, to justify it, set it free, and
to save it if it believes the preaching.”3
According to Luther there is no such thing as justification there’s
only faith. Through faith and through believing the word of God, we
are saved. People cannot be perfect, even if they try, and by trying they
become discouraged and can never attain perfection. Faith creates ways
in which we can conquer both death and sin, because if we have faith,
we are not sinners. For those who do not believe on the word, all things
for him are evil. He uses good things to gain his advantage rather than
giving the glory to God. For those who do have faith, all things work
for their good, and they become lords of all, and are not imprisoned.
Luther goes on to explain how faith is maintained: “this faith is pro-duced
and is maintained by preaching why Christ came, what he has
brought us and given to us, and to what profit and advantage he is to
be received.”4
This idea of faith is the fulfilling law. By believing we are free from
sin, we are justified, and we gain many riches. According to Luther,
when people are truly humbled, they can see that there truly is only
faith and no justification. All a person needs to do is believe and have
faith, and they are saved. It is the one and only thing in this world that
can redeem mankind. In referring to the Christian life Luther states,
“It can do all things, has all things, and is in the want of nothing; is
lord over sin, death, and hell, and at tile same time is the obedient
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
6  Shelley Martin Luther’s Dedicatory Letter  7
to work on it’s account, but also for all men on earth.”7 In other sec-tions
of his writing Luther writes about those that are unfaithful who
just live for their own gain. These unfaithful people will never attain
salvation because they do not believe on the word of God and are not
Christian. Luther makes a bold statement later on in the letter saying,
“a Christian man does nothing but live in himself, but in Christ and
in his neighbor, or else is no Christian.”8 Shown here, he obviously
believes strongly in serving neighbors, serving God, and trying to be
Christ-like.
Being Christ-like requires the knowledge of and faith in Christ.
Without that knowledge it would be impossible. Luther writes a bit
about his knowledge of Christ and how he was sent to this earth only
to institute the word of God. Through his service and kind actions we
can learn to be Christ-like. Christ lived like us for us, “laboring, work-ing,
suffering, and dying, as to be like the rest of men, and no otherwise
than a man in fashion and in conduct, as if he were in want of al things,
and had nothing of the form of God; and yet all this he did for our
sakes, that he might serve us, and that all the works he should do under
that form of a servant, might become ours.” 9 Through Christ’s merits
we are saved if we believe.
Our faith unites us with Christ similarly to marriage. Faith is
our wedding ring that binds us to Christ and because we are married,
what’s his is ours and what is ours is his. This means that no matter
what we do, we cannot sin because Christ can’t sin so therefore as long
as we keep that “wedding ring” we are saved. Luther states, “Christ is
full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul is full of sin, death, and con-demnation.
Let faith step in, and then sin, death, and hell will belong
to Christ, and grace, life, and salvation to the soul.”10 Through this
marriage there is nothing that can make a person unredeemable. Christ
is the firstborn and through this he is entitled to everything, and by
being married to him so are we.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
Martin Luther’s big push in this letter is to bring to the attention
of the pope the corruption of his Catholic court by informing him of
Luther’s ideology of religion and how men are saved and what truly is
a “Catholic man.” “For when the soul has been cleansed by faith and
made to love God, it would have all things to be cleansed in like man-ner;
and especially in its own body, so that all things might unite with
it in the love and praise of God.” 11 This belief that there is no justifi-cation,
the soul is cleansed through faith and therefore redeemed and
saved by faith alone is the main theme throughout the letter. In this,
he touches on is the corruption of the clergy, and the goodness of Pope
Leo X. Luther genuinely believed that if Pope Leo X will join Luther’s
belief, he may be saved by his faith.
Biographical Notes
J. Brook Anderson, RSPGT is a senior at Utah Valley University
pursuing a degree in history.
For Further Reading
“Effects of the New Deal on American Politics” by Ryan J. Vogel, Cres-cat
Scientia 1 (2003): 73–80.
“The Bill of Rights: A Popular Victory for Liberalism in the American
Founding.” Ryan J. Vogel, Crescat Scientia 2 (2004): 55–69.
“Lincoln and the Suspension of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War,”
by Ted Memmott, Crescat Scientia 3 (2005): 41–55.
“Bundling: Colonial Courtship’s Path of Least Resistance” by Georgia
Buchert, Crescat Scientia 1 (2003): 25–31.
11 Ibid.
The Alamo and Popular Memory
Austin Noble Hatch
There are circumstances that may allow fiction to become
fact when describing historical events. The military engagement
at the Alamo and the conditions regarding the deaths of its volunteer
defenders, are certainly a case in point of these historical events that are
difficult to define as fiction or fact because of the small number of sur-vivors
and their perspectives. Of the handful that did survive, there are
a few who wrote their stories from either the Alamo volunteer’s aspect
or the Mexican soldiers and officers. Those who wrote their story often
contradicted each other, creating a blur of words and thoughts. These
primary documents will further be compared to both artistic represen-tation
and cinematic representation in order to clarify in some cases the
gap or relationship involved with fiction and historical evidence. The
artistic and cinematic depictions can be viewed as popular memory
because they often times follow a common view, rather than first hand
documentation. A public’s view or popular memory may in fact be
defined by these artistic and cinematic illustrations because it offers
viewers an entertaining view of historical events. Depending on the
group, both the illustrations and popular memory may be the same.
The case study of the battle of the Alamo in 1836 reveals that historical
depictions, represented by both art and cinema, are often formed by a
group’s popular memory, rather than historical evidence produced by
the battle’s survivors.
When describing national memory, Dr. Neil Longley York states,
“Films, novels, and histories play a part in this formation for almost
all of us.”1 This leaves the question, why is there a difference between
1 Neil Longley York, Fiction as Fact: The Horse Soldiers and Popular
Memory (Kent: Kent State University Press, 2001), xiii.
10  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  11
Brief History
In 1823 the Mexican President, Antonio López de Santa Anna,
began to reconstruct the former federalist government. Santa Anna de-sired
more centralized power and slowly began to impose a dictator-ship.
Those who were far from the reach of the central government,
located in Mexico City, were more able to refuse this change in power,
as they could not immediately be reached by Santa Anna’s military
forces. Due to the uprisings of Mexican citizens living in the region
currently known as Texas, though it still belonged to Mexico, General
Santa Anna led a large group of soldiers including; infantry, cavalry,
and artillery to suppress the civil and political unrest.4 The location of
the Alamo is in the center of San Antonio on the San Antonio River,
which lies in South Central Texas today. Its location was a critical de-fensive
position to prevent Mexican forces from pressing further into
Texas territory.5 If the Alamo could be defended, General Houston
who was roughly four hundred miles north of San Antonio would have
the necessary time to gather and train enough volunteers to be able to
try and stop the advancing Mexican troops.
The defenders of the Alamo numbered roughly one hundred and
eighty five men.6 The majority of the volunteers was from Texas, and
had some tie to land ownership in the region. This land ownership
came from the U.S. government offering huge parcels of land, up to
eight hundred acres, in an area that they did not own.7 There were also
4 “Santa Anna and the Texas Revolution,” Andrews University, http://
www.andrews.edu/...rwright/Oldwww/Alamo/revolution.html. (accessed
September 15, 2012).
5 Stephen L. Hardin, “Battle of the Alamo,” Handbook of Texas Online,
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qea02,(accessed
September 20, 2012).
6 Amelia Williams, “A Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and of the
Personnel of Its Defenders: Iv. Historical Problems Relating to the Alamo,”
The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 37, no. 3 (January 1934): 160,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/30235477 (accessed September 10, 2012).
7 Janey Levy, The Alamo: A Primary Source History of the Legendary Texas
Mission (New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2003), 38.
primary source documentation and popular memory? In this circum-stance
primary source documentation can be viewed as historical evi-dence,
while popular memory can be viewed as an individual’s perspec-tive
and possibly fiction. This statement is difficult to claim because
even the primary documents will contradict each other, leaving his-tory’s
creation in the eye of the historian. Two films will be analyzed
to show popular memory of the events that took place at the battle of
the Alamo. Both films are titled The Alamo. One is directed by John
Lee Hancock, and the other is directed by John Wayne. The deaths of
three famous volunteers; William B. Travis, David (Davey) Crockett,
and Jim Bowie, offer insight into the difference between popular mem-ory
and between the written accounts. It is important to focus on the
deaths of the volunteers who fought at the Alamo because of the heroic
titles given to its defenders due to the nature of their deaths. Their
deaths are often viewed as heroic because they died fighting against
terrible odds. Historian Janey Levy writes that the real men who had
defended the Alamo were turned
Into larger-than-life heroes whose deeds exceeded anything that
mortals could accomplish. The defenders…became symbols of an
eternal struggle for liberty shared by all humanity. In one sense,
the legend has given the Alamo defenders a kind of immortality.
The defenders and the battle itself became symbols of an eternal
struggle for liberty.2
The Alamo’s defenders, especially Travis, Crockett, and Bowie die
differently given evidence from the artistic, cinematic, and primary
source representations. These deaths demonstrate a variation in popular
memory over time, and especially a disparity with the primary sources.3
2 Janey Levy, The Alamo: A Primary Source History of the Legendary Texas
Mission (New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2003), 48..
3 The amount of research with respect to primary and secondary sources
referencing the Alamo is overwhelming. The sources, particularly the
secondary sources, used have been selected based on their support of the
thesis statement.
12  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  13
a number of volunteers that came from the Southern states, particularly
Tennessee, who believed the Alamo to be a just cause in fighting an op-pressive
Mexican government. Few of the volunteers had seen combat
except having been involved in conflicts with the Native Americans.
Colonel William B. Travis and Colonel Jim Bowie were both tasked
with leading the volunteers in defense of the Alamo. David Crockett
led a group of approximately twenty men who were known as the Ten-nessee
Boys. The volunteers were ambitious in their desire to defend the
fort, but all knew of the necessity for more volunteers in the Alamo’s
defense. Numerous riders were sent out requesting more volunteers
from General Sam Houston, James W. Fannin, Andrew Ponton, and
to the President of the Convention in Bexar. From these letters General
Sam Houston desperately recognized the Alamo defenders’ dire situa-tion
at the poorly manned fort. In his letter to General Sam Houston,
Col. Travis states,
The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt
increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this can is
neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible &
die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor
& that of his country—Victory or Death.8
Travis’ courage is evident through this letter, and the courage of
the commander certainly spread throughout the fort, as the defenders
decided to remain, though they were offered asylum by both Travis and
Santa Anna prior to the battle’s commencement.
The Story through Art
This first version of “Dawn at the Alamo” (facing page) completed
by Henry Arthur McArdle in 1874, which was roughly forty years after
the battle of the Alamo, shows the apparent good versus evil theme
also found in Robert Jenkins Onderdonk’s painting, which will later
be viewed. The Alamo’s volunteers are immediately painted with white
around them, while the rest of the picture is polluted by dark and
8 William Barret Travis, “The Travis Letter of February 24, 1836,” Freedom
Documents,http://www.freedomdocuments.com/Travis/text.html
(accessed March 24, 2012).
evil appearing Mexican soldiers. The other defenders of the Alamo are
shown swinging their weapons in a last effort to defend themselves.
The supplies of the volunteers had run short after the long, twelve-day
siege, leaving them undersupplied and in dire need of reinforcements.
The final fall of the last volunteer could be the famed Davy
Crockett as is popular belief, but from the painting this character is
impossible to define. The artist painted him to be falling heroically
with intended God-given white light surrounding his valiant fight to
the death. This white light could be related to the common belief of
Manifest Destiny, or the God-given right to United States’ colonist
and their westward expansion. Many colonists who believed in Mani-fest
Destiny believed that the continental United States was given to
them by God and that they must colonize it because of that belief.
Historian Don Graham refers to Manifest Destiny by saying, “For the
Priesthood foresaw that the triumph of the American element meant
the triumph of freedom of conscience, and the abolition of their own
despotism.”9 This quote demonstrates that amongst religious leaders,
9 Don Graham, “Remembering the Alamo: The Story of the Texas
Revolution in Popular Culture,” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
89, no. 1 (July, 1985): 37, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30236993 (accessed
April 06, 2012).
14  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  15
even the priesthood, Manifest Destiny was certainly an idea to fight for
and McArdle’s illustration depicts a God approved heroic fight against
the Mexican forces. If the defenders truly believed that they were fight-ing
for both religious and patriotic reasons, as the image depicts, it
may have been easier for them to sacrifice their lives for a possible
God-given reward in the afterlife. The number of the Alamo’s volun-teers
who died, all one hundred and eighty five, versus the number
of Mexican soldiers who perished, roughly six hundred, demonstrates
the strong motives behind the Alamo’s volunteers fighting.10 This im-age
like the first by McArdle demonstrates his popular memory of the
battle and the influences, such as Manifest Destiny, surrounding the
painting’s completion. This piece of art was loaned to the state of Texas
by McArdle and was on exhibit in the Capitol when it was destroyed
by the 1881 fire, this 1875 image now exists only in the form of a pho-tographic
reproduction.11
10 John Chambers, The Oxford Companion to American Military History
(London: Oxford University Press, 2000), “Battle of the Alamo,” http://
www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/ (accessed September 12,
2012).
11 Sam DeShong Ratcliffe, Painting Texas History to 1900 (Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1992), 37.
“Death of Bowie” (below)12 was created by Louis Eyth in about
the year 1878. Eyth was trained as a daguerreotypist in Galveston, but
little is known about the artist.13 The image is of the death of Jim Bowie
and is appropriately titled Death of Bowie. It shows the Mexican sol-diers
in a different light than the first painting by McArdle, and is more
similar to the fourth image of the Mexican soldiers with Davy Crock-ett.
The depiction of the Mexican soldiers in this painting is not bar-baric
and dark, like the first three paintings. Bowie is dressed in white,
which most likely represents his undergarments because he was ill dur-ing
the battle, but the light from the painting is not solely coming in
on Bowie, it rather fills the room. The manner of dress of the Mexican
soldiers is professional and the officer leading the raid of Bowie’s room
appears gallant. It is important to recognize that Bowie is only hold-ing
a pistol, and is not armed with a Bowie Knife, which will later
be explored. The painter Louis Eyth was born in 1838, just after the
Battle of the Alamo, and lived in Texas since the age of fourteen.14 The
other painters, McArdle and Onderdonk, both lived in Texas during
the early twentieth century, but depicted the Mexican soldiers much
differently than Eyth. This gives further evidence to one’s group form-ing
a popular memory, but demonstrates the variation between groups
even of the same state. Thomason also lived in Texas, but was born
decades after the other painters, pointing towards the availability of
primary sources during the creation of his painting.
This painting titled “The Fall of the Alamo” (following page)15 by
Robert Onderdonk in 1903 clearly shows an Alamo volunteer in buck-
12 Louis Eyth, Death of Bowie: A Command from the Mexicans that He Be
Killed (1878), DRT Library at the Alamo.
13 Sam DeShong Ratcliffe, Painting Texas History to 1900 (Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1992), xv.
14 Pauline A. Pinckney, “EYTH, LOUIS,” Handbook of Texas Online.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association, (http://www.
tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fey01 (accessed October 15,
2012).
15 Robert Jenkins Onderdonk, The Fall of the Alamo (1903), Friends of the
Governor’s Mansion Austin, Texas.
16  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  17
skin clothing with an animal skin cap and other volunteers fighting
to the death. The man dressed in the buckskin clothing, who perhaps
represents Davy Crockett, is shown swinging his rifle to fend off the
Mexican soldiers after he had possibly run out of ammunition that was
critically low even before the fighting began or did not have enough
time to reload. In the film, The Alamo by John Lee Hancock, Crock-ett
states that the only reason he even began to wear a coonskin cap
was because of an actor who would travel around imitating him as
the country’s wildest outdoorsman.16 Wearing this coonskin cap would
have added to the mystical character of Crockett, portrayed as a wild
and ferocious outdoorsman, though he had been a U.S. Congressman.
No Alamo volunteers wail in pain or remove themselves from the
fight like the Mexican soldier on the bottom right. The Alamo volun-teer,
clearly wounded and sitting on the ground firing his pistol, rep-resents
the view that the volunteers continued to fight heroically and
proudly even as they were wounded.
The countenances and clothing painted by Onderdonk appear
brighter on the left side of the painting, representing the Alamo’s vol-unteers.
The soldiers on the right, Mexico’s side, are darker in complex-ion
and uniform in an almost good versus evil style of color. The color
of the sky in the background correlates with an early dawn morning,
16 John Lee Hancock, The Alamo, DVD (Burbank: Touchstone Pictures,
2004).
which has been described in other sources solidifying its validity.
There have been strong emotions such as rage and admiration
shown when visitors have seen this painting by Onderdonk. James
T. Deshields, a Texas historian, reported that a number of Mexican
visitors who had seen the painting “expressed anger, sometimes with
clenched fists and vehement gestures, at certain figures in the picture.
When the painting was cased, awaiting transportation, and at an un-guarded
moment, some miscreant Mexican with a knife, slit places in
the canvas.”17 This statement regarding Onderdonk’s painting makes it
evident that not all viewers, particularly the Mexican spectator, assess
the Alamo’s defenders as heroic. Deshields does clarify which figures on
the painting the Mexican visitors were scowling at, but it could have
been either the Alamo’s volunteers or the Mexican soldiers depending
on the visitors views. Ratcliffe writes that Onderdonk,
Might be considered a mild version of a carpetbagger. At the invi-tation
of Maryland friends residing in Texas, he moved to San Antonio
in the 1870s in hopes of earning money from painting portraits of
wealthy ranchers in order to finance art study in Europe. But drought
financially wiped out most of the area’s cattle raisers, and Onderdonk,
broke and stranded, remained in Texas, becoming the patriarch of the
state’s premier family of painters.18
The second version of “Dawn at the Alamo,” (following page)19
by Henry McArdle in 1905 represents a common view, when com-pared
with other Battle of the Alamo artworks, of the glorified deaths
of the Alamo’s volunteers during the early morning of March 1836.
McArdle places the last volunteers on the high ground in all of their
posts around the small fort. The Mexican soldiers appear to be infest-ing
the battle ground without honor, but with copious numbers of
17 James E. Crisp, Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett’s Last Stand and
Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution, 1ST ed. (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2005), 171.
18 Sam DeShong Ratcliffe, Painting Texas History to 1900 (Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1992), xv.
19 Henry Arthur McArdle, Dawn at the Alamo (1905), State Preservation
Board Austin, Texas.
18  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  19
combatants. The last remaining Alamo volunteers appear to fight the
Mexicans heroically, obviously to the death, in a gentlemanly way with
a solid posture, while maintaining their heads high above the evil, dark
obscurity of the Mexican soldiers. The volunteer at the top right is
clearly silhouetted and could possibly be a rendition of the high profile
leader Colonel William B. Travis. Just below this Alamo defender is
another who is wearing a coonskin cap, and is swinging his rifle in a last
ditch effort to expel the attacking forces. It is obvious that this figure
represents Davy Crockett, who was described as one who wore and
fought with a coonskin cap.20
The painting gives insight to the popular memory of the Texas
people and particularly Henry McArdle, the artist, during the early
twentieth century. McArdle worked as a topographical artist on the
staff of General Robert E. Lee, and had become intrigued with Texas
history after taking a position on the art faculty of Baylor Female Col-lege
in Independence, Texas, in 1867.21 By the painting’s placement
within the Texas State’s Preservation Board, it is evident that its place
in Texas history is significant. McArdle paints an image in the viewer’s
20 Michael Wallis, David Crockett: the Lion of the West (New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 2012), 237.
21 Michael Wallis, David Crockett: the Lion of the West (New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 2012), 237.
mind that the Alamo’s defenders died heroically, which is to the death
against immense odds. Surrender could never be an option by viewing
this painting, and to the artist, certainly was never an alternative to
death.
The following painting22 by John W. Thomason Jr. is not one com-monly
seen amongst renditions of the Alamo defenders’ last moments
in life. Thomason painted this piece in approximately 1934 and this
image was published in The Adventures of Davy Crockett, by Charles
Scribner’s and Sons. Thomason was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Ma-rine
Corps and painted for pleasure.
This painting shows a man who has been captured by Mexican
soldiers after the Battle of the Alamo has finished its assault phases. The
captive appears to be large in stature with a serious, battle toughened
face. He appears injured in his face and shoulders. His attire is diffi-cult
to define because his shirt has been pulled down to his waist. The
22 John W. Thomason, Jr, Crocket Led Before Santa Anna (1934), The
Center For American History, University of Texas at Austin.
20  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  21
Mexican soldiers holding him appear to be toughened soldiers who
are bringing a prized enemy capture to their leader. This particular
painting closely follows the Mexican Lieutenant Colonel Antonio de
la Pena’s account, which describes the capture of Crockett and will be
described later.
The Texas Historian James E. Crisp points out that in the later
edition of The Adventures of Davy Crockett, written by Davy Crockett
himself and published by Charles Scribner’s and Sons in 1955, the im-age
of Crockett being led before Santa Anna had been removed. Crisp
says that,
A cultural critic might argue that in the midst of the Cold War, the
example of a Crockett who had allowed himself to be captured alive
by the forces of tyranny conflicted with the dominant American
doctrine that even nuclear war was preferable to conquest by the
enemy: better dead than Red.23
This quote by Crisp explains that during the Cold War the popu-lar
memory of the past was one of American national strength, which
would not surrender to a possibly stronger enemy. Because the im-age
of Crockett being led before Santa Anna could imply that he had
surrendered rather than being killed heroically fighting the enemy till
his last breath, this image was removed from The Adventures of Davy
Crockett. This demonstrates that popular memory, which was one of
Crockett being a courageous hero who died while fighting against ex-traordinary
odds, replaced the possible fact shown in this painting that
Crockett had surrendered and was taken prisoner by the Mexican sol-diers.
It is important to note that this was one of the first images paint-ed
that represented Crockett possibly being captured after surrender.
The painting was completed around 1934, indicating an availability to
the primary sources, particularly the Mexican soldier’s perspective of
the Battle, for in none of the Alamo supportive sources does it retell
that Crockett was captured alive.
23 James E. Crisp, Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett’s Last Stand and
Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution, 1ST ed. (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, USA, 2005), 68.
The Story as Hollywood Film
Hollywood film has played a large role in shaping the American
public’s view of the past. The modern day cinema gives viewers an even
more entertaining view of historical events than does art work, be-cause
the film entices more than just the sight sense and imagination.
The film industry has the advantage of producing moving images and
sound, which can increase the entertainment of the viewer if prepared
well. There are two films that stand out, which specifically focus on the
battle of the Alamo and the deaths of William B. Travis, Davey Crock-ett,
and Jim Bowie. These films are appropriately titled The Alamo.
John Wayne’s film opened to the public in October 1960. John Lee
Hancock’s film starring Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton pre-miered
in April of 2004. The two films’ differences and similarities
are critical because they illustrate the forthcoming and availability of
firsthand accounts, which influence the popular memory of the past.
The Alamo, a Hollywood film directed by and starring John
Wayne in 1960, represents his view of events that took place during
the military engagement at the Alamo in 1836. His view of the Alamo
may have been influenced by the Cold War that the United States was
in against Russia, given the time of its release. The cover of The Alamo
boldly states, “The Alamo is a visually stunning and historically ac-curate
celebration of courage and honor.”24 The film parallels the com-monly
seen theme of good versus evil from the victor’s point of view.
The men fighting for Texas represent the heroes fighting for a just cause
in their minds, while the Mexican soldiers and officers represent an evil
foe. This is apparent with the music choice when differing sides are
shown in the picture. When the Mexican Army and soldiers are shown
there is an evil tone to the music that is playing in the background. The
opposite is true when the Texas volunteers are presented. This same
good versus evil theme is seen in the dress of the actors that represent
both the Alamo’s and the Mexican soldiers. The majority of the Alamo’s
defenders were well dressed and clean cut. Colonel William B. Travis in
this film is the epitome of a well-dressed and gentlemanly heroic lead-er.
The Mexican soldiers are presented in unified ranks and uniforms
24 John Wayne, The Alamo, DVD (Burbank: Batjac Productions, 1960).
22  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  23
while their leaders ride upon horseback. They appear to be fighting
for a large, powerful nation, rather than something they truly believe
in. This may be symbolic of the United States versus the Soviet Union
because of its symbolism of a large powerful nation fighting against
oppression and communism. The Alamo’s volunteers are shown to be a
group of men from different walks of life who united to fight against a
much larger malevolent force.
The film depicts Colonel William B. Travis and Colonel Jim
Bowie as disputing each other’s views early in the film. Davy Crock-ett
and Bowie are portrayed as comrades, unlike the hostile relation-ship
between Travis and Bowie. Crockett and Bowie appear to respect
each other. This could be related to their high profile pasts. In the
film Crockett was well known throughout the United States as a bear
fighter, while Bowie was well known for his knife fighting skills and his
creation of a large knife named by him as the Bowie Knife. The two
characters begin to work together and come up with a plan to deal with
a short food supply. They sneak out of the Alamo at night, without the
approval of the defenses leader, Col. Travis, and steal a large number of
cattle from the Mexican Army.
In the film the attack on the Alamo was commenced by General
Santa Anna and the Mexican Army during the afternoon, though from
primary sources it is clear that the attack was commenced during the
predawn hours.25 The initial charge is dispelled by the Texas volun-teers
with immediate heavy losses on the Mexican side. The Texas artil-lery
is shown to be extremely effective and each cannon ball shot kills
numbers of enemy soldiers. There is a large amount of hand to hand
fighting that is shown during the attack. The volunteers are all shown
dying heroic deaths while fighting to their last breath. The women and
children who survive the battle are given safe passage by the Mexican
soldiers. Heavenly music is played while they depart and the mother of
the children is perfectly dressed in a bright white blouse and long dress.
The Mexican women, who are attached with the Mexican army, cross
25 Felix Nuñez and Stephen Hardin, “The Felix Nuñez Account and the
Siege of the Alamo: A Critical Appraisal,” The Southwestern Historical
Quarterly 94, no. 1 (July 1990): 77, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30237056
(accessed March 11, 2012).
themselves as the surviving women and children pass them by and
General Santa Anna removes his hat to show them respect. The closing
lyrics for the music credits say “Once they fought to give us freedom.
That is all we need to know. Thirteen days of glory.”26 It is important
to focus on the statement, “That is all we need to know.” The song
writer and film producer are telling the audience that their production
of this historical event should be portrayed as historical fact. They ne-glected
the Mexican perspective on the battle, which could be viewed
as symbolic to communism, and many of the survivor accounts, but to
them they are unimportant, for what the viewer saw in the film is all
they “need to know.” This statement forms U.S. patriotism and popu-lar
memory of the Alamo and hints that there is more known about the
Alamo’s battle, but warns, “That is all we need to know.”
The physical recreation of the Alamo’s structure by director John
Wayne was well done. He personally paid $1.5 million for an exact
replica of the Alamo to be built just north of Brackettville, Texas and
consulted the original blueprints for the project.27 This replication aid-ed
in the historical accuracy of the architecture and possible placement
of soldiers and artillery.
The second film, The Alamo, directed by John Lee Hancock rep-resents
another similar view to The Alamo by John Wayne, but of-fers
differences that are important to note especially with the fissure
in time for which the two films were released. The films were released
forty four years apart. This difference in time may be credited, but not
encompassed by more modern view of the historical battle due to the
availability of primary sources, particularly those from the Mexican
perspective. Hancock’s portrayal also may relate to the United States’
current War on Terror and the War in Iraq. The influence of these wars
could have inspired Hancock to create heroic, tough, and resilient fig-ures
of the Alamo’s defenders who were fighting against tyranny, their
freedoms, and their lives. The cover of the DVD says regarding the
26 John Wayne, The Alamo, DVD (Burbank: Batjac Productions, 1960).
27 John Hayes,“The Making of the Alamo,” Widescreen Movies Magazine,
http://www.widescreenmovies.org/WSM02/alamo.htm(accessed
September 05, 2012).
24  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  25
Alamo volunteers, “Ordinary Men. Extraordinary Heroes.”28 It is clear
that the outcome of the film is to create heroes of the Alamo’s defend-ers
simply by looking at the film cover. The cover also alludes to a lack
of viewing the Mexican perspective during the battle. It conveys this
by using a large American flag for its background while displaying a
small Mexican flag amongst a mass of small Mexican soldiers. While
the Mexican soldiers are in mass and are very small in size, the two ac-tors
Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton, who play Sam Houston
and David Crockett are much larger and given prominence above the
Mexican soldiers. There is also an image of the Alamo structure with
four defenders on its rooftop. The sun is shining brightly upon them,
while the Mexican soldiers below are surrounded by smoke and dark-ness.
This description gives evidence to the bias of John Lee Hancock,
demonstrating that he views the defenders as larger than life and glori-fied
in their last stance against evil Mexican attackers. It is important to
note that Hancock was placating his audience who wished to see larger
than life men that represented their heroic heritage.
During the twelve day siege upon the Alamo by the Mexican
army, the Texas artillery within the Alamo is shown to be extremely
effective in the film. There are a reported eighteen cannons within the
Alamo’s walls. Col. Neil, the Alamo’s previous leader, claimed that the
Alamo has “the most cannon of any fort west of the Mississippi.”29
General Santa Anna, however said that the Alamo’s artillery would
have little or no effect against his forces.30 Davy Crockett in this film
is already well known to the Mexican soldiers and their leader General
Santa Anna. During one of the Mexican Army Officer’s briefs, General
Santa Anna asks about Sam Houston, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett.
When he learns that Crockett and Bowie are present at the Alamo, he
says describing Crockett, “Ah the great bear killer.” One of General
Santa Anna’s officers describes the legend of Davy Crockett to him by
saying, “he can leap rivers and shoot a fly at 180 meters.” Shortly af-
28 John Lee Hancock, The Alamo, DVD (Burbank: Touchstone Pictures,
2004).
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid.
ter the Mexican General challenges this statement with his hubris and
walks within 200 meters of the Alamo’s walls. Crockett fires his rifle,
which hits General Santa Anna’s shoulder satchel and rips it clean off
of his uniform. General Santa Anna later says that for the volunteers
fighting against Mexico, “It is your opportunity to be a great American
hero.” He is referring to the opportunity to make an impact and be
seen as a last stance defender of America against undeniable odds. He
knows that the Alamo’s defenders will not be victorious because of their
small numbers.
It is important to note that the film was really a box office failure
with a gross income of approximately $22 million.31 The film critic Ben
Burgraff reviews,
If you like your heroes and history ‘bigger than life’, the 2004
ALA MO will disappoint, and you should stick to John Wayne’s
version. If, however, you want a new perspective, and are willing
to dispense with the preconceptions of the past, this film has a
LOT to offer!32
The box office failure of this movie and the critical review could
be caused by the preconceptions held by the viewers of this film, who
were mostly American because the film was released in the United
States. As Burgraff noted, those viewers may not have been willing to
dispense their preconceptions of the past to view a new perspective
regarding the Alamo.
How the Deaths are represented in Film
In John Wayne’s film Colonel William B. Travis is shot in the
abdomen and stabbed frontally. He throws his sword at the enemy
fighting heroically till his energy is exhausted and he falls lifeless from
his sustained wounds.
Davy Crockett is stabbed in the chest by a spear. Crockett, played
by John Wayne, then runs into the armory, which is full of explosive
gun powder carrying a torch with a last heroic effort to kill as many
31 Ben Burgraff, “The Alamo,” International Movie Database, http://www.
imdb.com/title/tt0318974/ (accessed November 14, 2012).
32 Ibid., Ben Burgraff.
26  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  27
enemy soldiers as possible while taking his own life honorably. This en-deavor
was actually attempted by Major Evans, an Ireland-born soldier,
who was “shot down before he fulfilled his mission.”33
Jim Bowie is taken to the infirmary after he is injured in battle.
He is on a hospital bed when the Mexican soldiers break through the
doors. His slave Joe jumps in front of his master Jim Bowie to shield
him from the Mexican’s bayonets, while Bowie continues to fight with
his pistol and Bowie knife. He shortly after is killed by an onslaught
of bayonets.
In John Lee Hancock’s film the death of Col. Travis comes quick
from an inexperienced soldier. The young Mexican soldier appears to
be about fourteen years old and is very out of place amongst the some-what
mature looking Mexican men. He appears fearful of the fight,
but does raise his weapon and fires one shot, striking Col. Travis in the
head and killing him instantly.
The death of Davy Crockett is interesting in this film because he
is found alive after the battle kneeling in front of the Mexican Army.
Santa Anna appears ready to give the order to execute Crockett, when
General Cos steps in front of the soldiers in defiance. General Santa
Anna continues with the order and Crockett states “I’ve got to warn
you, I’m a screamer” as his last words. He then begins yelling, not as
if he is fearful of the soon to come death, but a yell in defiance of the
Mexican General and his actions. The soldiers then charge him with
bayonets extended and he is promptly executed to the apparent disgust
of Santa Anna’s closest men.
Jim Bowie dies while in his hospital sickbed. The Tejana woman,
a Mexican citizen living in the current borders known as Texas, who
tends to him says that he “is already dead, but this is the place he has
been sent.”34 He is already dead in spirit because he receives news of the
death of his wife, whom he dearly loved. He never appears to recover
from this loss and is described as “dead” in his countenance. When the
33 Phillip Tucker, Exodus from the Alamo: The Anatomy of the Last Stand
Myth (Havertown: Casemate, 2011), 296.
34 John Lee Hancock, The Alamo, DVD (Burbank: Touchstone Pictures,
2004).
Mexican soldiers burst through his hospital door he fires his pistol into
their group and then is quickly killed by their bayonets.
The differences in the two films are not great, but the alterations
from John Wayne’s 1960 film to John Lee Hancock’s film in 2004 give
insight to the accessibility of primary sources. Today it is simple to ac-cess
the sources that come from the Mexican perspectives of the Alamo.
They are made readily available through the internet, which was non-existent
during John Wayne’s filming years. This could contribute to
the lack of the Mexican perspective in his film The Alamo. It is obvious
that John Lee Hancock used some of these sources, particularly the José
Enrique de la Peña account, which was not published until 1975 by
the Texas A&M University Press, which will be explored later. Another
issue that contributes to the differences between the films is the time
period in which they were created. John Wayne’s film was produced in
the 1960’s during the Cold War, while John Lee Hancock’s film was
produced in 2004 during the United States’ war in both Iraq and Af-ghanistan.
John Wayne’s film tends to show a general idea and popular
belief of what occurred during the last moments of Travis, Crockett,
and Bowie’s lives; that is that they died fighting till their last breath de-fending
the Alamo. When the writings from the Mexican soldiers and
officers are more fully studied this turns out to not be the case.
The Story through Primary Sources
The primary sources that will be looked at further come from
both the Alamo defenders’ perspective and the Mexican soldiers’ per-spective.
The Alamo defenders’ view will come from Col. Travis’ slave
Joe and Susanna Dickinson Hanning, who was the wife of Joseph
Hanning, one of the Alamo defenders. The Mexican soldiers’ writings
come from the Mexican soldier Felix Nuñez, Lieutenant Colonel Jose
Enrique de la Peña, and General Martín Perfecto de Cos. Regarding
the death of William B. Travis; Col. Travis’ slave Joe reported,
Col. Travis sprang from his blanket with his sword and gun,
mounted the rampart and seeing the enemy under the mouths of
the cannon with scaling ladders, discharged his double barreled
gun down upon them; he was immediately shot, his gun falling
upon the enemy and himself within the fort. The Mexican general
28  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  29
leading the charge mounted the wall by means of a ladder, and
seeing the bleeding Travis, attempted to behead him; the dying
Colonel raised his sword and killed him.35
This report from Joe is important because it clearly shows that the
Alamo’s volunteers were surprised. Col. Travis would not have been
in his blanket, most likely lying in bed, had this not been a surprise,
early morning attack. The fact that the Mexican soldiers were already
underneath the artillery before the counter attack had begun, leads one
to believe that the Alamo’s artillery was certainly not effective on the
morning of the attack. Travis most likely was not shot directly in the
head like he was in John Lee Hancock’s film because a head shot will
almost always result in immediate death. He may have been shot in
the chest or torso because he died quickly, but was still able to kill the
Mexican General who was attempting to be-head him. John Wayne’s
film comes closer to the description by Col. Travis’ slave Joe, because he
is shot in the abdomen, then stabbed, and then dies fighting with his
remaining energy. Rather than using his sword to kill the General who
attempted to be-head him, Wayne depicts Travis as throwing his sword
at the enemy in a vain attempt to fight till the end. Joe’s account is
validated by the author/historian John Myers who tends to use equally
the American and Mexican perspectives. Myers writes that a Mexican
officer upon seeing Col. Travis down, “sprang for him, but Travis’ dy-ing
impulse was quicker. He drove his sword through the Mexican,
then fell with him.”36
Susanna Dickinson Hanning described the death of William B.
Travis by reporting, “Col. Travis and Bonham were killed while work-ing
the cannon, the body of the former lay on the top of the church.”37
35 Stephen Harrigan, “Davy Crockett and the Alamo: Thoughts On Truth,
Fiction, and Smelling a Rat,” Montana: The Magazine of Western
History 50, no. 3 (Autumn, 2000): 61, http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.uvu.
edu/stable/4520254 (accessed April 03, 2012).
36 John Myers, The Alamo (Lincoln: Bison Book, 1973), 220.
37 Susanna Dickinson Hanning, “Susanna Dickinson Hanning,” The Alamo,
http://www.thealamo.org/battle/letter-Dickinson-Hanning.php (accessed
April 03, 2012).
It is problematic to know the actual manner of death of Col. Travis
because the two sources that describe it vary greatly.
Felix Nuñez said that Col. Travis was just outside of the west door
of the church when the Mexican soldiers:
Fired from the bed of the river near where the opera house now
stands. The first fire from the cannon of the Alamo passed over
our heads and did no harm; but as the troops were advancing the
second one opened a lane in our lines at least fifty feet broad. Our
troops rallied and returned a terrible fire of cannon and small
arms. After this the cannonading from the Alamo was heard no
more. It is evident that this discharge killed Travis, for then the
front door was closed and no more Americans were seen outside.38
Nuñez’s account has many similarities with the other sources in
that he was firing down upon the Mexican soldiers with the cannon.
Joe’s description says that he was firing a double barreled gun down
from the wall, but this could represent a small, double barreled cannon.
However, Nuñez mentions nothing of a Mexican Officer attempting to
be-head Col. Travis.
Nuñez said, “The Americans fought with the bravery and despera-tion
of tigers, although seeing that they were contending against the
fearful odds of at least two hundred to one, not a single one of them
tried to escape or asked for quarter.”39
Death of Davy Crockett
Susanna Dickinson Hanning described the battle’s aftermath
by saying, “As we passed through the enclosed ground in front of the
church, I saw heaps of dead and dying. The Texans on an average killed
between eight and nine Mexicans each. I recognized Col. Crockett ly-ing
dead and mutilated between the church and the two story bar-rack
building, and even remember seeing his peculiar cap lying by his
38 Felix Nuñez and Stephen Hardin, “The Felix Nuñez Account and the
Siege of the Alamo: A Critical Appraisal,” The Southwestern Historical
Quarterly 94, no. 1 (July 1990): 78, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30237056
(accessed March 11, 2012).
39 Ibid., Felix Nuñez and Stephen Hardin, 80.
30  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  31
side.”40 The mutilation of Crockett’s body does coincide with the John
Lee Hancock film where Crockett was found alive amongst the volun-teers
and was executed by the Mexican soldiers. Mutilation of a soldier’s
body does not however define execution, as explosions from cannon
fire, rifle shots, and bayonets could give the impression that a human
body was in fact mutilated by another. Another important number
was the number of dead volunteers reported by Hanning. She said that
182 volunteers were dead. Felix Nuñez says though that “when the
Americans were all dragged out and counted there were 180 including
officers and men.”41 It is left to question the difference between the two
numbers. Could two of the Tejano volunteers be mistaken for Mexican
soldiers because of a possible similarity in appearance?42 Historians to-day
however have agreed that the number of volunteers was closest to
185. Felix Nuñez described one of the Alamo’s last survivors:
He was a tall American of rather dark complexion and had on a
long cuera (buck skin coat) and a round cap without any bill, and
made of fox skin, with the long tail hanging down his back. This
man apparently had a charmed life. Of the many soldiers who
took deliberate aim at him and fired, not one ever hit him. On
the contrary he never missed a shot. He killed at least eight of our
men, besides wounding several others. This fact being observed by
a lieutenant who had come in over the wall he sprung at him and
dealt him a deadly blow with his sword, just above the right eye,
which felled him to the ground and in an instant he was pierced
by not less than twenty bayonets. This lieutenant said that if all
Americans had have killed as many of our men as this one had,
our army would have been annihilated before the Alamo could
40 James M. Morphis, The History of Texas from Its First Discovery and
Settlement (New York: United States Publishing Company, 1875), 174-
77.
41 Ibid., Felix Nuñez and Stephen Hardin, 80.
42 Tejano volunteers were Mexican citizens who were living in the Northern
Territory of Mexico or the modern day boundaries of Texas. They
were often defiant of Mexico City’s demands, as they felt departed and
independent from their native country.
have been taken. He was about the last man that was killed.43
Many believe that the man described was Davy Crockett, but this
is difficult to prove. The quote however gives honor to those men who
did indeed make a last stand within the Alamo’s walls. The violence
of action used by this described volunteer is unmatched during this
battle. Lieutenant Colonel Jose Enrique de la Peña reports,
Some seven men had survived the general carnage…under the
protection of General Castrillon, they were brought before Santa
Anna. Among them was one of great stature, well proportioned,
with regular features, in whose face there was the imprint of
adversity, but in whom one also noticed a degree of resignation
and nobility that did him honor. He was the naturalist David
Crockett, well known in North America for his unusual
adventures, who had undertaken to explore the country and who,
finding himself in Bejar at the very moment of surprise, had taken
refuge in the Alamo, fearing that his status as a foreigner might
not be respected. Santa Anna answered Castrillon’s intervention
in Crockett’s behalf with a gesture of indignation and, addressing
himself to the sappers, the troops closest to him, ordered his
execution. The commanders and officers were outraged at this
action and did not support the order…but several officers who
were around the president…thrust themselves forward, in order
to flatter their commander, and with swords in hand, fell upon
these unfortunate, defenseless men just as a tiger leaps upon his
prey. Though tortured before they were killed, these unfortunates
died without complaining and without humiliating themselves
before their torturers.44
General Cos retells,
When we thought that all the defenders were slain, I was searching
the barracks, and found, alive and unhurt, a fine-looking and well-dressed
man, locked up, alone, in one of the rooms, and asked
him who he was. He replied: “I am David Crocket, a citizen of the
43 Ibid., Felix Nuñez and Stephen Hardin, 81.
44 James E. Crisp, Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett’s Last Stand and
Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution, 1ST ed. (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2005), 103-104.
32  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  33
state of Tennessee and representative of a district of that State in
the United States Congress…and here I am yet, a noncombatant
and foreigner, having taken no part in the fighting...I proposed
to introduce him to the President…in about these words: ‘Mr.
President I beg permission to present to your excellency the
Honorable David Crockett…Santa Anna heard me through, but
impatiently. Then he replied sharply, ‘You know your orders’;
turned his back upon us and walked away. But, as he turned,
Crockett drew from his bosom a dagger, with which he smote at
him with a thrust, which, if not arrested, would surely have killed
him; but was met by a bayonet-thrust by the hand of a soldier
through the heart; he fell and soon expired.45
It is clear to see that the sources have many contradictions as to the
death of Davey Crockett. The Mexican sources must be seen as reliable
because they represent the surviving, victorious force, but the Mexican
soldiers most likely did not know what Davey Crockett looked like
because of the lack of media in the mid-19th century. The Mexican
soldiers’ stories vary greatly, making it difficult to distinguish what re-ally
occurred. Susanna Dickinson Hanning also only mentions seeing
the body of Crockett after the battle had ended, but she does not men-tion
seeing how he fell. It is unlikely that Crockett would have been
found as a noncombatant hiding in a room of the fort. This is doubtful
because Col. Travis wrote to General Sam Houston, “The Hon. David
Crockett was seen at all points, animating the men to do their duty.”46
Col. Travis’ letter can be viewed as a reliable source when describing
Davey Crockett because he knew Davey Crockett on a personal level,
was fighting on the same side as Crockett, and was his military leader.
It is probable to believe that Crockett was indeed fighting alongside the
Alamo’s defenders during the battle because of this letter to General
Houston. Author and historian Thom Hatch says, “until more defini-
45 James Frank Dobie, In the Shadow of History. Dallas, Texas. UNT Digital
Library. http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38858/ (accessed
April 02, 2012).
46 William Barret Travis, “The Travis Letter of February 24, 1836.”
Freedom Documents. http://www.freedomdocuments.com/Travis/text.
html(accessed March 24, 2012).
tive proof than simply the de la Peña diary can be presented, it should
be assumed that David Crockett lived up to his legend and was killed
fighting to the end beside his comrades somewhere near the south
palisade.”47 From Hatch’s quote it is obvious that he had not explored
the recollection of General Cos in his description of finding Crockett
alive and unscathed as an apparent noncombatant.
Death of Jim Bowie
Hanning’s description of the death of Jim Bowie does correlate
with both Hollywood films. She says that “Col. Bowie was sick in bed
and not expected to live, but as the victorious Mexicans entered his
room, he killed two of them with his pistols before they pierced him
through with their sabers.”48 She makes no mention of the presence
of Bowie’s slave, who was shown to leap in front of Bowie before his
death in John Wayne’s film, giving his own life in vain to save the life
of Bowie. In this description Hanning also appears objective in her
statements and does not form a view that the deaths of the Alamo’s
volunteers were heroic, but simply that they passed away in combat.
Walter Worthington Bowie, while composing his family’s history
writes that Bowie died sick in his cot “about three o’clock in the morn-ing,”
which was just hours before the predawn attack.49 This statement
is obviously controversial from the artistic, cinematic, and primary
source documentations. W. W. Bowie is the only to retell that Jim
Bowie had actually passed away before the assault on the Alamo. This
certainly could be what in reality occurred, but was most likely writ-ten
to give Bowie a more self-incurred death through sickness. W. W.
Bowie possibly did not write that Bowie was killed by Mexican soldiers
47 Thom Hatch, Encyclopedia of the Alamo and the Texas Revolution
(Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 1999). “Crockett, David.”
48 Susanna Dickinson Hanning, “Susanna Dickinson Hanning,” The Alamo,
http://www.thealamo.org/battle/letter-Dickinson-Hanning.php (accessed
April 03, 2012).
49 James Frank Dobie, “Fabulous Frontiersman: Jim Bowie,” Montana: The
Magazine of Western History 9, no. 2 (Spring, 1959):
52 http://www.jstor.org/stable/4516292o (accessed April 02, 2012).
34  Austin Hatch The Alamo and Popular Memory  35
to allow his ancestor the honor of not being slain by an enemy force.
W. W. Bowie’s view may have been one that did not think death at
the hands of the enemy while fighting till one’s last breath was heroic.
The Bowie family’s view at the time that W. W. Bowie wrote about his
ancestor may have been such, demonstrating that his group formed
part of his popular memory creating history. The vast contradictions
between the artistic, cinematic, and primary sources can also demon-strate
the difficulty in declaring historical events and the actions that
procured.
Conclusions
It is clear to see that there are great differences between the sources
and their descriptions of the deaths of the Alamo’s three most famous
defenders. This difference is not only between the American and the
Mexican survivors, but is apparent amongst the same nationalities.
These variances create a fracture in describing the Alamo’s defender’s
final moments with accuracy. What can be defined is that a number of
about 180 to 185 men at the Alamo were killed by a much larger force
of Mexican soldiers in 1836. Their defensive measures and eventual
loss of life can be viewed and is viewed as heroic to some and simply
as a loss of life in combat to others. The fracture and differences may
be attributed to the oftentimes inaccurate human memory; however
this is difficult to claim because it will be accurate to that particular
individual as they saw the event take place. This is where fiction or
individual perspective may become fact for an individual or a group.
The modifications can also be understood by the desire to paint the
past in a heroic manner for those who have lost their lives fighting for
something that is important to them. This was evident from the image
found in The Adventures of Davy Crockett. The arguments will con-tinually
be made for and against these sources and their validity, and
will inevitably leave question marks for the historian.
Historian Sam Deshong Ratcliffe, when speaking about the artis-tic
images of the Battle of the Alamo, claims that the time lag appar-ent
between the battle and the paintings “meant that these works ex-pressed
the culmination of public reaction to accounts of the battle and
served as ideological and emotional filters for subsequent depictions in
other visual media.”50 The artistic and cinematic representations also
may not be intended to paint or give life to historical events exactly as
they occurred. It may have been the artist’s or the producer’s intent to
create historical depictions for monetary or entertainment purposes,
therefore creating popular memory through artistic and later cinematic
depictions. This leaves the popular memory of a historical event based
on a common thought, which may be enjoyable to the viewer, rather
than historical accuracy, but remembering that historical accuracy is
extremely difficult to define due to primary source contradictions.
What is evident from this research is that historical events are of-ten
fashioned by a group’s or individual’s popular memory rather than
historical evidence. This occurs because of individuality, nationality or
exterior motives. These claims are proven through the comparison of
artistic and cinematic representations of the Alamo, as compared to the
personal accounts of the survivors.
50 Sam DeShong Ratcliffe, Painting Texas History to 1900 (Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1992), 20.
A Brief History of Orem City
Russel Duncan
The history of Orem City is a very unique one in relation to
the rest of Utah history and patterns of settlement. The city has
grown rapidly from berry farms and fruit orchards on the “Provo
Bench” to be one of the largest single suburban cities in Utah. Unlike
many Utah towns, however, it did not grow up around a town center
or “downtown”. Yet, despite its “gentile” arrangement, it has become
proudly known as Family City, USA.
In 1961, Orem City celebrated its centennial anniversary; one
hundred years since the first farmers ascended the Provo Bench to settle
on it. At that time, the bench was relatively unfavorable, for it had no
streams or rivers; settlers continued on south to settle in Provo (Buck-ley
9). The only way to get water on the bench was to divert it from
the Provo River, or to dig a well. Eventually, farmers worked together
to dig a series of ditches to irrigate the sagebrush-covered land that
formed a triangular shape between the base of Mt. Timpanogos, the
Provo River bench, and the Utah Lake bench. Soon, the land had been
transformed into the “garden city” of Utah. The area flourished with
berries and fruit orchards; many farmers became very successful, most
notably James Stratton, Newell Knight, and the Cordner’s. Martin
Walker became famous with his “This is the Place” fruit stand on State
Street.1 Soon, all major streets on the Bench, such as State Street, were
lined with fruit stands, selling peaches, pears, apples and strawberries.
Today, Stratton’s fruit stand still operates, having been a family busi-ness
for over one hundred years.
However, the city of Orem did not officially exist until 1919,
when residents banded together to incorporate the city. Before that,
it was considered a sort of suburb to Provo City, simply known as the
1 Buckley, Jay H., Chase Arnold, Orem Public Library. Images of America:
Orem. San Francisco: Arcadia Publishing, 2010. 33.
38  Duncan A Brief History of Orem City  39
narrowed, and today averages 3 lanes each direction. The street be-came
Orem’s major business district, lined with fruit stands and various
other small businesses such as café’s, flower shops, mechanic’s shops,
blacksmiths, and markets. In 1949, when the road was paved and had
gutters installed from 900 South to 900 North, the city commemo-rated
it with its “Velvet strip” celebration. After WWI, Orem boomed
with business. The SCERA Theater was joined with two drive-in the-aters,
local and state banks, clothing stores, a dairy, drug stores, and
many other such businesses. Thus, “Orem’s commercial activity has
been transformed from the operation of a few grocery stores and fruit
stands to a thriving assortment of business establishments geared to
dispense goods and services in the competitive market” of the late 20th
century (Weeks 13).
Education in Orem was minimal to begin with. Most students
beyond 8th grade had to go to Pleasant Grove or Provo for school. The
Spencer School was constructed in 1883, named after English philoso-pher,
Herbert Spencer. All eight grades were taught in a single-room log
building. In 1912, a new building with eight rooms was erected on 800
South and State Street. Orem’s second school, the Sharon School, was
built in 1894 at 300 North State Street, and the two schools served the
Bench until the construction of Lincoln High School in 1921 across
the street from Spencer. The new school offered grade levels above 8th
grade for the first time in Orem. In 1954 the Sharon School was re-placed
by Sharon Elementary on 400 East 500 North. In 1956, Orem
High School was completed, and the old Lincoln High became Lin-coln
Junior High. In 1975, the Lincoln building was vacated and de-molished.
3 Today, Orem city has three high schools, three junior high
schools and over a dozen elementary schools. In 2008, Orem High
School was gradually demolished and replaced by a new building as
well.
Another school gradually grew in Orem starting in 1941. First
known as Central Utah Vocational School, it began its curriculum in
trade, industry and business, training out of a rented house in Provo.
After Wilson W. Sorensen became president of the school in 1945, the
name changed to Utah Trade Technical Institute and then Utah Tech-
3 Tour of Historic Sites in the City of Orem. Orem: City of Orem Historical
Preservation Advisory Commission, 1999. 27.
“Provo Bench”. Later, the name Sharon was considered for the town,
named after the birthplace of Joseph Smith – Sharon, Vermont. For
some parts of the city and its residents, the name Sharon was already
well-established. The name Orem came in 1914 when the Salt Lake
and Utah Electric Inter-Urban Railroad built its Orem line into Utah
County to Payson. The railroad was owned by Walter C. Orem, a Salt
Lake City resident. Local farmers wanted “a name printed on their
basket labels which would bring distinction to the area which actually
produced the fruit” (Weeks 9). In response, Mr. Orem purchased a 40-
acre plot on State Street and 800 North, expecting the city to grow up
around that area.
Industry first came to Orem in 1919 with the Pleasant Grove
Canning Company, located at 700 North and 325 West (today, Orem
Boulevard). The fruit was transported via railroad to markets in the Salt
Lake Valley and Ogden, as well as local markets (Weeks 51). As can-neries
expanded, farmers began growing a variety of crops. Tomatoes
and sugar beets became more common, along with cherries, prunes
and apricots.2
In 1904 the Telluride Power Company, owned by the Nunn
brothers, built a power plant at the mouth of Provo Canyon called
Olmstead. The plant was nearly a miniature town in itself, housing
employees on site. The plant was also home to the Telluride Institute,
a leading institute in electrical engineering, research, and development.
At this time in history, only the Telluride Institute and Ohio State Uni-versity
offered any training in this field (Buckley 46). Here, students
received on-site training and conducted research. The company was
purchased by Electric Bond and Share Corporation. Its subsidiary,
Utah Power and Light took over production at the plant.
State Street, which diagonally bisects Orem today, was first de-signed
by Brigham Young and envisioned to be the major thoroughfare
across the West. This dream came true when the Mormon-built high-way
was integrated into the US highway system, being designated as
US Highway 91, and later US Highway 89. It was originally built as
wide as it is today, “as part of a great corridor highway over which emi-grants
and merchandise from all over the country could travel” (Weeks
11). While a few protested the unreasonably wide highway, it was never
2 Buckley, 35.
40  Duncan A Brief History of Orem City  41
nical College. Sorenson moved the campus to north Provo, and then
added another campus in Orem after he bought 185 acres of farmland
at 1200 South and 800 West. For a time, the college operated on both
campuses before moving entirely to the Orem location. In 1987, it be-came
Utah Valley Community College with more than 5000 enrolled
students. By 1993, it had become Utah Valley State College and began
offering bachelor degrees. After a new library was constructed, and an
additional 26 degrees were offered, it became Utah Valley University
in 2008. In only 67 years, the institution has come a long way from a
rented house in Provo, becoming one of the largest universities in the
state and a permanent feature of Orem (Buckley 88). Today, it is one
of Orem’s largest employers.
Orem took part in the war effort during WWI in a number of
ways. First, a small plot of farmland in north Orem was acquired from
James G. Stratton by the federal government to build an internment
camp.4 It was initially used to house Japanese-Americans uprooted from
the west coast before they were relocated to Topaz, Utah. The camp was
then used to hold Italian and German prisoners-of-war. Truckloads of
prisoners were used by local farmers to help in the fields, as most of
Orem’s youth were involved in the war effort. Today, the property on
which the camp stood is occupied by Canyon View Junior High and
Orchard Elementary schools (Buckley 36).
Another of Orem’s contributions to the war effort was the Ge-neva
Works of the US Steel Corporation. Built from 1941 through
1944 to address the growing need of steel mills located away from the
coast, and to prepare for war with Japan, the construction of the mill
marked a major turn in Orem’s transition from agriculture to industry.
It proved to be an ideal location – it was close to raw materials such
as iron ore, coal, and limestone. It was far enough inland to make any
enemy attack impossible and it was near a major water source, a rail-road,
and thousands of educated and reliable men and women ready to
leave the fruit fields for the work force. The Geneva Works was Utah’s
largest employer and in the first five years after its opening, Orem’s
population more than doubled. After the war, commercial demand
was not enough to keep the plant running at profitable capacity. In
2002, Geneva steel declared bankruptcy, and was demolished over the
4 Historic Sites, 5.
next few years.
The performing arts and recreation came to Orem much earlier
than steel manufacturing. In 1933, during the depths of the Great De-pression,
members of the LDS Sharon Stake came together to orga-nize
Sharon’s Cultural, Educational, and Recreational Association, or
SCERA. Its focus was to “build the body, enrich the mind, touch the
soul, and unify the family”. Founded by Arthur V. Watkins, the LDS
Sharon Stake President, and others, its first goal was to build a swim-ming
pool. Also, to raise money for a theater, movies were played in
the Lincoln High School auditorium. The theater, which still operates
today, was built in 1940-41. Over the years, the theater was added to,
a new swimming pool was built to the north, and an outdoor amphi-theater,
the SCERA Shell, was also built. The newsletter for the LDS
Sharon Stake, “The Voice of Sharon” became an organ of the SCERA.
Arthur Watkins acquired the publishing company and changed the
title to “Orem-Geneva Times,” which has become the outstanding
newspaper for the city (Weeks 18). Arthur Watkins was later elected to
represent Utah in the United States Senate.
Today, Orem boasts many small (and big) claims to fame. Orem’s
title of “Family City, USA” has not been unduly earned. It is con-sidered
one of the most family-friendly places to live in the United
States. The current governor of Utah - Gary Herbert, an Orem resident
- personifies the values of family life in Orem. Former BYU football
coach Lavell Edwards played on the Lincoln High School’s champion-ship
team in 1947. Actor and director Robert Redford bought Timp
Haven, a small ski run not far from Orem, and turned it into a world-renowned
ski resort known as Sundance. Celebrity Marie Osmond and
her family opened the Osmond Studios in north Orem, where other
celebrities like Jane Fonda, Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra have visited.5
Orem City’s history is rich with pioneering, farming, industry,
culture, and family values. Even in today’s modern world, Orem still
retains much of its small-town feel where the American Dream is
strong, despite its increasing commercial and urban development.
5 Buckley, 124.
Northern Ireland; the Land
that Peace Forgot
Pamela Gardner
The British throughout England’s long history have always
had an interest in Northern Ireland. Because of Ireland’s perfect
strategic placement that could allow for an Island invasion from the
West. British interest in this strategic scenario demanded protection
in multiple forms to keep Ireland’s back door potential of invasion
blocked.
The British saw nothing in the Irish territories, other than the
people already inhabiting the area, and the British viewed them as non-citizens
and potential enemies.1 Because of these attitudes and fears
the English found a need to implant more people and cause fighting
between the two groups, the native Catholics and implanted Protes-tants,
when their conflict finally came to its last head in the latter half
of the 20th century, the problems had morphed into secular, economic,
social, and militaristic interest. Because of these unrecognized changes
by the English when the British stepped in they seemed to add more
problems than solutions to the area. The British militaries hope that
their presence, in Northern Ireland, would help settle the rising ten-sions
in mixed areas, failed to materialize. When the military was first
put in, it was their belief that they would only be there for a maximum
of 18 months and the problems would go away, that the IRA and other
groups would lose momentum and die out.2
Unforeseen by the British Military it was actually their presence
that helped give the IRA a revival. Up to that time the IRA had been
1 Schaffer , M. Patricia . “Irish Penal Laws.” 2000.http://library.law.umn.
edu/irishlaw/ (accessed August 3, 2011)
2 “The World: Ulster: Bloody Dodge City.” Time, Nov. 22, 1971.
44  P. Gardner Northern Ireland; The Land that Peace Forgot  45
peaceful aspirations in 1998 and the programs that were set up to help
the people into some sort of modern normalcy with their lives along
with ways to keep the peace from breaking down and having Northern
Ireland fragment in violence once again.
Britain’s large-scale involvement of Northern Ireland starts in the
early 1600s with the plantation system. The plantation system, simply
put, is just what the name implies, large-scale farms, set up by the
British Protestants and worked by those that they moved in, the Scots,
and non-landed British Gentry. The British in a move to make larger
profits for English and to, repopulate, with the desire to replace the
indigenous Irish, the area saw a tremendous influx of those unwanted
British citizens, Scots men that where newly displaced from their lands,
for economic progress to the beginnings of the British empire. The
point of the plantation system, like those that they set up later in other
areas around the world, was to bring forth a profit from the Irish, Ul-ster
area. A region that made it perfect for the manufacturing of ships,
because of its deepwater ports and resources, the Ulster counties were
also the perfect climate for growing flax and producing linen, which in
turn replaced its traditional production of sheep and wool products.
With the partition of Ireland in 1921 and 1922 into the Republic of
Ireland (Southern Ireland) and Northern Ireland, has been nothing
but trouble for the two parts of the island, socially, economically, and
militarily. Economically, especially in the early days, 1920s-1930s, the
split of the island caused a downturn and disparity in the economy that
continued until the latter half of the twentieth century. The Ulster area
kept with its industrial production of locally produced linens, import-ed
cotton, for making finished cloth, fishing and the manufacturing of
ships, along with the many manufactured goods that come with the
construction of ships; things that were now conducive to the better-ment
of industrial United Kingdom. Whereas, the newly reformed Re-public
of Ireland had control agriculture production, which is known
to naturally grow slower economically than that of industrialized na-tions.
The split of the country caused economic disparity between the
two areas, with the North growing at a rate of which was favorable to
the British economy; while the Republic of Ireland (Southern Ireland’s)
growth was more substantial to that of an agrarian market with little
on a down swing. Because of the heightened military activities at this
time, the English helped to bring about a resurgence with not only at-tacks
by both sides of the conflict, but also in IRA’s recruitment num-bers,
only escalating the problems. This papers hopes to address, rea-sons
for a spike in violence in Northern Ireland in the mid 1900s to the
end of the twentieth century, and ways in which the peace talks of the
Troubles has worked to end fighting, although the reasons are multiple
and incomplete to the extent one my ask has there been success if at all.
The Troubles, the name for the violence from 1969–1998, within
the Irish state, one could claim stem from the involvement and ongo-ing
interest of the British that specifically relate to Northern Ireland.
Britain’s interests in Ireland have varied greatly since 1169 when its
feudal barons first started to occupy the country. Its rulers today
have five reasons for interference: firstly the historic Northern Irish
connection through which they are influenced by the leading families of
the six counties Protestant communities; secondly, the military aspect;
Northern Ireland is a useful bridgehead on an island that commands
Britain’s western approaches; thirdly the feat that social imperialist
struggle, as was happening in 1921and, less effectively in 1972; fourthly
the classic imperialistic reason, economic investment; this however, has
only recently become more important than the fifth reason for British
intervention- Irish investment in Britain, its colonies and dominions.3
This quote captures some of what will be discussed in this pa-per.
Along with what is mentioned above by way of the British politi-cal,
militaristic, and economic interests within Ireland, this paper also
hopes to cover the social reason as to why fighting started in Northern
Ireland and the ways that have come to have a hopeful lasting peace.
This includes the disarmament of the IRA and other radical parties,
the beginning of policy reforms in education and employment, and the
political sphere as well. These things and others were addressed in the
peace talks throughout the 1970s and ‘80s but saw a culmination of
3 McGarry, John, and O’Leary Brendan. “Explaning Norhtern Ireland.” In
Explaning Northern Ireland, by John McGarry and O’Leary Brend (Purdie
1972) (Dorgan 2006) (Kriesberg 2003) (Garton Ash and Adam 2009)an,
71. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1995.
46  P. Gardner Northern Ireland; The Land that Peace Forgot  47
to no industrialization within the boundaries of the Republic.4 This
slow growth caused a desire for a United Ireland. This desire to unite
would not only bind together those who traditionally where Irishmen,
but also as establish a way that would smooth the economic disparity
between the two factions. At this time, both Northern and Southern
Ireland was where having to ship and import what the other was pro-ducing,
making prices higher. “Trade barriers such as high tariffs and a
policy of import substitution sought to make this reliance on economic
nationalism successful. Inevitably, it failed.5 Especially for those in the
republic since they were not being subsidized by the United Kingdom,
where otherwise it would have been free trade across the board. Of
course there is the argument that they are the same people, so therefore
they should be together in one country, but really the poor economic
situation compounded by subsidizes for one portion of the island and
not the other inhibited Ireland’s overall economic growth, and broad-ened
disparity between the two Irelands.
One of the major issues that forced the conflict of Northern Ire-land,
other than that of economic disparity, is that both sides, the Prot-estants
and the Catholics, believe they are the minority to the other. In
Northern Ireland the Catholics are the minority to the Protestants and
in the Republic of Ireland it is the flipside to this situation, where the
Protestants are the minority to the Catholics. In Northern Ireland this
mindset of being the minority breads a Catholic fear of the control of
the Protestant majority which than feeds into the problems and issues
that have faced the people of Northern Ireland; especially the mentality
that the real minority needs to exhibit power overall because they are
the ones that are disadvantaged, even if they are in truth they majority
and exploiting the minority.6
4 Purdie, Bob. “Ireland Unfree.” In Ireland Unfree, by Bob Purdie, 19.
London: IMG Publications, 1972.
5 Dorgan, Sean. “How Ireland Became the Celtic Tiger.” Backgrounder no.
1945, June 23, 2006: 2.
6 Kriesberg, Louis. “Constructive Conflicts: From Escalation to Resolution.”
In Constructive Conflicts: From Escalation to Resolution, by Louis
Kriesberg, 16. Maryland: Rowan and Littlefield Publishers, INC., 2003.
Fig. 1 East Belfast, Ireland. Gated and walled Catholic community. Origi-nal
brick wall circa 1969 the upper corrugated and screen walls put in after
1990s. Authors personnel collection, photographed 20 June 2011.
48  P. Gardner Northern Ireland; The Land that Peace Forgot  49
the people by propaganda, education and action, why this type of state
would be beneficial to them—that it would mean more bread and
butter, better wages, better housing conditions, more education and a
better life for everyone.8
The republican movement in Northern Ireland was a precursor
to that of a civil rights movement being used before partition and up
through the 1960s. During time the republican movement is one that
used violence to try and gain political and economic answers. Whereas
in 1967 the civil rights movement took the nonviolent approach tak-ing
their nonviolent lead from that of the Civil Rights Movement in
the United States. The point was to try and make an environment that
is conducive to that of political and social change. Part of the changes
desired was the ability to create a place where there is great dispro-portionate
representation to become more even for the minorities in
Northern Ireland.
With the birth of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association
(NICRA), a collection of smaller organizations in 1967, came together
to gain these objectives: definitions of basic rights for citizens, to pro-tect
the rights of the individual, highlight all the abuses of power, de-mand
guarantees of freedom speech, the right of assembly and associa-tions,
and to inform the public of their lawful rights. These goals and
ideals lasted until 1972. The initial intention was to bring awareness of
grievances in nonviolent manner much like that of the United States
Civil Rights movement. There was never the thought that it would
turn into a civil war of sorts.9
Although this is not the start of violence, just resurgence; one
greater in magnitude than any other previously in Northern Ireland.
It acted as a springboard, spreading forth the later violence that lasted
into the late 1990s. NICRA was fighting for the equality in voting, the
redrawing of electoral boundaries, a point system to ensure fair distri-bution
in public housing, a repeal of the Special Powers act, disbanding
of the Protestant police reserve and the Ulster Special Constabulary.
With the ensuing marchers, especially the march from the Bogside of
8 Purdie, 31.
9 Ibid.
These issues can be traced again to 1921 when the Republic of Ire-land
won its independence from the United Kingdom, thus the British
government purposefully created a Catholic minority and Protestant
majority in the remaining six counties of Ulster that make up Northern
Ireland. This inconsistency was accomplished through gerrymandering
of voting districts. When this happened Britain created an environ-ment
that made for injustices towards the Catholics. For the Catholics
these discriminations gave them reasons to move towards a violent dis-position.
7 The thought and somewhat reality that there could not be
“peace” that there could not be a “resolution of grievances” without the
use of violence, helped by the arrangement of voting districts.
These voting districts were arranged such that there could not be a
catholic majority, thereby forcibly silencing the catholic voice. Because
of these gerrymandered districts the Protestants were always a dispro-portional
majority, giving them an even greater advantage of coverage
in parliament. Thus helping to add and create a place for the idea of
the fear and the double minority belief, also compounding the tensions
and issues of the area. To many it became clear that the only way in
which to have their voice heard was to somehow create an environment
to cause change by words and actions of non-force or nonviolence; and
to try and get as many people as possible. The real key into getting the
word out and heard was the number of people that they could get to
attend meetings and rallies. These mass events were to try and gain as
many supporters as possible so that the British government had to lis-ten
to what they wanted and take it seriously. Purdie writes,
The answer was plain; we would have to establish our objectives; to
explain these to our own movement; to persuade our movement to
accept them; to bring them to the people and explain them—and then
to show the people, by our initial political and agitationary activities
that we are sincere. We would have to declare what kind of government,
what kind of state we wanted in Ireland. We would then have to show
7 Garton Ash, Timothy, and Roberts Adam. “Civil Resistance and Power
Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Ghandi to the
Present.” In Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent
Action from Ghandi to the Present, by Timothy Garton Ash and
Roberts Adam, 88. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
50  P. Gardner Northern Ireland; The Land that Peace Forgot  51
many people’s reasons for the use of violence was the sense of injus-tice
felt between the Catholic communities and the state.12 To promote
ways of more violent actions many used the platform of civil rights and
equal treatment, ideals that had been traditionally peaceably. Those
predisposed towards violence now used civil rights and equality under
the law to push forth the idea that the only way to obtain substantial
change would be for the Catholic side to rise up against their oppressor
and forcible take what they wanted!
By 1972 the nonviolent voice of civil rights and NICRA and had
been effectively snuffed out completely. Even though many of their
grievances had been dealt with in some manner, the opposition of forc-ible
violence with the backing of such groups as the provisional IRA
had taken over and a new era of modern violence that has lasted into
this new century with a cooling and escalation period ending at the
peace talks in 1998.13 It also didn’t help that the British and police
forces negative actions towards peaceful protesters such as, the deploy-ment
of the British military into areas to help “keep the peace” the ba-toning,
use of tear gas, rubber bullets water cannons, and other forceful
means to “keep in line” protestors, only added to the fuel and desire
for some to become violent and use violence as a tool to gain freedom
from the British state.14 It is the opinion of some that it is because of
abuses of police officers, specifically the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the
B specials, latter to become the Ulster Defense Regiment (UDR) and
the infusion of British armed forces whom were there to enforce the
rule of law on those who have become uppity in the Ulster counties.15
It is worthy to note that many of those in the early years of the
movement wanted the eventual freedom of Northern Ireland from the
British state and unification with the Republic of Ireland. Many aban-
12 Fitzduff, Mari. “Beyond Violence: Conflict Resolution Process in Northern
Ireland.” In Beyond Violence: Conflict Resolution Process in Northern
Ireland, by Mari Fitzduff, 25. New York: United nations University Press,
2002.
13 Ash, 84.
14 Ibid., 85.
15 Purdie, 19.
Derry (also known as Londonderry) to the city’s center on the 5th of
October 1968, as a rallying point for Derry Housing Action Commit-tee
supported by NICRA there were some 400 marchers in attendance
and 200 or so bystanders on the side waiting for a march, which never
took place. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) came along and
broke it up by batoning those in the crowd leaving many injured. This
march had collected media attention, as three Members of Parliament
(MPs) were present and injured at the rally by the RUC. As a result
of the Royal Ulster Constabulary attacking the crowd brought rioting
to the streets of Derry for the next three days, riots aimed at police
and military action, riots aimed at the British presence and puppet
like hand over the area, causing for many to state this event as the one
that sparked the modern troubles10. The October march was the first of
many when the Catholics in Northern Ireland rioted and raised vio-lent
action against, Protestant neighbors and leaders alike, those that
were perceived as the oppressor where determined to be the enemy and
needed to be dealt with in ways that they seemed fit through acts of vi-olence.
11 It started as peaceful demonstrations, but somebody can only
be hit so many times before they strike back. The many failures the
state towards the Catholics left them feeling that they either could not
or would not help protect them from violence during marches. This
hardened many Catholics and caused some to eventually leave the idea
that justice could be achieved by civil disobedience on the wayside.
Turning away from peaceful demonstration the disaffected began to
look in the areas that were more prone to violent means and organiza-tions
like that of the IRA that were willing to use violence to gain their
objectives. One of the great failures of the civil rights movement was
the fact that many did use it as a platform to try and move ideas from
peaceably assembly to that of violence; this left many feeling the Irish
were predisposed to violence and were never sincere in their peace-ful
demonstrations. The Cameron Commission of 1969 confirms that
10 Melaugh, Martin . “The Derry March - Chronology of Events Surrounding
the March.” 1996.http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/derry/chron.htm (accessed
July 26, 2011).
11 Ash, 82-83.
52  P. Gardner Northern Ireland; The Land that Peace Forgot  53
force, that is, the British Army and the British government which has
sent them there...If we went over tomorrow and took over the Home
counties of England, the English are not gonna bow down and say it’s all
yours, right? “It’s Irish now, you can keep it.” So why should we be any
different to them? Why should we be any the less patriotic?18
These morphing attitudes where being rapidly fueled by the by
the British Armed Forces whose everyday actions and campaigning
effected and hurt everyday citizens rather than those that the British
government said they were going to be going after.19 Instead the pro-visional
groups, like the RUC, UDR, and the Ulster Volunteer Force
(UVF) became the people whom the British state wanted to talk and
negotiate with. These were the groups that had already participated in
violence towards there Catholic neighbors with whom the British felt
they could control the republican “upraising” that the British in turn
believed was controlling the communities, and creating an atmosphere
of fear.20
In 1998 NICRA began to see the fruits of their peaceably goals,
bringing forth equality in housing, voting, employment, and education
reform. The outcomes NICRA had desired earlier throughout the 70s
and 80s were instead subverted by simples acts such as housing reform
along with other factors that had unwittingly sparked one of the most
violent second world nation controversies of the 20th century. Housing
reform came in 1971 when the Northern Ireland Housing Executive
was created. This organizations sole purpose was to fix the problems
with the housing system. In 1968 a young single Protestant was able
to allocate a public house, one of which she was by no means qualified
to have and this action jumped her in head of many catholic families
with loads of children who had been waiting on the list for years in
18 White, Robert W. “From Peaceful Protest to Guerrilla War:
Micromobilization of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.” American
Journal of Sociology 94.6 (1989): 1277-302. Print. 1294.
19 Ulster.
20 Bean, Kevin. “The New Politics of Sinn Fein.” In the New Politics of Sinn
Fein, by Kevin Bean, 16. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2007.
doned that idea knowing that it was a dream and not a point on which
all could agree. They eventually settled with the hope of just treatment
with in the British system. It is the later more radical movements that
pick up like that of the IRA and provisional IRA to use violence as the
way and the means to gain freedom from Britain’s oppressive system.16
This will later on contribute to a great disparity in the work forces
in Northern Ireland towards those of a Catholic background; leaving
many men there stuck in lower level entry factory jobs. Along with
these difficulties simply social interaction would come under its own
sadistic and weird twist and turns.
The movement to move to more violent actions to some seemed
like the right thing to do. Eamonn McCann in his book War and an
Irish Town relates the story of a Miss Doherty who was tarred and
feather because she was a Catholic that was engaged to a British sol-dier.
The press got a hold of this story and it was everywhere, making a
huge hoopla out of this poor girl’s ordeal. Many thought in the city of
Londonderry felt it over played, because where was the news to report
when a British soldier shot a Ms. Groves with his riot gun in the face
and the rubber bullet caused her to go blind, or even an event concern-ing
Mrs. Thompson who for reasons unknown, was shot in her yard by
another British soldier, killing her. It was the lack of action on accounts
like this that made it hard for people to not justify the movement into
a more violent arena against the British and their presence in Northern
Ireland.17 When compared to when the British Army first showed up
in areas like Belfast and Londonderry there was great relief among the
Catholic community. It was seen by many that there was now some
force to keep the radicals in-line, like the IRA, that were causing trou-bles
in those areas. In a matter of months it turned from a hope of
change to one of contempt and hate, in the direction of the military
mingled with nationalistic patriotism. In the ninth interview of Rober
White’s book on the micromobilization of the IRA, he says that,
...the six counties is part of Ireland, and it is being occupied by a foreign
16 Ash, 88.
17 McCann, Eamonn. “War and an Irish Town.” In War and an Irish Town,
by Eamonn McCann, 153-154. Chicago: Pluto Press, 1993.
54  P. Gardner Northern Ireland; The Land that Peace Forgot  55
males where unemployed compared to a 6.6 per cent of Protestants
males during the same time.24 These numbers also point to the issue
that those males that were not only unemployed but long termed un-employed
had higher chances of joining militant groups and partici-pating
in violence, this goes for both sides of the field. Also areas in
Northern Ireland that had large Catholic and Protestant ghettos, like
Londonderry and Belfast, tended to have some of the highest levels
of violence and paramilitarism.25 1976 brought about the Fair Em-ployment
Act that was put in place to help equality in the work place
making it illegal to discrimination on the biases of religion or political
background. The Fair Employment Act also set up the Fair Employ-ment
Agency to receive complaints about discriminations and take the
appropriate actions.26
The mid-eighties showed that disparity in the work place still ex-isted
and was higher than before. In an attempt to try and make the
unemployment gap smaller the Fair Employment Commission was es-tablished
to try and fix what the Fair Employment Agency could not.
It was hoped that it would help the issue, but by 1993 unemployment
had risen 2.2 percent with most unemployment being in Catholic ar-eas.
The reasons for this disparity still falls to that of discrimination and
redress is far more complex than just putting into place legislation.27
Levels now are only starting to even out but that is only because the
Protestant unemployment rate is rising to meet that of what the Catho-lics
has traditionally been.
Many Catholics, who wouldn’t have been able to otherwise, were
able to seek higher education through the Free Education Acts of 1947
and gain places in the middle class.28 Many gaining the education need-
24 Fitzduff, 23-24.
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid.
28 Holland, Jack. “Hope Against History: The course of Conflict in Northern
Ireland.” In Hope Against History: The Courese of Conflict in Nothern
Ireland, by Jack Holland, 9. New York: Henry holt and Company, LC,
1999.
some cases. The only thing that she had going for her was that she was
secretary of a Unionist parliamentary. This incident only proved too
many that the system was indeed corrupt and Catholics where indeed
disfavored. The Northern Ireland Housing Authority however was
faced with the task of not only reorganizing the way in which housing
was handled they also were placed with the task of cleaning up many
properties that where unfit to live in.21
Along with the violence, from such poorly executed programs the
seeds of peace had been sown, some 20 or 30 years before in the 1970s.
Leaving room for issues to be negotiated and resolved at the turn of the
20th century goals that only a short while before seemed untenable. Just
like any negotiation process the final peace talks, have their own prob-lems
and concerns. The ability for the Catholics to share their voice
through voting is an area that continues to see positive transformation.
With voting in the early years it was believed that one should
stick ones party and not vary from it, no matter who the candidate
might be. For those of Catholic background one usually stuck with
the Nationalist Party with their own candidates being backed by those
in the Catholic Church. It is here that the two entities, that being the
politics and religion, start to walk hand in hand with seemingly no
separation and real feeling that one could spate from the two entities.22
This feeling of hopelessness within the voting system that still seems
to last with the voting system that is in place now, that is even more
confusing and dysfunctional than before. Voting reforms were started
in 1969, house ownership as a prerequisite for voting was done away
with. Business had to give up the ability to vote multiple times, bound-aries
were redrawn if only to get nationalist to be stratified with voting
gains, still disproportionate and very much so gerrymandered the new
lines allowed for little gains to council seats.23
The Cameron report also helped bring to light the many discrimi-nations
that where happening to Catholics in the work place. In 1971
the Cameron report estimated that some 17.3 per cent of Catholics
21 Fitzduff, 21.
22 McCann, 69
23 Ibid., 21-22.
56  P. Gardner Northern Ireland; The Land that Peace Forgot  57
Fig. 2 East Belfast, Ireland. Gated and walled Integrated Primary School.
Authors personnel collection, photographed 20 June 2011.
ed to be teachers, lawyers and some doctors, if not only for their com-munities.
In most cases it was these youth who benefited from this act
that where pulling together in ways like that of NICRA and calling
for change. In primary and Secondary schools it was no surprise that
Catholics tended to be less funded and perform worse in schools than
Protestant students.29 Seeing as they are educated in separate schools
away from one another it is no surprise one of the goals is to see a set
standardization of subject matter presented in both Catholic and Prot-estant
schools. Some are even calling for integration of schools to try
and not only educate the youth more well-rounded but to also bring
the two communities together to try and stop violence completely.
Although there at times seem to be the push for violence, and as
awful as it may seem but things like the peace wall that separates the
Shankill and the falls roads in Belfast and the countless walls that go
around many neighborhoods serve a practical purpose at times. The
walls have been a successful means of keeping massive damage from
being done when riots in interface areas happen. A real problem that
perpetuates violence is that walls also keep communities from being
together and easily integrating into one society (see figures 1 and 2).
Physical walls just like the religious, economic, social, and emotional,
barrier force people who live within them and prevent them from com-plete
integration, the state of Northern Ireland, may never see a true
peaceful dwelling of her inhabitants within the state because of the
physical walls throughout Belfast and other parts of the Ulster area.
Just as Ireland has walls within her country there are external walls
that surround her regarding international relations and trade. Because
of a western worlds desire to help tear down these external walls The
United States, European Union, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
all commit annually some £628m / €753m being given to organiza-tions
all around Northern Ireland, organizations that promise some
sort of relief, help, aid, to help those that hae been effected by the
Troubles. These organizations are there to try and make the Ulster
29 Fitzduff, 25.
58  P. Gardner Northern Ireland; The Land that Peace Forgot  59
that they would not let the violence re-erupt in Ulster.
Although Britain has had a long interest in Northern Ireland
wither it is for economic, political, or even militaristic reason, and their
hand in the raise of violence in Northern Ireland. Will now hopefully
with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and the pulling out of
over 27,000 British soldiers that were stationed in Northern Ireland
during the height of the troubles and over 763 killed during their in-volvement
in the troubles.33 Hopefully there can be seen a upturn in the
communities involvement with one another and the peace will hold
Biographical Notes
For Further Reading
“Effects of the New Deal on American Politics” by Ryan J. Vogel, Cres-cat
Scientia 1 (2003): 73–80.
“The Bill of Rights: A Popular Victory for Liberalism in the American
Founding.” Ryan J. Vogel, Crescat Scientia 2 (2004): 55–69.
“Lincoln and the Suspension of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War,”
by Ted Memmott, Crescat Scientia 3 (2005): 41–55.
“Bundling: Colonial Courtship’s Path of Least Resistance” by Georgia
Buchert, Crescat Scientia 1 (2003): 25–31.
33 “Army ending its operation in NI.” BBC News, July 31,2007.
counties a peaceful place.30 A place that would be livable as a first world
nation instead of a second world nation with first world ideals, but the
goal of first world economic achievement and sustainability can only
be accomplished by complete and open internal trade, trade that tears
down the economic barriers of religious and social intolerance.
The Northern Irish economy is one that is shaped by that of the
world and not necessarily by those within the state. Meaning that since
so much money is pumped in by other countries, and Northern Ire-land’s
history of violence there is a more vested interest in how busi-nesses
will survive in the economy. There has been a massive drop in
the areas traditional fields of economic growth in Northern Ireland.
Jobs that were traditionally a large money maker like that of the manu-facturing
and trade, instead there has been great growth in the public
sector, retailing, and other service based employment.31
One issue still remaining is that of poverty there has been a steady
increase of unemployment in Northern Ireland since 1985, 21 % claim-ing
benefits, today being around of those claiming benefits is around
28.4% as of March 2011.32 With the disparity of jobless equalizing the
gaps between the two groups, catholic, who have traditionally had the
higher numbers of unemployment, and those of the unemployed Prot-estants.
This is causing for an environment that with this peace could
go either way. The equality of the jobless could cause for the two groups
to join together to try and figure out something economically to help
them both. Or it could have the adverse effect. With the heightened
number of jobless there could be a higher resurgence of violence and
joining of paramilitary groups like that of the UVF, the Protestants,
and the IRA, Catholics, causing for a downward spiral of violence that
would rival that of the violence in the 1970s an 1980s. Hopefully the
people of Northern Ireland have learned and had enough of violence
30 “International-Fund-for-Ireland:Background.2009.http://www.
internationalfundforireland.com/about-the-fund(accessedAugust3,
2011).
31 Bean, 16.
32 Another rise in Northern Ireland unemployment rate.” BBC News, March
16, 2011.
The Vilification of Richard I
Vanessa Hatton
King Richard I was only king of England for two years (from
1483 to 1485), and yet he has stimulated spirited controversy
among bystanders and trained historians alike for nearly six genera-tions.
This controversy stems mainly from disagreements about Rich-ard’s
character and whether he was capable of or responsible for the
disappearance of his two nephews, the sons of his brother King Edward
IV. Historical figures such as Sir Thomas More and William Shake-speare
have forever solidified him as a crooked and deformed villain, an
ambitious and cruel murderer and usurper. Also thanks to Shakespeare,
the first association that pops into a non-historian’s mind when Rich-ard
I is mentioned is “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”1
This villainous, fictional image is the true tragedy. How and when
did this transformation from loyal brother and brilliant warrior to
crook-back and wicked uncle occur?2 Or more simply put, who vilified
Richard I and when? Was Richard responsible for his own bad repu-tation,
or does the blame rest on those who came after him, such as the
miserly King Henry VI, who as a distant claimant had strong reason
to blacken his opponent’s name? In order to assess and fully understand
this transformation, primary and secondary sources must be reviewed
and analyzed carefully, and only after this can those questions be fully
answered.
Before reviewing those sources, it is important to know Richard’s
brief history. For those unfamiliar with this section of British history,
1 William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Richard III (New York: Pocket
Books, 1996),
2 Dominic Mancini, a source discussed later on mentions Richard’s “good
reputation” and his “renown in warfare” in his Usurpation of Richard I,
pages 64-65.
62  Hatton The Vilification of Richard I  63
1485; however, starting not long after it was initially painted, changes
were made to it over time. This portrait and the alterations which have
been made to it are indicative of the maligning that took place af-ter
Richard’s death. According to some scholars (such as Clements R.
Markham), the Tudors constructed an unflattering image of Richard
deliberately and this particular painting was changed to reflect their
portrayal of him.
To start with observations, from the clothing Richard I wears,
the viewer would assume that Richard was very wealthy (and as befit-ted
the Duke of Gloucester and later King of England). That much
is obvious by looking at the collar of pure gold, pearl ornamentation,
cloth of gold filigreed clothing, and ruby hat-brooch set in a rose (a
possible nod to the white rose of York, the House of York’s insignia).
The ruby hat-brooch is important because during this time period ru-bies
were indicative of purity, virtue, and loyalty—an association found
in the Holy Bible’s Proverbs 31:10. The rose was the flower of the Vir-gin
Mary, and is most likely indicative of his loyalty to his family and
religion revealed also in his motto: “Loyaulte me lie” or “Loyalty binds
me.”3
The painting itself, observed without any kind of knowledge of
the changes made, shows a grim, determined man.4 Richard’s copy is
in the midst of putting on or taking off a ring—some would assume
he is fidgeting, a sign of a nervous and guilty nature. The hard line of
the jaw and determined purse of the lips suggest a hardened, ambitious
man. The eyes are narrowed in a permanent calculating expression, and
his right shoulder is slightly higher than the left, seemingly confirm-ing
More’s description of a man with a hunched shoulder. The nose is
slightly large and a little bulbous, and when combined with thin lips,
narrow eyes, and other strong features, makes Richard look a little less
than handsome. This portrait shows exactly what a monarch with an
unstable claim (like Henry VI) would have wanted it to show: Richard
I was a calculating, cold man with great ambition—someone capable
3 Frederick Hepburn, “The Portraiture of Richard I,” The Richard I
Society, American Branch. http://www.richardiii.net/r3_man_portraits.
htm (accessed October 17, 2012), 11-12. *Paragraph numbers listed
instead of page numbers.
4 Observe Image 1 of this particular portrait in the Bibliography.
Richard I was one of three brothers of the royal House of York, whose
family battled the royal House of Lancaster’s King Henry VI for the
throne in the Wars of the Roses. Henry VI was eventually overthrown
by the Yorks, and Richard’s brother became Edward IV in 1461. In
1483, Edward IV died very suddenly, leaving behind a twelve-year-old
Edward V to rule under Richard’s guidance as Lord Protector of
England. Within a little over a month, Richard secured the throne as
the King of England from his child nephew and by fall of 1483 the
bastardized Edward V and his little brother had disappeared from the
royal residence the Tower of London.
By 1485, a weak claimant from the House of Lancaster, Henry
Tudor, landed in England with an army and met Richard I on the
field of Bosworth, where Richard was cut down violently during an
attempt to slay Henry Tudor himself. The usurper Tudor became King
Henry VI, founder of the House of Tudor and a century-long dynasty.
A score of years passed, and by the time of the death of Queen Eliza-beth
I in 1603 and the writing of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Richard
III, Richard’s reputation as an unnatural and evil villain had already
been solidified for more than fifty years, as the publication of the most
damaging literary works (emphasis on literary), had been written in the
early 16th century far before Shakespeare’s play, a description of which
will follow.
There are very few, if any, primary sources that display Richard
I in a positive light; in contrast, a long list exists of those that played
a particularly important part in the process of vilification and further
contributed to the image of Richard I as a heartless Machiavellian
king. Some of the most important to consider: a copy of a painting of
Richard altered from one initially painted during his reign (most likely
in 1485); a text by Dominic Mancini on Richard’s “usurpation” (1483);
the Croyland Chronicles by an anonymous writer or series of writers
(1453-1486); a history of England by Robert Fabyan with a section
on Richard I (1516); The History of Richard the Third by Sir Thomas
More (1513); Polydore Virgil’s Anglica Historia (1512/1534); a history
written by Raphael Holinshed (1587); and finally Shakespeare’s very
famous The Tragedy of Richard III. These primary sources are the closest
clues as to how this blackening of Richard’s name occurred.
The portrait of Richard I analyzed here is a copy made of an
original most likely done during Richard’s short two-year reign in
64  Hatton The Vilification of Richard I  65
of murdering two child-princes and usurping a throne. The changes to
the portrait were made deliberately and with forethought. And, judg-ing
from dating methods, they were accomplished in the time of the
Tudors.5
However, analyzing the changes made even further reveals the
agenda of the portrait changer: the right shoulder was painted over to
be made to look higher than the other by the raising of the gown and
collar (as determined by an x-ray analysis of the painting).6 Richard’s
right eye was narrowed dram