1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:05,840 Speaker 1: M podcasts. This is Robert Evans and that was the 2 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:09,319 Speaker 1: introduction from Behind the Bastards, which is a podcast, which 3 00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:12,400 Speaker 1: is why I said the word podcasts. Today with me 4 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:15,040 Speaker 1: in the room that is a digital room and not 5 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:17,759 Speaker 1: a physical room because of the plague. Is Mr Billy 6 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:23,079 Speaker 1: Wayne Davis. Everybody, Hey, Billy, how are you doing? How's 7 00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:29,680 Speaker 1: your quarantine going? It's doing pretty good exercising. Yeah. When 8 00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:32,680 Speaker 1: I saw you last over Skype, you look like normal Billy, 9 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:35,360 Speaker 1: and then suddenly this week you have a mustache and 10 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:40,720 Speaker 1: a headband. It's coming together. It's been an interesting quarantine 11 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:44,720 Speaker 1: week for you. I'm embracing it. You've got a cookery now, 12 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:48,800 Speaker 1: which is a special type of curb Nepalese blade very nice. 13 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:51,440 Speaker 1: I want to the Gerber to see if I liked it, 14 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:53,720 Speaker 1: and then now I'm gonna get into Apoll and get 15 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:56,520 Speaker 1: one proper. Yeah, I have a Nepalese blade smith that 16 00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:59,360 Speaker 1: I can point you towards. This is a podcast about 17 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:01,920 Speaker 1: the worst pill in all of history. And Billy, you 18 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:04,440 Speaker 1: and I have developed a couple of different niches for ourselves. 19 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:06,520 Speaker 1: We're we're we have a lot of niches. One of 20 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:09,240 Speaker 1: those niches is medical scammers. And this is not a 21 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:13,200 Speaker 1: medical scammer episode because our other niche is weirdos from 22 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:16,200 Speaker 1: the South. Today, we're going to talk about one of 23 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 1: the South's great, all time famous weirdo bastards, Billy Wayne Davis. 24 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,839 Speaker 1: What do you know about Jim Booie? I know the name, 25 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean? Like growing up in 26 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:32,000 Speaker 1: the South, You're just like, yeah, you hear it. I 27 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:34,720 Speaker 1: don't know what he There's like, I don't know exactly 28 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:37,720 Speaker 1: what you did. You've probably heard of I'm gonna guess 29 00:01:37,720 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: everybody listening to this has at least heard of a 30 00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:41,959 Speaker 1: bowie knife, which is a great kind of knife, one 31 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:45,720 Speaker 1: of my favorite knives. It's basically a small sword that 32 00:01:45,959 --> 00:01:48,800 Speaker 1: is a dagger because we call it one instead of 33 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:52,040 Speaker 1: a small sword. UM, with a specific kind of curved 34 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:54,320 Speaker 1: in point to the top of the blade. And it's 35 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:56,680 Speaker 1: it's great for it was initially It's great for hunting 36 00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:59,960 Speaker 1: and skinning animals, and it's also great for waving around 37 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:03,000 Speaker 1: drunkenly at a house party if you're me and nineteen 38 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:06,240 Speaker 1: years old. Um. The one thing I am about him 39 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:13,119 Speaker 1: is the the giant mutton had the horrifying facial hair. 40 00:02:13,919 --> 00:02:16,680 Speaker 1: He had gigantic mutton chops and he died at the Alumo. 41 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:19,320 Speaker 1: Now I was I was a Texas boy. So in 42 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:22,640 Speaker 1: in Texas school, you have a special class called Texas History, 43 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:26,400 Speaker 1: and every Texas kid learns a lot about Jim Booie 44 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,600 Speaker 1: and it's all wrong because they only teaches about Jim 45 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:34,720 Speaker 1: Booie at Texas School. I know who Jim Bowie. Yes, yeah, 46 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: yes I do. I just came back. It froze and 47 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:40,799 Speaker 1: everything came back, and then you said the Alumo and 48 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 1: I was like immediately on his motherfucker's Yes. Yeah, So 49 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:47,120 Speaker 1: Jim Booie is a giant piece of ship because this 50 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:49,680 Speaker 1: is my show. But he's also like a frontier legend, 51 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:52,400 Speaker 1: like he's one of those he's like David Crockett Um 52 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:54,720 Speaker 1: or like wild Bill Hickock, like he's one of those 53 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:57,400 Speaker 1: like wild West legends. So this is gonna be a 54 00:02:57,400 --> 00:03:01,760 Speaker 1: hoot of a tale. Um And yeah, let's just get 55 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:06,240 Speaker 1: into it. So h James Bowie Um was born on 56 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: March tenth, uh in Logan County, Kentucky, in seventeen nineties six, 57 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:16,880 Speaker 1: probably because again in Kentucky in seventeen ninety six, nobody 58 00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: was super good at like birth certificates and the like. Um, 59 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:23,000 Speaker 1: but that's that's a good guess as to when he 60 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:27,519 Speaker 1: was born three or four days ago. Yeah, yeah, he 61 00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:31,360 Speaker 1: came into the world sometime round round about. Then it 62 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:33,320 Speaker 1: was the year when we had that big flood on 63 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: the river. Yeah, that's kind of how people talked about 64 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:40,560 Speaker 1: ship like that back then. So yeah, his brother gives 65 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:44,920 Speaker 1: March ten six is as James Bowie's birthdays. Older brother 66 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:48,120 Speaker 1: John gives that as the birthdate. And uh, John is 67 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:50,120 Speaker 1: kind of the source of a lot of our information 68 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 1: on Jim Bowie's early life. But John and every other 69 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:57,960 Speaker 1: member of the Bowie family are liars and unreliable narrators. 70 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:00,840 Speaker 1: So it's really we really take this all with a 71 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:03,200 Speaker 1: grain of salt. I know people like that and they 72 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:05,840 Speaker 1: tell you that liars do it. Hey, now I'm gonna 73 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: tell you the story. But keep in mind, I make 74 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 1: a lot of stuff up. Keep in mind, what would 75 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:14,960 Speaker 1: the moonshine? I can't keep much much together about my 76 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 1: own back story. Yeah, the Booe families a bit like that, 77 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:20,440 Speaker 1: and they have financial motives for telling a bunch of 78 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:22,480 Speaker 1: saying a bunch of fun ship about Jim Bullie. But 79 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:23,640 Speaker 1: I don't think they have much in the way of 80 00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:26,840 Speaker 1: financial motives about lying about his birthdates. That's probably more 81 00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:28,880 Speaker 1: or less accurate, at least as well as they could 82 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:33,080 Speaker 1: remember it. So uh Jim was the ninth of ten 83 00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:37,279 Speaker 1: children born to Resin, which I think was just sort 84 00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:39,839 Speaker 1: of so basically our easy I n is how his 85 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:41,720 Speaker 1: dad's first name was spelled, and it was supposed to 86 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:44,160 Speaker 1: be Reason, but they weren't great at spelling in Kentucky 87 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:46,320 Speaker 1: back in the seventeen hundreds, so they wrote it out 88 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:52,120 Speaker 1: as Resin Um. So he was this Yeah, you know what, 89 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:57,200 Speaker 1: not bad for modern Kentucky spelling they're doing right, You 90 00:04:57,240 --> 00:04:59,039 Speaker 1: get the gist of it. So, yeah, he was the 91 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:01,960 Speaker 1: son of Resin Boo and uh An Elvy Booi and 92 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,080 Speaker 1: his parents came to the United States as part of 93 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:07,599 Speaker 1: a massive Scottish migration across Appalachia and into the Old 94 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:11,800 Speaker 1: South Old South. The Booey family were basically the archetypal 95 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:15,279 Speaker 1: early White Americans pioneers down to the core of their marrow. 96 00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:18,160 Speaker 1: Resin had a habit of moving on to wild land 97 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:21,000 Speaker 1: in the frontier, developing it by building homes and orchards 98 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:23,400 Speaker 1: and stuff, and then when other people would come in 99 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:25,520 Speaker 1: and move in around him. He would get angry because 100 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:28,520 Speaker 1: he didn't like being around other people. He wanted to 101 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:30,159 Speaker 1: be out in the middle of nowhere, and so he 102 00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:33,240 Speaker 1: moved somewhere else and start building a homestead again until 103 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:35,840 Speaker 1: civilization or whatever caught up with him. This was kind 104 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:39,080 Speaker 1: of like how Jim Bowie's dad liked to live first 105 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:41,840 Speaker 1: house slipper. Yeah, yeah, that's kind of what he's doing. 106 00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:45,560 Speaker 1: He's like gentrifying. Yeah, he's like he's basically gentrifying, like 107 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:50,159 Speaker 1: the woods. Yeah yeah, but then he hates it and 108 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:52,719 Speaker 1: he's got it. Like, yeah, you could call them early hipsters. 109 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:57,840 Speaker 1: But instead of like you know, enjoying artists lofts and 110 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:04,120 Speaker 1: uh artisanal coffee houses, he liked fighting bears with machetes. Um, 111 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 1: every time I see alize of place, these people shut up. 112 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:13,360 Speaker 1: That's kind of resins attitude. So the point of making 113 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:16,200 Speaker 1: is he he wasn't just going about this like make 114 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:18,200 Speaker 1: a home and a living for himself and his family, 115 00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:20,120 Speaker 1: like he needed to be at the bleeding edge of 116 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:22,919 Speaker 1: the frontier. And so Jim Booie's early life as a 117 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 1: child consisted of many moves. You know, they'd spend a 118 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:28,200 Speaker 1: couple of years somewhere, and then his father would grow 119 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:31,000 Speaker 1: frustrated by the fact that there were human beings within 120 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:34,640 Speaker 1: a half mile of them, and so they'd move somewhere else. Liked. 121 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:38,880 Speaker 1: I realized, like these people, there's a there's a level 122 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:42,440 Speaker 1: of even though all these people are spoilers, slave owners 123 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:45,039 Speaker 1: and colonizers and monsters, there's a level of respect you 124 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:47,480 Speaker 1: have to have to anyone who is like, there's people 125 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:49,800 Speaker 1: within a mile of me, I'm gonna go move out 126 00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:52,039 Speaker 1: to the middle of nowhere with an hatchet and build 127 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:56,240 Speaker 1: another home, like like they're they're tough, is Yeah. I 128 00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:58,560 Speaker 1: just keep thinking, I'm like, I'm not as stubborn as 129 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:02,560 Speaker 1: I thought. There there's there's a TikTok r. That's that's 130 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:05,280 Speaker 1: that's like where the wife comes in, it's like, honey, 131 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:09,400 Speaker 1: we have to move. The neighbor said, hi, and that's 132 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:15,920 Speaker 1: these people. Yeah, yeah, that's resin Booie friends, Billy, what 133 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:17,920 Speaker 1: were you saying? I'm gonna call you booeye a couple 134 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:21,720 Speaker 1: of times and as I'm certain I like it, I 135 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:27,040 Speaker 1: don't remember, Oh good, fantastic. Well, uh yeah. So now 136 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:29,800 Speaker 1: the Booie family, when Jim was young, tended to live 137 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:32,160 Speaker 1: all the spots they pick. We're along the Mississippi River, 138 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:35,000 Speaker 1: and they basically moved down the Mississippi as like people 139 00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 1: filled up the area above them. UM and moving dot 140 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:41,320 Speaker 1: day for the Booey family meant they would build by 141 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:44,320 Speaker 1: hand a flat bottom boat, toss all of their ship 142 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:46,760 Speaker 1: onto it, and then sail down the Mississippi to find 143 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:48,840 Speaker 1: a new place to live. So that's what. That's what 144 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:51,720 Speaker 1: like the U haul of the day is, Yeah, you 145 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:56,760 Speaker 1: just wake up here. Ship Dad's boat. Dad's making a boat. 146 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:02,880 Speaker 1: God damn it. Yeah. Now Will Jim Bowie's first memories 147 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:06,200 Speaker 1: probably would have been in the Twapay Township in what 148 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:09,040 Speaker 1: is now Missouri uh and what was then still under 149 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:12,520 Speaker 1: French control and part of their new Madrid district now. 150 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:16,360 Speaker 1: The name Twapati came from the original inhabitants of the land, 151 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:19,520 Speaker 1: the Apple Creek band of the Shawnee tribe. They'd been 152 00:08:19,560 --> 00:08:22,400 Speaker 1: forced out by white men via unspeakable violence and disease, 153 00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:24,760 Speaker 1: and young Jim would go on to spend much of 154 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:27,280 Speaker 1: his childhood playing in camps that they had abandoned all 155 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:32,640 Speaker 1: throughout the forests and swamps around Twapty Township. UM. Now. 156 00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:35,320 Speaker 1: His earliest memories from age four to six would have 157 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:38,400 Speaker 1: been pretty relaxed. Bowie family children weren't expected to work 158 00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:40,760 Speaker 1: much at that age, and Jim would have spent much 159 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:44,720 Speaker 1: of his time relatively unsupervised in the middle of the woods. Um. 160 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:48,840 Speaker 1: The Booey men were in general uh given to spending 161 00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:50,679 Speaker 1: a lot of time alone in the middle of nowhere. 162 00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: Jim's formal education would have been basically non existent. His 163 00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:56,439 Speaker 1: mother Elvi, taught her children the alphabet, but that was 164 00:08:56,520 --> 00:09:00,000 Speaker 1: about all she knew, so that was about all they learned. Um. 165 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:02,280 Speaker 1: After two years in Twopity, it got too developed for 166 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:06,040 Speaker 1: resident and the family moved now. During this time, much 167 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,800 Speaker 1: of the southeast was still run and owned by France, 168 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:11,280 Speaker 1: and the French government saw Americans as an ally in 169 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:14,600 Speaker 1: their endless, bloody war against English people, which is the 170 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:19,080 Speaker 1: only war that really matters in my opinion. That's that's yeah. Now, 171 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:21,320 Speaker 1: they were happy to allow Americans to settle in the 172 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:24,800 Speaker 1: Louisiana territory, and they offered generous terms on land grants 173 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:27,520 Speaker 1: for them to do so. The Bowie family kept moving south, 174 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:29,960 Speaker 1: and by eighteen twelve they'd staked out a claim on 175 00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:33,640 Speaker 1: buyou vermillion in the Atta Kappas parish just south of 176 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:37,000 Speaker 1: opelousas Uh. They got into the timber cutting business, and 177 00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:39,280 Speaker 1: by now Jim was coming up into a young adult, 178 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:41,679 Speaker 1: so he was able to help the family business, as 179 00:09:41,760 --> 00:09:45,280 Speaker 1: did all of his many brothers. The Bowie boys were close, 180 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:48,000 Speaker 1: and for most of his life, Jim Bowie's primary business 181 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:50,199 Speaker 1: partners would be his kin. He was raised with a 182 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:52,840 Speaker 1: love of exploration and constant motion, as well as an 183 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:57,160 Speaker 1: abiding appreciation for owning enslaved human beings. His grandfather had 184 00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:00,319 Speaker 1: owned people, as had his father. The Bowies weren't but 185 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:02,480 Speaker 1: they did not and did not have large fields full 186 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:05,400 Speaker 1: of enslaved people, but they kept small families of field 187 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:07,679 Speaker 1: hands enslave to help them with their work. And I'm 188 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:09,680 Speaker 1: gonna read a quote now from the book Three Roads 189 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:13,079 Speaker 1: to the Alamo that describes sort of how slavery was 190 00:10:13,160 --> 00:10:16,040 Speaker 1: practiced within the Bowie family. It's gonna sound like it's 191 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:18,280 Speaker 1: making a different point than it is at first, but 192 00:10:18,559 --> 00:10:21,840 Speaker 1: just just listen to the whole quote. Typically, for land 193 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:25,959 Speaker 1: owned by small farmer slaveholders, Bowie plantations enjoyed benign, even 194 00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:29,360 Speaker 1: familial relations between blacks and whites. They certainly wore for 195 00:10:29,679 --> 00:10:32,200 Speaker 1: where for Uncle Reza, who never married, but who fathered 196 00:10:32,240 --> 00:10:34,800 Speaker 1: a son named James by a slave mistress around sometime 197 00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:38,320 Speaker 1: around seventeen ninety, and thereafter openly acknowledged him, gave him 198 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:40,240 Speaker 1: his freedom and the family name, and brought him to 199 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:42,880 Speaker 1: Louisiana with the rest of the clan. The Black James 200 00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:46,080 Speaker 1: Bowie remained in cattle cata Hula while the rest moved south. 201 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:48,280 Speaker 1: For years to come, he steadily did land and loan 202 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:51,160 Speaker 1: business with both John Senior and Junior, even buying and 203 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:53,839 Speaker 1: selling slaves himself, and achieved some minor position in the 204 00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:58,199 Speaker 1: community near Sicily Island, wherever Bowie blood flowed, clanned loyalty followed. 205 00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:00,760 Speaker 1: In later years, the family were remembered well stories of 206 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:04,920 Speaker 1: resins Young Uh, stories of resins Young James's closeness to 207 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,680 Speaker 1: an old slave woman named Mandy, of the little kindnesses 208 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:09,520 Speaker 1: he did for her, and of the advice she passed 209 00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:11,439 Speaker 1: on to the boy. There was never any question that 210 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:13,920 Speaker 1: the Buoye slaves were property, though, and with the exception 211 00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:16,079 Speaker 1: of a few favorites like old Mandy, they were usually 212 00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:18,880 Speaker 1: sold with the land whenever a buoy moved on. So 213 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:22,640 Speaker 1: you've got a really complicated relationship with slaves here. To 214 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:25,840 Speaker 1: the point where some of the Boweymen have children, um 215 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:28,880 Speaker 1: with with their slaves, and those children are seen as 216 00:11:28,880 --> 00:11:32,480 Speaker 1: Buoy's and are generally live lives as freed people. Um. 217 00:11:32,840 --> 00:11:35,680 Speaker 1: And you have like certain older slaves that are beloved 218 00:11:35,760 --> 00:11:38,120 Speaker 1: and considered almost a part of the family, but also 219 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:41,880 Speaker 1: almost um includes a lot of wiggle room. And as 220 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:45,199 Speaker 1: much as the Buoys pretended to have familiar relations with 221 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:48,559 Speaker 1: their slaves, they sold them, um whenever they would move, 222 00:11:48,679 --> 00:11:51,000 Speaker 1: because these people were in the end property to them. 223 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:53,839 Speaker 1: And this is kind of like, this is a pretty 224 00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:57,439 Speaker 1: normal sort of master slave relationship to exist in the 225 00:11:57,480 --> 00:11:59,480 Speaker 1: era at the time with among people who are moving 226 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:01,360 Speaker 1: a lot like we don't we mainly talk about sort 227 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:04,000 Speaker 1: of the old plantation system, but that hadn't really gotten 228 00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:07,320 Speaker 1: going in a big way at this point. Um. And yeah, 229 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:11,160 Speaker 1: that's kind of how the Booey family dealt with slavery. Um. 230 00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:15,280 Speaker 1: It's it's yeah, I don't know, it's weird, it sucks, 231 00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:18,840 Speaker 1: but yeah, it was bad. It's just it's very clear 232 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:24,199 Speaker 1: they've viewed them as livestock. They've used that's it's it's 233 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:27,439 Speaker 1: it's more messed up than even just that though, because 234 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:29,800 Speaker 1: you know, the buoys were a close knit family. You 235 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:32,000 Speaker 1: had a lot of different uncles and brothers all living 236 00:12:32,080 --> 00:12:34,320 Speaker 1: together with their families, and when one of them would 237 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:38,880 Speaker 1: make another human being with a slave, that that person 238 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:41,280 Speaker 1: was considered to be a buoy and a member of 239 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:45,959 Speaker 1: the family. Um, but that person's black cousins and and 240 00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:49,480 Speaker 1: and you know, half brothers and stuff would be sold 241 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:52,880 Speaker 1: off as property. So it's this it's really kind of 242 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:54,719 Speaker 1: weird to wrap your head around. I don't even know. 243 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:56,360 Speaker 1: I can't even really get into the head of the 244 00:12:56,400 --> 00:13:00,440 Speaker 1: people who would comfortably do that, who could like recognize that, like, well, 245 00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:04,559 Speaker 1: this one's got my blood, so he's family, and we're 246 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:07,760 Speaker 1: gonna treat him like family. But these other people who 247 00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:10,640 Speaker 1: have are related to him, but not to me. I'm 248 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:14,600 Speaker 1: just gonna sell like a dishwasher. It's really strange. It's 249 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:17,319 Speaker 1: such a weird flip of the coin in their head 250 00:13:17,679 --> 00:13:23,280 Speaker 1: where they've made this is the line for us. It's bizarre. Yeah, 251 00:13:23,600 --> 00:13:25,720 Speaker 1: it's hard for me to get my head around in anyway. 252 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:29,280 Speaker 1: And I should note here that because I my longtime 253 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:33,000 Speaker 1: co worker uh is Sore and Bowie, I'm going to 254 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:36,920 Speaker 1: regularly pronounce the Bowie name in a number of different ways, 255 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:39,079 Speaker 1: and it's going to frustrate people and they can just 256 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:43,080 Speaker 1: they can just deal with it. Yeah, deal with it people. Yeah, 257 00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:48,520 Speaker 1: it's just gonna happen. Sorry. Yeah, So the Bowie family 258 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:51,640 Speaker 1: patriarch had to kill other human beings at least once 259 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:54,080 Speaker 1: while the Bowie boys were children. When the family moved 260 00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:57,400 Speaker 1: to Louisiana, they found squatters on their land. A disagreement 261 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:00,240 Speaker 1: in suit, and Resin killed one of the squatters. He 262 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:03,360 Speaker 1: was jail. Yeah, yeah, and this was not uncommon because, like, 263 00:14:04,160 --> 00:14:08,640 Speaker 1: land ownership was kind of a murky idea back then, 264 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:11,200 Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, so was the idea of squatting too, 265 00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:16,480 Speaker 1: where you're just say in court you're not you're yeah, 266 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:18,080 Speaker 1: you're not gonna see me in court. I'm just gonna 267 00:14:18,120 --> 00:14:22,680 Speaker 1: shoot ye right now. Yeah. So Residin killed one of 268 00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:24,800 Speaker 1: these squatters and like it went to trial and he 269 00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:26,560 Speaker 1: got jailed in the wake of the fight while they 270 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:29,400 Speaker 1: were waiting for a trial, and his wife actually got 271 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:31,880 Speaker 1: a bunch of guns together and one of her slaves 272 00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:33,720 Speaker 1: and busted him out of jail. So this would have 273 00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:36,440 Speaker 1: been a pretty early memory of Jim's Booie is his 274 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:39,440 Speaker 1: like mom and one of their slaves busting their dad 275 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:44,160 Speaker 1: out of jail for murdering a guy. Um, yeah, so 276 00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:47,920 Speaker 1: that's cool. That's that's that that puts an imprint on 277 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:52,040 Speaker 1: your foundation as a person. I think, yeah, that the 278 00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:55,720 Speaker 1: law is something that you can manipulate via having enough guns. 279 00:14:56,360 --> 00:15:00,160 Speaker 1: I think would have been yeah. Yeah. So Jim's their 280 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:03,320 Speaker 1: brother also named Resin, left home to go have dangerous 281 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:05,960 Speaker 1: adventures when he was about nineteen, and this was desperately 282 00:15:06,040 --> 00:15:07,720 Speaker 1: hard for young Jim because he was very close to 283 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:10,000 Speaker 1: his brother. A few years later, when the War of 284 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:13,040 Speaker 1: eighteen twelve came to Louisiana, Jim was finally old enough 285 00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:16,720 Speaker 1: to follow Resin when he enlisted. Uh James, another one 286 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:19,800 Speaker 1: of the Bowie brothers, described Resin Jr. As a perfect 287 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:22,960 Speaker 1: rowdy and Jim hisself was noted to be even wilder 288 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:25,720 Speaker 1: and even less thoughtful than his older brother. They were 289 00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:27,920 Speaker 1: both very excited for their chance to go off and 290 00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:31,760 Speaker 1: kill English people. Tragically, they arrived too late. The war 291 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:34,720 Speaker 1: ended without them having to fire a shot. The Bullie 292 00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:36,960 Speaker 1: brothers were still in the militia, though, and they remained 293 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:38,560 Speaker 1: in it for a couple of months after the battle, 294 00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:41,120 Speaker 1: taking on boring patrol duties and spending their off duty 295 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:46,160 Speaker 1: time in the city of New Orleans. Somebody, we'll hang 296 00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:51,080 Speaker 1: out for a couple of moments. Yeah, yeah, that's basically 297 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:54,320 Speaker 1: what happens. But they don't get a chance to shoot anybody, 298 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:56,880 Speaker 1: and they muster out with about twenty one dollars each 299 00:15:56,960 --> 00:16:00,760 Speaker 1: for their troubles. So yeah, that's that's kind of Jim's 300 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:03,400 Speaker 1: a man now, like he he doesn't get his chance 301 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:06,160 Speaker 1: to murder anybody, but he's got twenty one dollars in 302 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:08,960 Speaker 1: his pocket. He's like seventeen years old. That's as much 303 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:12,600 Speaker 1: of an adulthood as you, um, you get at that 304 00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:15,800 Speaker 1: that period in time and his high school graduation and 305 00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:18,560 Speaker 1: in New Orleans. That's a good place to be seventeen 306 00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:21,480 Speaker 1: with the pocket full of money. That is a good 307 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:23,800 Speaker 1: place to be then and now, well no, not now 308 00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:29,640 Speaker 1: because of the coronavirus, but then yeah, yeah. Uh so 309 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:32,640 Speaker 1: Jim was frustrated at the fact that his war experience 310 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:35,520 Speaker 1: hadn't ended with him getting to shoot anybody. Um, but 311 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:38,520 Speaker 1: he also, you know, it was exciting still. You know, 312 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:40,480 Speaker 1: he got to do some patrols and stuff as part 313 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:42,720 Speaker 1: of the militia. He got to get wasted in New 314 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:46,040 Speaker 1: Orleans and his taste of being out in the world 315 00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:49,400 Speaker 1: made it impossible for him to return home. Um so 316 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:51,680 Speaker 1: he took to the same basic tactic as the men 317 00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:53,840 Speaker 1: his father had murdered a couple of years back, and 318 00:16:53,920 --> 00:16:56,760 Speaker 1: started squatting on a patch of land above Bayou Booth 319 00:16:56,880 --> 00:17:00,760 Speaker 1: in Opalosis h James Bowie, Jim's older there, and I'm sorry. 320 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: The Booey names are all very complicated because there's multiple 321 00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:07,760 Speaker 1: James and multiple Resins and John's. It's very frustrated. We 322 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:10,439 Speaker 1: forgot what we name the other one. We named him 323 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:14,000 Speaker 1: the same one. The feeling you get from the Bowie 324 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:16,879 Speaker 1: brothers names is that they were expecting. The parents were 325 00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:19,600 Speaker 1: expecting most of them to die, and then they didn't 326 00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:21,760 Speaker 1: because the Bowies tended to be pretty tough, and so 327 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:23,359 Speaker 1: you wind up with a bunch of kids. We have 328 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:28,840 Speaker 1: the same fucking name name James. Yeah. We didn't expect 329 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:31,119 Speaker 1: as many of them would make it eight teen, as 330 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:34,520 Speaker 1: did I'm gonna make a boat. There's people over here, 331 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:40,399 Speaker 1: yeah yeah, so. Uh. James Bowie, another one of Jim's 332 00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:44,000 Speaker 1: another one of Jim Bowie's older brothers, would later describe 333 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:48,960 Speaker 1: eighteen year old Jim Bowie this way. Quote he was Yeah, sorry, 334 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:52,879 Speaker 1: John Bowie, Jim's older Ye, Jesus, I'm sorry. The booing 335 00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:55,879 Speaker 1: names are so fucking competent. How many siblings does he 336 00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:58,880 Speaker 1: have to? They all have weird he has Tim has Tim? 337 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:03,120 Speaker 1: Are they all? Jim just sucks? Jim? John Right, there's 338 00:18:03,119 --> 00:18:05,920 Speaker 1: a couple. There's a resident in there, Yeah, resident Jr. 339 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:09,760 Speaker 1: It's very frustrating. But Jim Bowie's older brother would later 340 00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:14,080 Speaker 1: describe Jim at eighteen this way quote. He was young, proud, poor, 341 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:17,280 Speaker 1: and ambitious, without any rich family connections or influential fringe 342 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:19,600 Speaker 1: to aid him in the battle of life. After reaching 343 00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:21,800 Speaker 1: the age of maturity. He was a stout, rather raw 344 00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:24,159 Speaker 1: boned man of six ft height, with a hundred and 345 00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:26,239 Speaker 1: eighty pounds, and about as well made as any man 346 00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:29,160 Speaker 1: I ever saw. His hair was light colored, not quite red. 347 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:31,320 Speaker 1: His eyes were gray, rather deep set in his head, 348 00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:34,560 Speaker 1: very keen and penetrating in their glance. His complexion was fair, 349 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:37,600 Speaker 1: his cheekbones rather high. Taken together, he was a manly, 350 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:40,080 Speaker 1: fine looking person, and by many of the fair ones 351 00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:43,119 Speaker 1: he was called handsome. The fair ones or women he 352 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:47,800 Speaker 1: was possessed of, and his brother a little bit Yeah, 353 00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:51,399 Speaker 1: you know, you get the idea that maybe some boowie 354 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:55,879 Speaker 1: brothers got up to some some things. They were in 355 00:18:56,040 --> 00:19:00,480 Speaker 1: French country. It wasn't weird good looking brother. I got 356 00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:03,960 Speaker 1: some sexy brothers, and I know from sexy brothers. He 357 00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:06,359 Speaker 1: was possessed of an open, frank disposition, with a rather 358 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:09,560 Speaker 1: good temper unless aroused by some insult, when the displays 359 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:12,359 Speaker 1: of his anger were terrible and frequently terminated in some 360 00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:15,359 Speaker 1: tragical scene. So he was a friendly guy unless he 361 00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:18,520 Speaker 1: got angry, in which case he got really violent. That 362 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:21,360 Speaker 1: he had a pretty fair temper unless he made him mad. 363 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:25,240 Speaker 1: That's what he just said. That's literally what he's saying. Oh, 364 00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:28,480 Speaker 1: I forgot. You just learned the alphabet I forgot. Yeah, 365 00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:31,879 Speaker 1: that's your only education. Uh. He was never known to 366 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:34,840 Speaker 1: abuse a conquered enemy, or to impose upon the weak 367 00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:37,960 Speaker 1: and defenseless. A man of very strong social feelings. He 368 00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:39,760 Speaker 1: loved his friends with all the ardor of youth, and 369 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:42,080 Speaker 1: hated his enemies and their friends with all the rancor 370 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:44,800 Speaker 1: of the Indian. He was social and playing with all men, 371 00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:46,920 Speaker 1: fond of music and the amusements of the day. It 372 00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:48,920 Speaker 1: would take a glass in a merry mood to drive 373 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:51,600 Speaker 1: dol caraway, but seldom allowed it to steal away his 374 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:54,720 Speaker 1: brains or transform him into a beast. This is what 375 00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:56,960 Speaker 1: his brother claims, and a lot of it's lies because 376 00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:00,800 Speaker 1: he was a famous drunk um. But yeah, that's that's 377 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 1: that's how his his older brother described him at eighteen UM. Now, 378 00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:09,919 Speaker 1: by any accounts, Jim Booie was a pretty good frontiersman. Um. 379 00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:13,120 Speaker 1: He squatted on land, chopped and sold cypress wood, which 380 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:15,040 Speaker 1: he saw down in the planks, and then floated down 381 00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:17,480 Speaker 1: by the river into town. He also hunted a great 382 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:20,520 Speaker 1: deal uh and his brother John wrote that he developed 383 00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:24,280 Speaker 1: a particularly painful way of hunting bears uh quote. In 384 00:20:24,359 --> 00:20:26,800 Speaker 1: the summer season, when the bears were constantly ravaging little 385 00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:29,360 Speaker 1: patches of green corn of the early settlers, he adopted 386 00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:32,200 Speaker 1: the following novel plan to entrap them. After finding a 387 00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:34,440 Speaker 1: place where they usually enter the field, he would find 388 00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:36,639 Speaker 1: like a stump, a tree stump that was kind of 389 00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:39,879 Speaker 1: hollow on the inside, and he'd filled the inside of 390 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:42,479 Speaker 1: the stump with spikes that were facing inward, and then 391 00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:44,960 Speaker 1: he'd pour honey into the stump, and so the bear 392 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,399 Speaker 1: would stick it snout in the stumps. The stump to 393 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:50,120 Speaker 1: get honey, and then as it pulled its head out, 394 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:53,000 Speaker 1: the spikes would gouge into its face, and so its 395 00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:56,520 Speaker 1: head would be trapped inside the log like with with 396 00:20:57,119 --> 00:21:00,480 Speaker 1: iron spikes gouged into its mouth. And then while the 397 00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:03,320 Speaker 1: bear was like in horrible agony trying to free itself 398 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:05,399 Speaker 1: and blinded because it's head stuck in a stump, he 399 00:21:05,440 --> 00:21:09,800 Speaker 1: would just shoot it in the head. I mean, I 400 00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:14,119 Speaker 1: feel like he went a step Barbara for that, but 401 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:17,360 Speaker 1: you know, it's different times, I guess. So, yeah, that's 402 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:19,520 Speaker 1: the kind of hunter Jim is. He's a he's a 403 00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:24,200 Speaker 1: a cunning man and good at surviving, but also clearly 404 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:28,600 Speaker 1: uh not against horrific cruelty. Um even like I mean, 405 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:30,959 Speaker 1: even amongst sort of the ways you hear about people trapping, 406 00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:35,879 Speaker 1: that's pretty rough. Uh yeah. So uh. He was very 407 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:40,040 Speaker 1: successful at living on the frontier um, and he made 408 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:42,440 Speaker 1: enough money that after two years living this way, he'd 409 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:44,640 Speaker 1: saved up three hundred dollars to use as a down 410 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:47,560 Speaker 1: payment on the land he'd been squatting on um and 411 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:49,680 Speaker 1: he had enough left over from that nest dagg after 412 00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:52,119 Speaker 1: he bought the land to buy some human beings, a 413 00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:55,160 Speaker 1: family of four that he purchased on credit from his father. 414 00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:58,000 Speaker 1: Over the next couple of years, Jim Bowie used their 415 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:01,639 Speaker 1: unpaid labor and very questionable credit math to work out 416 00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:04,280 Speaker 1: a series of loans and deferred payments for three more 417 00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:07,080 Speaker 1: parcels of land. Now, these were days in which no 418 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:10,119 Speaker 1: one had much hard currency, and most deals relied heavily 419 00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:12,600 Speaker 1: on the amount of personal trust the loanie was able 420 00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,680 Speaker 1: to gain from whoever issued the loan. Um it like. 421 00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:17,760 Speaker 1: It wasn't like today where you actually had to have 422 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:19,239 Speaker 1: the money one way or the other, you know, if 423 00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:21,320 Speaker 1: you got like a bank to front it to you like. 424 00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:23,680 Speaker 1: A lot of loans were based on like you're a 425 00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:28,520 Speaker 1: trustworthy guy um and And Jim Bowie was good initially 426 00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:31,280 Speaker 1: at least at convincing people that he was worth taking 427 00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:34,639 Speaker 1: a risk on. Before long, Using only the his own 428 00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:38,080 Speaker 1: elbow greased and the uncompensated labor of four enslaved people, 429 00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:40,480 Speaker 1: Jim was able to turn these four plots of land 430 00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:43,359 Speaker 1: into a productive and valuable piece of property. He would 431 00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:46,040 Speaker 1: eventually sell it for significantly more than he paid for it. 432 00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:48,840 Speaker 1: What Jim succeeded with was essentially the goal of the 433 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:52,680 Speaker 1: smartest pioneers. They were land speculators looking to turn labor 434 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:54,880 Speaker 1: into real estate value and eventually get to the point 435 00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:57,680 Speaker 1: where they could profit from investments without spending three years 436 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:01,160 Speaker 1: clearing timber. In the time when he wasn't working, Jim 437 00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:04,320 Speaker 1: Bowie was sociable, as Three Roads to the Alamo notes, 438 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:07,320 Speaker 1: Society was important to James Bowie. He loved company, and 439 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:10,160 Speaker 1: his open, frank manner and even temper attracted others to him. 440 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:12,600 Speaker 1: He was also ambitious, and he knew and he knew 441 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:14,600 Speaker 1: it to be in his interest to cultivate friendships with 442 00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:17,800 Speaker 1: what John Bowie called the better class of people. And 443 00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:20,760 Speaker 1: they're on rare occasion, when there were too many glasses 444 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:22,960 Speaker 1: in the merriment turned to harsh words, his other side 445 00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:25,800 Speaker 1: might emerge. He would not abide an insult. When enraged, 446 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:29,280 Speaker 1: James Bowie became entirely single minded in his determination to 447 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:32,280 Speaker 1: vent his anger on a foe. What observers took for 448 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:35,520 Speaker 1: fearlessness was as much an entire forgetfulness of his own 449 00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:37,880 Speaker 1: safety in the grips of his fury. He soon acquired 450 00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:40,280 Speaker 1: a reputation as a man to both respect and fear. 451 00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:44,440 Speaker 1: That's an elegent way to put that. Like, Once he 452 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:48,080 Speaker 1: got drunk and kissed him off. He would fight you 453 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:51,880 Speaker 1: till he couldn't fight you anymore. Yeah, it's this thing 454 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:55,600 Speaker 1: where like this is like this constant state of realization 455 00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:57,960 Speaker 1: as you like go over the stories of like frontier 456 00:23:58,119 --> 00:24:01,199 Speaker 1: legends and wild West heroes and off that, like, oh, 457 00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:04,720 Speaker 1: if these people were around in twenty you would call 458 00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:07,960 Speaker 1: them violent drunks who commit murder when they get wasted. 459 00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:11,840 Speaker 1: Like like in there, there's like he was a good 460 00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:14,520 Speaker 1: friend and a dangerous enemy, which just means that like 461 00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:17,399 Speaker 1: when he got drunk and he thought you had muttered 462 00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:21,080 Speaker 1: something about him, he would just start shooting, Like yeah, 463 00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:25,080 Speaker 1: and that person a good friend and a dangerous enemy. 464 00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:30,960 Speaker 1: That shouldn't be the same person. Yeah, Yeah, he shouldn't 465 00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:33,320 Speaker 1: be your good friend and then in the same day 466 00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:36,879 Speaker 1: also be your worst enemy. That's not that's not a 467 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:40,600 Speaker 1: good dude. Yeah, he got piste usually easily, especially when 468 00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:44,120 Speaker 1: drinking um, which is it was more of a romantic 469 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:46,720 Speaker 1: thing back then that I think we tend to consider it. 470 00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:51,119 Speaker 1: It's just it's fun. Yeah. We we didn't have terms 471 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:56,040 Speaker 1: like violent alcoholic back then. Instead, you were, uh, you 472 00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:59,959 Speaker 1: were just known as being rambunctious and a man to respect. 473 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:02,879 Speaker 1: Didn't fear like that's what you called the guy who 474 00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:05,520 Speaker 1: was really good with a gun and got drunken angry 475 00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:08,800 Speaker 1: too often. There's that guy that's gonna feel us. He's 476 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,480 Speaker 1: so funny. He's so funny. I really respect his ability 477 00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:15,320 Speaker 1: to murder people when he's wasted. I like that we 478 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:18,440 Speaker 1: don't know what he's gonna do. Ever, that's my favorite 479 00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:22,200 Speaker 1: part about him. I like how unpredictable he is with 480 00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:26,840 Speaker 1: that six gun he always carries. Yeah, and also how 481 00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,119 Speaker 1: how talented he is at using it. That part mixed 482 00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:35,280 Speaker 1: in with the unpredictable is awesome. It's so good. You 483 00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:39,040 Speaker 1: know what else, he's so good. I was gonna say, 484 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:43,359 Speaker 1: you know what, also is unpredictable with a handgun? Sure, 485 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:46,440 Speaker 1: let's go with that. The sponsors of this podcast. You 486 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,320 Speaker 1: can never predict what they'll do with their guns. That's 487 00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:53,840 Speaker 1: how we've had all of our sponsors, is their unpredictability 488 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:57,680 Speaker 1: with a firearm. We just throw one at them. See 489 00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:06,479 Speaker 1: what happened. You can never predict it. Here's product. Al Right, 490 00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:10,000 Speaker 1: we are back and we're talking about Jim Booie. So 491 00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:13,320 Speaker 1: back during his brief time in the militia, Jim had 492 00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:16,160 Speaker 1: been in near contact with a guy named Dr. James Long, 493 00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:18,159 Speaker 1: a surgeon who had served in the Battle of New 494 00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:21,159 Speaker 1: Orleans and was pretty well known by the excitable and 495 00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:25,000 Speaker 1: heavily armed men of Louisiana. In the summer of eighteen nineteen, 496 00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:29,560 Speaker 1: Long began making plans to invade Texas. Uh. Now, then, 497 00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:33,560 Speaker 1: as in today, Texas was a violent and lawless wasteland. 498 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:36,919 Speaker 1: Mexico was ostensibly in charge, but they weren't great at 499 00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:39,439 Speaker 1: being in charge, and the United States had only recently 500 00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:42,639 Speaker 1: yielded her claim over Texas in the Adams OWNUS Treaty. 501 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:46,320 Speaker 1: A lot of her being honest, Mexico was stealing in charges. Yeah, 502 00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:49,960 Speaker 1: large swaths of texts. Yeah, but they're not there again. 503 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:51,840 Speaker 1: They're still not good at it. No one's really ever 504 00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,440 Speaker 1: been good at being in charge of Texas, which is 505 00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:58,000 Speaker 1: part of Yeah, it's a lot of Texas is charm 506 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:00,440 Speaker 1: and a lot of what makes Texas is such a 507 00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,560 Speaker 1: bad place to be. Um. So you think one person 508 00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:06,760 Speaker 1: is gonna tell all these dickads what to do? Okay, No, No, 509 00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:09,359 Speaker 1: they don't even listen to each other. They're now you 510 00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:15,320 Speaker 1: gonna listen to you? Ye Oh that everyone voted? Okay, okay, yeah, Yeah, 511 00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:17,879 Speaker 1: it's just like people talk about Austin being the capital 512 00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:21,080 Speaker 1: of Texas. The capital of Texas has always been whatever 513 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:23,440 Speaker 1: the most men with guns in a given part of 514 00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:28,920 Speaker 1: Texas want the law to be. It's just how it works. Yeah, 515 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:33,680 Speaker 1: um so yeah, yeah. A lot of southern white dudes 516 00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,120 Speaker 1: weren't happy that the US had kind of backed off 517 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:39,600 Speaker 1: on attempting to take over Texas, and mainly this was 518 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:41,679 Speaker 1: because they wanted to take over a bunch of Texas 519 00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:44,240 Speaker 1: for themselves because other parts of the Southeast were kind 520 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:48,000 Speaker 1: of filling up. Um So, this doctor James Long, started 521 00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:50,480 Speaker 1: putting together a crude militia of what you would either 522 00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:54,080 Speaker 1: call freedom fighters or violent extremists, depending on you know 523 00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:57,720 Speaker 1: their complexion and your complexion and how you feel about 524 00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:01,040 Speaker 1: complexions in general. Uh, and are about seventy five of 525 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:03,640 Speaker 1: these guys, and their plan was to launch an expedition 526 00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,399 Speaker 1: through the territory and claim it for the United States. 527 00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:09,360 Speaker 1: They marched through Louisiana on their way over, and Jim 528 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:11,359 Speaker 1: Bowie could not resist the urge to get into a 529 00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:14,119 Speaker 1: series of gunfights and maybe also get rich, so he 530 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:18,320 Speaker 1: signed up along the way. But wait, white, we're going where? 531 00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:24,320 Speaker 1: Sure you need a violent guy. I'm a violent guy. 532 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:27,600 Speaker 1: I'm really bummed that I didn't get into more gunfights 533 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:29,440 Speaker 1: when the war happened. I would love a chance to 534 00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:32,560 Speaker 1: do that again. I never shot over that one before. 535 00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:37,000 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. So by the time Long reached Nakodoches, one 536 00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:39,000 Speaker 1: of every one of the three or four towns in 537 00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:42,800 Speaker 1: Texas that every Texan elementary student learns how to spell. Um, 538 00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:45,080 Speaker 1: it was late June, and Long and his men declared 539 00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:47,960 Speaker 1: a new government and started proclaiming laws. Now, it was 540 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:50,000 Speaker 1: a general rule when white folks with guns in the 541 00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:53,040 Speaker 1: middle of nowhere started announcing laws in this period of times, 542 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:56,400 Speaker 1: one of two things would happen. One would be a 543 00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:59,160 Speaker 1: violent ship show, and two would be the United States 544 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:02,600 Speaker 1: of America. Unfortunately, that had already happened, and so this 545 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:06,520 Speaker 1: turned into a violent ship show. Um yeah. So Long 546 00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:09,160 Speaker 1: knew that his three hundred men or so wouldn't be 547 00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:11,840 Speaker 1: much of a match for the entire Mexican army, so 548 00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:14,760 Speaker 1: he attempted to draw more filibusters down by offering them 549 00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:16,920 Speaker 1: land at a dollar an acre, which was a pretty 550 00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,880 Speaker 1: good price. Uh. And so for a couple of months 551 00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:22,320 Speaker 1: he succeeded in drawing in a few hundred guys who 552 00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:26,560 Speaker 1: wanted very cheap land. Um And Jim Bowie was immediately 553 00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:29,760 Speaker 1: one of the most popular of these filibusters, mainly because 554 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:32,400 Speaker 1: he was really good at getting into gunfights, which happened 555 00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:36,280 Speaker 1: pretty regularly during this period of time. Um And and 556 00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:39,720 Speaker 1: the various fights that Jim got into around now would 557 00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:42,480 Speaker 1: have been his first taste of Mortal Kombat. But it 558 00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:45,440 Speaker 1: was pretty obvious that Long was outmanned and outclassed by 559 00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:48,640 Speaker 1: the Spanish authorities, and by October of night of eighteen nineteen, 560 00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:51,680 Speaker 1: they'd driven him and his men out of Nakodoches. Within 561 00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:53,880 Speaker 1: a month or so, the expedition was a shambles, and 562 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:57,160 Speaker 1: Jim Bowie fled back to Louisiana because he didn't really 563 00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:58,760 Speaker 1: want to get his ass kicked. So we got into 564 00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:01,000 Speaker 1: a couple of gunfights. He gets to have an adventure, 565 00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:02,880 Speaker 1: but it doesn't really work out in the long run. 566 00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:05,640 Speaker 1: I got fled out of magadish this one time. Yeah, 567 00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:08,680 Speaker 1: it's a write of passage for every Texas Texans. So 568 00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:12,600 Speaker 1: Jim Bowie was a trailblazer in that hammered and they're like, 569 00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:16,200 Speaker 1: you need to leave down. I was like that, now 570 00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:18,320 Speaker 1: this would not be the last time that James Bowie 571 00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:22,160 Speaker 1: would try and fail to conquer Texas um. And thankfully 572 00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:24,880 Speaker 1: there were no consequences at this point for invading another 573 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:27,520 Speaker 1: nation's sovereign territory and trying to take over a part 574 00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:29,960 Speaker 1: of it. Like he and and the other Filibusters just 575 00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:32,320 Speaker 1: kind of went back to Louisiana and everything was fine 576 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:37,320 Speaker 1: like that. I mean, it's it's kind of like the Bundy's. Yeah, yeah, 577 00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:40,280 Speaker 1: it is a little bit like that, yeah, with with 578 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:44,360 Speaker 1: more gunfire than I heard, Yeah, with the Bundy's. So 579 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:46,880 Speaker 1: or Jim would return home and kind of got together 580 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,360 Speaker 1: with his brothers, John and Resin, and they all kind 581 00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:51,920 Speaker 1: of agreed that, uh, they were ready to make a whole, 582 00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:55,080 Speaker 1: big fucking pile of money. Um. And in those days, 583 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:57,560 Speaker 1: as now, the best way to make a whole, big 584 00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:02,080 Speaker 1: fucking pile of money was to sell illegal and desirable products. UM. Now, 585 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:06,080 Speaker 1: today that means cocaine. In nearly eighteen hundreds, it meant 586 00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,800 Speaker 1: enslaved human beings. Slavery was obviously a big business and 587 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:12,000 Speaker 1: a big part of the economy of the South, but 588 00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:15,480 Speaker 1: by eighteen nineteen, most American slaves had been born in 589 00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:18,200 Speaker 1: or around the United States. Because The federal government had 590 00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:21,600 Speaker 1: banned Americans from buying African slaves about a decade earlier, 591 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,280 Speaker 1: in eighteen o eight. Now, some of this had been 592 00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:27,520 Speaker 1: due to moral pressure to in the Atlantic slave trade. Um, 593 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,560 Speaker 1: but it only happened because America's political leaders assumed that 594 00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:34,440 Speaker 1: existing slaves would breed enough to you know, settled demand. 595 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:37,440 Speaker 1: But the massive growth of the plantation system in the 596 00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:40,320 Speaker 1: South in this period surprised people, and before long the 597 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:43,520 Speaker 1: demand for slaves in the Old South far outstripped the supply. 598 00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:50,440 Speaker 1: This was obviously christ what that surprises, you know, But 599 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:54,880 Speaker 1: just to hear it, yeah, I mean, there's no way 600 00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:57,880 Speaker 1: it's weird, because like these are these are human beings 601 00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:00,200 Speaker 1: and we should always talk about this as the hime 602 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:02,080 Speaker 1: that it was. But also I think if you talk 603 00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:05,920 Speaker 1: about it, I think it actually it actually gets across 604 00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:08,200 Speaker 1: how horrible it was when we do use terms like 605 00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:10,880 Speaker 1: supply and demand and product, because that's how these people 606 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,680 Speaker 1: viewed them. Um. Jim Booie was looking at like the 607 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:18,360 Speaker 1: fact that, oh, you know, slaves aren't having enough babies 608 00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:21,280 Speaker 1: to meet for the demands, so someone needs to bring 609 00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:24,520 Speaker 1: in more people to enslave. Um. He was looking at 610 00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:26,360 Speaker 1: it the same way that like today we're like, oh, 611 00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:29,320 Speaker 1: there's not enough toilet paper. We need to manufacture more 612 00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:31,479 Speaker 1: toilet paper. That's how they thought about human beings who 613 00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:33,400 Speaker 1: were enslaved at this point in time. And that's the 614 00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:36,000 Speaker 1: more he thought about it, like, hey, there's not enough 615 00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:44,080 Speaker 1: prisoners in my prison too for the stockholders to make money. Yeah. Yeah, 616 00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:46,400 Speaker 1: he would have owned a private prison or at least 617 00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:48,680 Speaker 1: invested in one if he lived in the modern day, 618 00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:52,120 Speaker 1: but he didn't, and so he got up to what 619 00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:57,880 Speaker 1: I can only call like a slave trading con um. So, yeah, 620 00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:00,560 Speaker 1: this is a complicated business. So I I I have 621 00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:04,120 Speaker 1: to explain some peculiar and some peculiarities of Louisiana law. First, so, 622 00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:08,400 Speaker 1: slaves smuggling was a big business um and because the 623 00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:12,360 Speaker 1: state was fundamentally racist, it had no desire to Like, 624 00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:15,960 Speaker 1: the state didn't want people smuggling slaves, right, it had to. 625 00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:17,840 Speaker 1: It had to try to stop that. It had to erase, 626 00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:21,080 Speaker 1: arrest slave smugglers, and it had to confiscate the smuggled slaves. 627 00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:24,680 Speaker 1: But those smuggled slaves were still property. So when illicit 628 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:28,200 Speaker 1: slave traders were caught bringing African slaves illegally into the 629 00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:31,560 Speaker 1: United States. Those slaves were not freed, and they sure 630 00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:34,840 Speaker 1: as ship weren't returned home. Instead, they were auctioned off 631 00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:39,680 Speaker 1: by the government for profit. This meant captured smuggled slaves 632 00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:42,320 Speaker 1: were super profitable for the government because if they you 633 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:44,480 Speaker 1: captured a bunch of slaves, you just made a shipload 634 00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:46,960 Speaker 1: of money as the government. So the government had a 635 00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:51,760 Speaker 1: real interest and actually people telling them where contraband enslaved 636 00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,440 Speaker 1: human beings were, so they would pay a bounty on 637 00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:58,360 Speaker 1: people who could turn in contract like who could point out, like, hey, 638 00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:02,600 Speaker 1: there's a bunch of contraband slaves here. Such helpful citizens 639 00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:05,320 Speaker 1: received a percentage of the sale price of the slaves 640 00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:07,800 Speaker 1: as a reward. Are you seeing how this could be 641 00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:13,640 Speaker 1: the system could be gamed yet? I yeah? Yeah, So 642 00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:16,040 Speaker 1: all this brings me to the story of Jean Lafitte, 643 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:18,960 Speaker 1: a French pirate who spent half of his year robbing 644 00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:21,279 Speaker 1: and raping and stealing whole ships full of booty on 645 00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:23,839 Speaker 1: the Spanish main and half of his year hanging out 646 00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:27,759 Speaker 1: in a fortified compound called Snake Island near Galveston, which 647 00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:31,319 Speaker 1: is objectively cool. It is cool to be a pirate with. Yeah, 648 00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:33,480 Speaker 1: there's like a couple of things that you shouldn't have done, 649 00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:36,600 Speaker 1: but everything else sounds awesome. Yeah, Snake pirate with living 650 00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:38,960 Speaker 1: on Snake Island, that's cool as hell. Like, I mean, 651 00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:41,800 Speaker 1: it's awful that he's trading and enslaved human beings, but 652 00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:46,719 Speaker 1: Snake Island, you know, yeah, yeah, so uh yeah. He 653 00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:50,000 Speaker 1: would sell stolen goods from his base in Snake Island, 654 00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:53,160 Speaker 1: and throughout eighteen eighteen eighteen nineteen, Lafitte and his pirates 655 00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:57,200 Speaker 1: were particularly successful in stealing shiploads of enslaved people bound 656 00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:00,839 Speaker 1: for South America, and Lafitte's barracks on Snake Island soon 657 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:06,120 Speaker 1: held more than six hundred of these people. Now, can 658 00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:09,000 Speaker 1: I just make a terrible just like one of his 659 00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:12,320 Speaker 1: other projects, like scratching his head on the I like 660 00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,160 Speaker 1: this place used to be a lot more fun. Um 661 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:19,960 Speaker 1: it sounds like all he cares about his money. Now, 662 00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:22,920 Speaker 1: this is yeah, not what I had in mind when 663 00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:25,320 Speaker 1: I signed up. It used to just be about the 664 00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:32,480 Speaker 1: pillaging exactly. So. Around this same time, Jim Bowie had 665 00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:35,239 Speaker 1: developed a bit of a reputation in this area um 666 00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:40,359 Speaker 1: as a a rough customer and and an exciting guy. 667 00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,200 Speaker 1: He was a land speculator, but He also made cash 668 00:35:43,239 --> 00:35:45,560 Speaker 1: as a roper and a tamer of wild horses and 669 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:53,600 Speaker 1: as an alligator writer, which what do you Understandly everyone 670 00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:59,040 Speaker 1: around this time was a rough character, so everyone else 671 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:04,600 Speaker 1: to be like that guy's fucking. The average person in 672 00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:08,040 Speaker 1: like the southeast Southwest in this period of time who 673 00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:11,400 Speaker 1: could make it to twenty would have just wiped the 674 00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:14,320 Speaker 1: floor with any given m M A fighter today, largely 675 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:18,480 Speaker 1: because they would have immediately pulled a knife. Yeah, well, 676 00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:21,800 Speaker 1: he said, I thought this is a fight. I just 677 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:24,919 Speaker 1: stabbed him. That's how we fight. He did. He didn't 678 00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:28,279 Speaker 1: stab me back. I don't understand it. He was dumb. 679 00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:32,759 Speaker 1: So Jim Billie was like really popular among like the 680 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:35,880 Speaker 1: whole area around Snake Island because he was just this 681 00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:40,200 Speaker 1: this tough dude who would write alligators and ship who 682 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:42,400 Speaker 1: tried to evade Texas. He was a cool seen as 683 00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:45,200 Speaker 1: kind of a cool guy. So James, you know, his 684 00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:50,080 Speaker 1: popularity eventually brings him into conversation with Jean Lafitte, and 685 00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:53,640 Speaker 1: the two became instant friends because they were both dangerous sociopaths, 686 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:56,720 Speaker 1: And eventually the pirate let Jim in on a little secret. 687 00:36:56,920 --> 00:36:58,759 Speaker 1: He had a shipload of slaves but a lot of 688 00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:01,359 Speaker 1: them were sick um and so he just couldn't sell 689 00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:04,040 Speaker 1: them um. And he wasn't allowed to legally sell any 690 00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:06,160 Speaker 1: of them in the United States because they were all 691 00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:09,680 Speaker 1: from Africa. Now, at this point in time, a healthy 692 00:37:09,719 --> 00:37:11,759 Speaker 1: slave went for about a dollar a pound, which is 693 00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:14,239 Speaker 1: how Jean Lafitte sold human beings. But again the sick 694 00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:17,279 Speaker 1: ones were unsellable. So Booie came to visit the fit 695 00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:19,520 Speaker 1: on Snake Island and took a look at his inventory, 696 00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:21,920 Speaker 1: and he returned from the trip, got together with these brothers, 697 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:26,680 Speaker 1: and together they launched a plan. So gen bow John Bowie, 698 00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:28,680 Speaker 1: who was part of this plan, would later write, quote, 699 00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:32,080 Speaker 1: we first purchased forty negroes from Lafitte at the rate 700 00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:33,800 Speaker 1: of one dollar per pound, or an average of a 701 00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:36,400 Speaker 1: hundred and forty dollars for each negro. We bought them 702 00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:38,480 Speaker 1: into the limits of the United States, delivered them to 703 00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:41,759 Speaker 1: a custom house officer, and became the informers ourselves. The 704 00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:44,320 Speaker 1: law gave the informer half the value of the negroes 705 00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:46,640 Speaker 1: which were put up and sold by the United States Marshal, 706 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:49,200 Speaker 1: and we became the purchasers of the negroes, took half 707 00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:52,440 Speaker 1: as our award for informing and obtained the marshal sale 708 00:37:52,520 --> 00:37:54,600 Speaker 1: for forty negroes, which entitled us to sell them within 709 00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:57,520 Speaker 1: the United States. We continued to follow this business until 710 00:37:57,560 --> 00:38:00,600 Speaker 1: we made sixty five thousand dollars. So you see what 711 00:38:00,640 --> 00:38:03,920 Speaker 1: the scam is here, Billy. They're buying slaves that are 712 00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:06,839 Speaker 1: illegal to bring into the United States um from their 713 00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:10,440 Speaker 1: pirate fringe, John Lafitte. And then they turned the slaves 714 00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:14,520 Speaker 1: into the government and say we caught these illegal slaves 715 00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:17,719 Speaker 1: being smuggled in and the reward the government gave them 716 00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:20,719 Speaker 1: was half the value of the slaves. And then the 717 00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:23,359 Speaker 1: government would auction off the slaves and they would buy 718 00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:27,040 Speaker 1: the slaves at auction and basically get subsidized for the 719 00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:29,480 Speaker 1: price of the slaves because they'd get, you know, half 720 00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,520 Speaker 1: of the value of them um as a reward. And 721 00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:35,279 Speaker 1: then once they bought the slaves at auction, they would 722 00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:37,839 Speaker 1: be legal slaves in the United States and they could 723 00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:40,239 Speaker 1: go on and sell them to other people. And it 724 00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:43,600 Speaker 1: also worked because Lafitte a lot of his slaves were 725 00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:46,680 Speaker 1: elderly and old and sick um and so nobody was 726 00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:48,959 Speaker 1: going to buy them from the pirate, but they would 727 00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:51,200 Speaker 1: buy the slaves, turn them into the United States and 728 00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:54,080 Speaker 1: get half of the value because they were valued by weight. 729 00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:57,040 Speaker 1: They'd still get money for these slaves that were actually 730 00:38:57,200 --> 00:38:59,799 Speaker 1: valueless slaves, and then the government would just be stuck 731 00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:03,080 Speaker 1: with them. So like, yeah, it was that. This was 732 00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:06,600 Speaker 1: like the slavery con that that Jim Bowie made his 733 00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:13,560 Speaker 1: fortune in. Wow. Yeah, it's it's like Robin drug dealers, 734 00:39:13,719 --> 00:39:19,640 Speaker 1: but worse because there's not because you're still a terrible person. Yeah, 735 00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:22,200 Speaker 1: it's it's I don't even really have a word for it, 736 00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:24,640 Speaker 1: but like, slavery is one of the worst things a 737 00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:27,520 Speaker 1: human being can do, but in this time, it was illegal, 738 00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:29,279 Speaker 1: and so they found out found a way to take 739 00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,839 Speaker 1: this horrible legal thing and also break the law while 740 00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:37,800 Speaker 1: doing it. Like it's yeah, we're doing slavery, but shady. 741 00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:42,239 Speaker 1: Yeah what is that? How did you do that? It's 742 00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:48,320 Speaker 1: a gift? Now, Billy? You know who won't illegally commit 743 00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:52,560 Speaker 1: tax fraud by sneakily importing slaves in and then turning 744 00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:54,680 Speaker 1: them into the customs officers in in order to take 745 00:39:54,719 --> 00:39:56,799 Speaker 1: advantage in a loophole in the law. You know who 746 00:39:56,800 --> 00:39:59,680 Speaker 1: won't do that? Billy? I don't want to guess the 747 00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:08,719 Speaker 1: ducks and services that support this podcast. So we're back. Um. So, 748 00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:11,960 Speaker 1: the Bowie Boys spent months engaging in this business of 749 00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:14,600 Speaker 1: buying slaves from a pirate, taking them into the United States, 750 00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:16,600 Speaker 1: smuggling them in, and then turning them into the government. 751 00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:20,600 Speaker 1: And true to form, Jim Bowie had the most personally 752 00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:23,319 Speaker 1: violent task of the whole enterprise. And I'm gonna quote 753 00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:26,240 Speaker 1: now from William C. Davis's book Three Roads to the Alamo. 754 00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:29,760 Speaker 1: Quote James himself did the most dangerous work of conveying 755 00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:32,400 Speaker 1: the contrabands through the swamps and bayous, bringing them in 756 00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:34,839 Speaker 1: lots of forty at a time as many as one 757 00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:37,319 Speaker 1: or two men could handle. Although the blacks were chained, 758 00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:40,359 Speaker 1: Bowie found little need for fetters. The frightened Africans knew 759 00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:42,440 Speaker 1: nothing of the country and had nowhere to go. While 760 00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:45,080 Speaker 1: they were told enough of alligators, snakes, and hostile natives 761 00:40:45,120 --> 00:40:47,600 Speaker 1: to know to know that safety, if not happiness, lay 762 00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:50,080 Speaker 1: with the Bowie's. On one trip, a few slaves may 763 00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:52,320 Speaker 1: have escaped, not to be found again. But for the 764 00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:54,680 Speaker 1: rest James Bowie felt secure that they would not run. 765 00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:56,839 Speaker 1: He even told the feet on one of his visits 766 00:40:56,880 --> 00:40:59,520 Speaker 1: to Campeache that he rarely lost a slave because he 767 00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:02,000 Speaker 1: was our and he knew they feared him, and stilling 768 00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:04,960 Speaker 1: fear in others was something James Bowie did with ease. 769 00:41:06,680 --> 00:41:11,080 Speaker 1: It sounds like, not with ease, like with pride. He's right, yeah, yeah, 770 00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:15,040 Speaker 1: He's like, no, I have this gift, then I'll kill you. Yeah. 771 00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:18,160 Speaker 1: I'm really good at scaring chained up people with a 772 00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:22,160 Speaker 1: gun as I lead them through unfamiliar territory because they 773 00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:24,360 Speaker 1: look at me and without question, they know that I 774 00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:27,200 Speaker 1: will murder that. Yeah. I don't give a ship. It 775 00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:31,640 Speaker 1: means nothing to me. It's like, yeah, people, people tell 776 00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:34,440 Speaker 1: me it's a gift, but I issues who I am now. 777 00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:37,120 Speaker 1: James was very much taken with the slave smuggling business. 778 00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:39,200 Speaker 1: He saw it as an easy way to make outsized 779 00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:42,480 Speaker 1: profits while committing what he considered to be a victimless crime. 780 00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:45,719 Speaker 1: The state made money, the pirate made money, and he 781 00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:51,640 Speaker 1: made money. No one got harmed, not one human being 782 00:41:51,719 --> 00:41:55,840 Speaker 1: got harm. Yeah. Yeah. Now, one thing Jim Bowie was 783 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:58,960 Speaker 1: capable of doing was nursing a deep and abiding love 784 00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:02,680 Speaker 1: for knives. Obviously, Bowie is most famous for the enormous 785 00:42:02,719 --> 00:42:05,080 Speaker 1: blade that bears his name, which we'll be talking about 786 00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:11,440 Speaker 1: in detail here. Yep, the old gym knife. Yep, you 787 00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:13,399 Speaker 1: know the old saying, you got a gym on your hip, 788 00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:19,160 Speaker 1: never go hiking without a gym. Yeah. So, and I 789 00:42:19,239 --> 00:42:21,440 Speaker 1: have to confess here that my bowie knives are my 790 00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:24,959 Speaker 1: favorite kind of knife. I love. There's nothing like having 791 00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:27,520 Speaker 1: like a fucking pound and a half knife on your 792 00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:30,720 Speaker 1: hip and just really fucking up a piece of wood 793 00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:34,000 Speaker 1: or a severed skull of a cow. Whatever you gotta 794 00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:35,920 Speaker 1: funk up with a knife when you're hiking around in 795 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:37,840 Speaker 1: the middle of nowhere. A bowie knife can do it. 796 00:42:38,120 --> 00:42:41,160 Speaker 1: And and I feel it's a shame that these solid 797 00:42:41,239 --> 00:42:43,840 Speaker 1: knives have gotten tarnished by the name of this slave 798 00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:46,479 Speaker 1: owning monster. And this is the story of why. Because 799 00:42:46,520 --> 00:42:49,080 Speaker 1: he did not invent the knife. Yeah, but I feel 800 00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:53,799 Speaker 1: like he probably did it justice he did. He did, 801 00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:56,279 Speaker 1: And we're going to talk about why his knife got 802 00:42:56,360 --> 00:42:59,880 Speaker 1: famous here. So the knife was initially the knife that 803 00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:02,439 Speaker 1: he got famous for was initially a gift from his brother. 804 00:43:02,760 --> 00:43:05,000 Speaker 1: Probably you'll hear a couple of different stories about how 805 00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:07,719 Speaker 1: he got his the first bowie knife from a couple 806 00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:09,920 Speaker 1: of different people, and it's not really important to get 807 00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:12,719 Speaker 1: into each of the different stories and detail. Um, but 808 00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:15,600 Speaker 1: the the details we can synthesize that they kind of 809 00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:18,840 Speaker 1: all have in common. Boiled down to Jim Bowie received 810 00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:21,719 Speaker 1: a really fucking big knife, either as a gift or 811 00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,920 Speaker 1: as a purchased he like commissioned himself from a blacksmith, 812 00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:27,920 Speaker 1: and it was made by a local Louisiana blacksmith to 813 00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:31,320 Speaker 1: be significantly larger and heavier than most hunting knives of 814 00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:34,600 Speaker 1: the arrow were. So he just gets an unusually large knife. 815 00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:36,839 Speaker 1: Either his brother hasn't made for him, or he pays 816 00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:38,440 Speaker 1: a guy to make it, but he winds up with 817 00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:45,000 Speaker 1: his huge funk off knife. Um. Now it is a 818 00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:49,640 Speaker 1: hobbit sword. Yeah. And his brother John would later claim 819 00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:51,879 Speaker 1: that he bought the knife for Jim. And and John 820 00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:55,120 Speaker 1: had significant financial motivation to making this claim because the 821 00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:57,440 Speaker 1: Bowie family got rich off of the fact that their 822 00:43:57,520 --> 00:44:00,359 Speaker 1: name was attached to a famous kind of knife. Um. 823 00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:02,440 Speaker 1: And John also had a vested interest in making it 824 00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:05,160 Speaker 1: seem as if his brother was like a knife wielding prodigy, 825 00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:08,120 Speaker 1: like an artist with a blade. Um, and the reality 826 00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:11,880 Speaker 1: is very different from that. Um Now. J Frank Adbe 827 00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:14,200 Speaker 1: a historian who studied Bowie and produced a pretty fair 828 00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:18,000 Speaker 1: biography of him in nineteen fifty seven noted big Jim 829 00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:20,840 Speaker 1: Bowie and conveying smuggled slaves, armed himself with three or 830 00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:23,399 Speaker 1: four knives that he could transfix any captive who tried 831 00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:25,640 Speaker 1: to break away. Jerking a knife out was easier than 832 00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:28,279 Speaker 1: reloading a horse pistol at the muzzle. Both Jim and 833 00:44:28,320 --> 00:44:30,360 Speaker 1: Resident could keep several knives moving in the air at 834 00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:32,640 Speaker 1: the same time without allowing one to touch the ground. 835 00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:35,239 Speaker 1: At twenty paces. Either could send a knife clean through 836 00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:39,920 Speaker 1: a small wooden target. So that's probably untrue, but these 837 00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:41,879 Speaker 1: are the kind of stories people started to tell about 838 00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:43,959 Speaker 1: Jim Bowie that he was like, yeah, like a master 839 00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:47,000 Speaker 1: of the blade. And the reason that he got this 840 00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:50,239 Speaker 1: reputation for being an artist with a knife is because 841 00:44:50,280 --> 00:44:54,879 Speaker 1: of something that happened in eighteen seven, the infamous Sandbar fight. 842 00:44:55,880 --> 00:45:02,400 Speaker 1: So it's amazing to me because a lot of people 843 00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:05,240 Speaker 1: get stabbed to death and fights even today, and nobody 844 00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:07,439 Speaker 1: cares about those fights, and they're kind of written down 845 00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:10,840 Speaker 1: as like the result of thugs and criminals, um just 846 00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:14,239 Speaker 1: having access to knives. Uh, But when a bunch of 847 00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:17,400 Speaker 1: white dudes stab each other to death, this is what happens. 848 00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:21,600 Speaker 1: Um well, on a sandbar. Yeah, on a sandbar. So 849 00:45:21,719 --> 00:45:24,080 Speaker 1: it's good to know that people have always been doing 850 00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:28,520 Speaker 1: nonsense on sandbars in the Gulf of Mexico. Yeah. Yeah, 851 00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:33,759 Speaker 1: and this sandbar, we'll talk about the sandbar. So Jim 852 00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:36,080 Speaker 1: spent most of the eighteen twenties engaging in a series 853 00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:39,880 Speaker 1: of land cons in Arkansas. Um And basically he had 854 00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:42,759 Speaker 1: committed dozens of acts of fraud and basically sold people 855 00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:49,040 Speaker 1: land and to this day in Arkansas business business. Yeah, 856 00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:51,879 Speaker 1: he would sell people land that he didn't have any 857 00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:54,000 Speaker 1: right to and then take their money and funk off. 858 00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:59,360 Speaker 1: This is not too mad at that he did that 859 00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:01,480 Speaker 1: for decade. It's like, is a general rule if you're 860 00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:03,640 Speaker 1: wondering what Jim Bowie was doing during a period of 861 00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:05,240 Speaker 1: his life where we don't have a lot of detail, 862 00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:08,640 Speaker 1: he was scamming people into buying land he didn't known. Um. 863 00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:11,200 Speaker 1: So he did this a bunch of Arkansas and it 864 00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:13,759 Speaker 1: piste off a lot of people. Um And he also 865 00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:15,319 Speaker 1: like the only way he was able to get away 866 00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:17,440 Speaker 1: with it is that he relied heavily on banks to 867 00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:21,160 Speaker 1: lend him the credit to do land speculation. UM. And 868 00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:23,400 Speaker 1: at one point in the late eighteen twenties, he was 869 00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:25,880 Speaker 1: infuriated to find that the sheriff of a nearby parish 870 00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:28,320 Speaker 1: had basically put in a bad word against him and 871 00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:30,239 Speaker 1: stopped the bank from giving him a loan that he 872 00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:33,919 Speaker 1: needed to continue his cons um So he got into 873 00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:36,439 Speaker 1: an argument with the person who'd put with that sheriff, 874 00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:38,480 Speaker 1: and they got into a fight on the street, and 875 00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:41,719 Speaker 1: the sheriff, a guy named Norris Wright, shot at Jim 876 00:46:41,800 --> 00:46:44,200 Speaker 1: Bowie and only failed to kill him because the bullet 877 00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:47,680 Speaker 1: hit a silver dollar in Bowie's pocket. Jim fired back, 878 00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:50,920 Speaker 1: but his pistol misfired, and so he charged Norris Right 879 00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:52,800 Speaker 1: to try to beat him to death with his bare hands, 880 00:46:53,040 --> 00:46:55,759 Speaker 1: but his friends intervened and stopped the whole thing from 881 00:46:55,880 --> 00:46:59,120 Speaker 1: ending in murder, and that really pissed Jim off, and 882 00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:01,800 Speaker 1: he prom after that point that he would never be 883 00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:04,360 Speaker 1: caught without an enormous knife on his body, so that 884 00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:06,759 Speaker 1: if that happened again and his gun misfired, he could 885 00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:08,640 Speaker 1: just stab a guide to death, and maybe stab his 886 00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:10,560 Speaker 1: friends to death for trying to stop him from stabbing 887 00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:15,839 Speaker 1: a guided death, because those aren't his friends anymore. Yeah, yeah, 888 00:47:16,080 --> 00:47:20,200 Speaker 1: so yeah, it did not take long for Jim Bowie 889 00:47:20,239 --> 00:47:22,480 Speaker 1: to find an occasion to use his giant funk Off 890 00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:26,160 Speaker 1: knife to stab a man. So the sand Bar Fight 891 00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:29,560 Speaker 1: is really romanticized in Texas history, although it didn't happen 892 00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:31,680 Speaker 1: in Texas, but it involves Jim Bowie, and so we 893 00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:33,800 Speaker 1: all learned about it. And the short of it is 894 00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:36,280 Speaker 1: that Bowie wound up on one side of a formal 895 00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:39,200 Speaker 1: duel which was held on a sand bar between Louisiana 896 00:47:39,239 --> 00:47:42,920 Speaker 1: and Mississippi. Dueling was actually illegal in both states, and 897 00:47:43,040 --> 00:47:45,360 Speaker 1: because the sand bar wasn't really in either state, was 898 00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:47,319 Speaker 1: a popular place for men to get together with their 899 00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:50,160 Speaker 1: friends and try to murder other men. And they later 900 00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:56,920 Speaker 1: used that same bluephole for gambling. Yes, yeah, it's the 901 00:47:56,960 --> 00:48:01,360 Speaker 1: same basic idea. Now, one of the fun things about 902 00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:03,360 Speaker 1: the Sandbar Duel is that no one really has a 903 00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:06,319 Speaker 1: good explanation as to why it started. There were two 904 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:10,640 Speaker 1: different camps um one camp was focused around two brothers 905 00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:14,440 Speaker 1: named Wells and their friends, including Jim Bowie and the others. 906 00:48:14,560 --> 00:48:16,480 Speaker 1: On the other side was a guy named Robert Crane, 907 00:48:16,560 --> 00:48:20,680 Speaker 1: a doctor named Thomas Maddox, and Bowie's old enemy Norris. Right. Now, 908 00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:22,680 Speaker 1: all of these people had beef with each other for 909 00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:25,560 Speaker 1: a bunch of reasons, ranging from business disputes to allegations 910 00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:28,640 Speaker 1: of voter fraud, and mainly they just didn't like each other. 911 00:48:29,080 --> 00:48:31,799 Speaker 1: William C. Davis writes that quote, chances were that by 912 00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:34,200 Speaker 1: late summer of eighteen seven, none of them knew the 913 00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:37,200 Speaker 1: true origins of their feud. So it's just a bunch 914 00:48:37,200 --> 00:48:39,120 Speaker 1: of men who hate each other. And they agree to 915 00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:41,239 Speaker 1: meet up at the sandbar. Will it's okay to try 916 00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:44,000 Speaker 1: to murder each other, to try to murder each other. Um, 917 00:48:44,840 --> 00:48:47,399 Speaker 1: So they meet up there in the summer of eighteen seven. 918 00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:51,759 Speaker 1: Against any of this at this point, No, No, it 919 00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:54,759 Speaker 1: sounds like everyone's willing to meet at the sandbar. So, well, 920 00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:56,520 Speaker 1: I'm gonna be on the bank and I'm gonna watch. 921 00:48:57,040 --> 00:48:59,879 Speaker 1: This is the only victimless crime that we've run into. 922 00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:05,040 Speaker 1: So again, two gives a ship and these are all 923 00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:08,440 Speaker 1: probably monsters, like these are all slave owners, all pieces. 924 00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:11,319 Speaker 1: I don't care. Yeah, So all these guys meet up 925 00:49:11,320 --> 00:49:13,600 Speaker 1: at the sandbar and they exchange insults, and they waved 926 00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:16,720 Speaker 1: guns at each other in the nearby city of Alexandria 927 00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:19,000 Speaker 1: first and like, so they all meet in the city 928 00:49:19,120 --> 00:49:21,000 Speaker 1: near the sand bar first, and they like wave guns 929 00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:22,200 Speaker 1: and yell at each other, and it's kind of like 930 00:49:22,239 --> 00:49:25,239 Speaker 1: a pro wrestling thing, right, Like they all they all 931 00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:27,920 Speaker 1: get everyone around them fired up. And so the citizens 932 00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:30,239 Speaker 1: in Alexandria like realized, oh, there's a feud got to 933 00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:33,239 Speaker 1: be happening. And so like when these guys meet up 934 00:49:33,239 --> 00:49:36,759 Speaker 1: at the sands, yeah, that's exactly what this is. This 935 00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:39,319 Speaker 1: is a fucking w w E match. And so when 936 00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:41,479 Speaker 1: they meet up at the sandbar, like hundreds of people 937 00:49:41,560 --> 00:49:45,520 Speaker 1: surround the sandbar to watch this like fight start. It 938 00:49:45,719 --> 00:49:48,960 Speaker 1: was very very silly. Um is kind of the the 939 00:49:49,080 --> 00:49:53,040 Speaker 1: in summary of what happens. So eventually, on July, like 940 00:49:53,200 --> 00:49:56,480 Speaker 1: the two kind of ringleaders of both groups, uh Norris 941 00:49:56,640 --> 00:49:59,200 Speaker 1: Right and a guy named Hall, agree to have a 942 00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:02,320 Speaker 1: gunfight the sandbar, and two people show up to observe 943 00:50:02,400 --> 00:50:09,000 Speaker 1: the fight. Yeah yeah, yeah, um, But Norris Wright doesn't 944 00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:11,280 Speaker 1: show up for the fight. Instead, he gathers a heavily 945 00:50:11,400 --> 00:50:13,560 Speaker 1: armed posse and shows up near the site of the 946 00:50:13,640 --> 00:50:16,160 Speaker 1: duel and like sends a representative in to say, like, 947 00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:18,200 Speaker 1: I'm not ready to fight yet, but we're gonna have 948 00:50:18,239 --> 00:50:20,600 Speaker 1: a big fight in September. That's when we're gonna do 949 00:50:20,719 --> 00:50:24,359 Speaker 1: it September. It's like a fucking I can't get over 950 00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:30,080 Speaker 1: how much like the fucking w W E this is? Um. Yeah, 951 00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:34,960 Speaker 1: So everybody kind of waits until the fall and then 952 00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:39,960 Speaker 1: the alright, alright, okay, so we all come back in 953 00:50:40,040 --> 00:50:43,440 Speaker 1: the fall. Yeah, So the aggrieved parties, I'll gather back 954 00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:46,600 Speaker 1: at the sand bar in September nine seven to try 955 00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:49,720 Speaker 1: to murder each other for reasons which again are completely unclear. 956 00:50:49,760 --> 00:50:55,800 Speaker 1: It's very boredom seems to be the main driver in 957 00:50:55,880 --> 00:51:00,120 Speaker 1: all this. Now, officially the duel was between well and 958 00:51:00,239 --> 00:51:03,480 Speaker 1: Maddox this time, UM, and everyone else was seconds, including 959 00:51:03,560 --> 00:51:05,920 Speaker 1: Jim Booie. But there was so much hatred between all 960 00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:07,920 Speaker 1: the different men on both sides that the organizers of 961 00:51:07,920 --> 00:51:10,200 Speaker 1: the duel started to worry it might turn into a gigantic, 962 00:51:10,239 --> 00:51:13,040 Speaker 1: bloody fight, and to avoid that, they limited each side 963 00:51:13,239 --> 00:51:18,000 Speaker 1: to bringing three men onto the sandbar. So Wells and 964 00:51:18,120 --> 00:51:20,759 Speaker 1: Maddox face off at ten paces, and because Wells was 965 00:51:20,840 --> 00:51:23,279 Speaker 1: nearly blind, they had to be extra close. But it 966 00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:28,120 Speaker 1: didn't matter if they were extra close. They're both terrible shots, 967 00:51:28,200 --> 00:51:31,279 Speaker 1: and they both miss at fucking ten feet away. Um. 968 00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:33,960 Speaker 1: And so the duel ends, and nobody's hurt, and both 969 00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:36,719 Speaker 1: men shake hands, and Wells and Maddox are actually like 970 00:51:36,920 --> 00:51:39,479 Speaker 1: fine with this, They're like, now we can be friends again. 971 00:51:39,600 --> 00:51:42,200 Speaker 1: We tried to shoot each other, nobody died. This is 972 00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:45,120 Speaker 1: great and so kind of like at the end of 973 00:51:45,239 --> 00:51:49,560 Speaker 1: when a fucking children's best baseball team finishes a game, 974 00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:53,320 Speaker 1: like both sides convened together to shake hands, and this 975 00:51:53,560 --> 00:51:56,880 Speaker 1: is where things go awry because the other friends who 976 00:51:56,960 --> 00:51:59,239 Speaker 1: hadn't shot at each other are still really pissed, and 977 00:51:59,280 --> 00:52:02,400 Speaker 1: they start in holding each other, and an argument sparks up. 978 00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:06,960 Speaker 1: And if we don't know exactly what happens, there's different stories. 979 00:52:07,120 --> 00:52:09,440 Speaker 1: One of them is that uh one of the doctor 980 00:52:09,680 --> 00:52:12,200 Speaker 1: Doctor Maddox pulls out his gun and tries to shoot 981 00:52:12,200 --> 00:52:14,759 Speaker 1: another guy and accidentally shoots Jim Bowie in the leg 982 00:52:15,520 --> 00:52:18,320 Speaker 1: Um three Roads. The Alamo claims that the fight started 983 00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:20,680 Speaker 1: with when Jim Bowie and another man named Crane both 984 00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:23,000 Speaker 1: drew their guns and everyone else tried to calm them down, 985 00:52:23,160 --> 00:52:25,200 Speaker 1: and then Crane shot at Bowie and missed him, and 986 00:52:25,239 --> 00:52:28,360 Speaker 1: then Bowie fired back and missed Crane, and then Crane 987 00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:31,040 Speaker 1: drew his second pistol and fired again and missed again 988 00:52:31,360 --> 00:52:33,120 Speaker 1: but hit one of Bowie's friends in the leg and 989 00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:36,080 Speaker 1: severed an artery. And then Crane realized he fucked up, 990 00:52:36,080 --> 00:52:38,120 Speaker 1: and he ran like hell away, and so Jim Bowie 991 00:52:38,200 --> 00:52:41,040 Speaker 1: drew his second pistol and fired while Crane was running, 992 00:52:41,239 --> 00:52:43,560 Speaker 1: and he missed again. Because none of these guys are 993 00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:45,600 Speaker 1: good at I have to. I can't. I have to. 994 00:52:45,719 --> 00:52:48,360 Speaker 1: I can't over emphasize how bad guns are in this 995 00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:51,360 Speaker 1: period of time. Like these men are all firing multiple 996 00:52:51,400 --> 00:52:54,080 Speaker 1: shots from tin foot distance and they can't fucking hit. 997 00:52:54,600 --> 00:52:56,439 Speaker 1: That's what I'm gonna say. It's like it's I don't 998 00:52:56,480 --> 00:52:59,480 Speaker 1: think it's like a marksman problem. It's like a it's 999 00:52:59,640 --> 00:53:04,160 Speaker 1: a main manufacturing issue. No, they're metal tubes with explosives 1000 00:53:04,200 --> 00:53:09,440 Speaker 1: and a ball in them. Like guns are so shitty 1001 00:53:09,520 --> 00:53:11,680 Speaker 1: at this point in time. And yeah, none of these 1002 00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:15,400 Speaker 1: people can hit for ship. So Bowie misses with his 1003 00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:17,600 Speaker 1: second shot, and at this point he makes the wise 1004 00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:20,680 Speaker 1: decision to stop relying on his guns and go with 1005 00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:23,920 Speaker 1: an idiot proof killing tool, the gigantic funk Off knife 1006 00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:26,480 Speaker 1: that he had strapped to his hip. So, roaring like 1007 00:53:26,600 --> 00:53:29,800 Speaker 1: a madman, he draws the knife and he like charges 1008 00:53:29,840 --> 00:53:31,839 Speaker 1: into the crowd of his adversaries because the guy who 1009 00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:34,440 Speaker 1: shot him like ran back to his friends and Bowie 1010 00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:37,880 Speaker 1: just rushes towards them wielding what is essentially a small sword. 1011 00:53:38,360 --> 00:53:41,279 Speaker 1: The survivors describe him as seeming like a tiger as 1012 00:53:41,320 --> 00:53:43,960 Speaker 1: he shouted out, Crane, you have shot at me, and 1013 00:53:44,040 --> 00:53:52,760 Speaker 1: I will kill you if I can, so proper, pretty proper. 1014 00:53:53,160 --> 00:53:55,759 Speaker 1: So Crane panics and he only he doesn't have a 1015 00:53:55,840 --> 00:53:57,480 Speaker 1: loaded gun, but he has an empty gun and it 1016 00:53:57,520 --> 00:54:00,239 Speaker 1: weighs like ten pounds because guns are big back then. 1017 00:54:00,560 --> 00:54:03,040 Speaker 1: So he throws it at Bowie's Bowie's charging and he 1018 00:54:03,120 --> 00:54:05,880 Speaker 1: hits him in the head and like seriously injures him 1019 00:54:05,920 --> 00:54:08,040 Speaker 1: because it's again a heavy piece of metal that he's 1020 00:54:08,120 --> 00:54:11,359 Speaker 1: hitting this guy in the face with. This is if 1021 00:54:11,440 --> 00:54:16,399 Speaker 1: we wrote this kick us out of the network, get 1022 00:54:16,440 --> 00:54:19,320 Speaker 1: out here. This is famous for being one of the 1023 00:54:19,360 --> 00:54:21,960 Speaker 1: most badass fights of the Old West. And it reads 1024 00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:26,680 Speaker 1: like a fucking Binnie Hill skin. So he probably gives 1025 00:54:26,719 --> 00:54:30,040 Speaker 1: Bowie a concussion from this, Like nobody concussions weren't the 1026 00:54:30,120 --> 00:54:32,440 Speaker 1: thing back then. But he like he just based on 1027 00:54:32,520 --> 00:54:34,800 Speaker 1: the reports he would like this fox Bowie up getting 1028 00:54:34,840 --> 00:54:38,919 Speaker 1: hit in the head with this gun like really hurts. Him. Um. Yeah, 1029 00:54:39,040 --> 00:54:41,560 Speaker 1: So he falls down to his knees as a result 1030 00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:43,880 Speaker 1: of getting hit in the face with this gun. And 1031 00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:46,719 Speaker 1: then Maddox, one of the duellists, the doctor who by 1032 00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:50,080 Speaker 1: some accounts had accidentally started the fight by accidentally shooting Bowie, 1033 00:54:50,160 --> 00:54:54,040 Speaker 1: but who knows. Dr Maddox charges Bowie like just to 1034 00:54:54,160 --> 00:54:56,719 Speaker 1: like fist fight him, and Bowie throws him away like 1035 00:54:56,840 --> 00:54:59,960 Speaker 1: just because tosses him and so then Crane and their 1036 00:55:00,080 --> 00:55:02,719 Speaker 1: other friend, Norris Wright, who is the guy who had 1037 00:55:02,760 --> 00:55:05,800 Speaker 1: had a gunfight with Bowie months ago, charge in to 1038 00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:09,160 Speaker 1: try to deal with Bowie, and Right draws another pistol 1039 00:55:09,239 --> 00:55:11,719 Speaker 1: and aims at at Bowie, who yells back at him, 1040 00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:19,320 Speaker 1: you damned rascal. Don't you shoot. Don't you dare shoot me, 1041 00:55:19,400 --> 00:55:27,640 Speaker 1: you rascal, You damned rascal. Yeah, he swore. Norris Wright 1042 00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:30,080 Speaker 1: like stands there with a gun pointed at Bowie and 1043 00:55:30,120 --> 00:55:32,160 Speaker 1: the two shout at each other for a while until 1044 00:55:32,160 --> 00:55:34,839 Speaker 1: one of Bowie's friends runs up and hands Jim a gun, 1045 00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:38,120 Speaker 1: and both men fire at each other at point blank range, 1046 00:55:38,160 --> 00:55:45,719 Speaker 1: and of course both miss. Again. Yeah, that's so bad 1047 00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:50,320 Speaker 1: at shooting each other. So Right pulls his second pistol 1048 00:55:50,480 --> 00:55:52,880 Speaker 1: and Bowie yells at him to shoot and be damned, 1049 00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:55,880 Speaker 1: and Right shoots again, and of course he misses a 1050 00:55:56,000 --> 00:56:03,080 Speaker 1: second time. Now at this point, one of the few 1051 00:56:03,280 --> 00:56:07,360 Speaker 1: not dangerously unhinged men present, a guy named Denny, runs 1052 00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:10,080 Speaker 1: up in between Bowie and Wright and pleads with Bowie, 1053 00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:13,279 Speaker 1: this must be stopped, sir, this must be stopped. He's 1054 00:56:13,280 --> 00:56:16,080 Speaker 1: just like, please, for the love of God, stop fighting. 1055 00:56:16,160 --> 00:56:18,920 Speaker 1: And he puts a hand on Bowie's chest just as 1056 00:56:19,080 --> 00:56:22,480 Speaker 1: Right draws a third pistol and fires again and hits. 1057 00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:28,080 Speaker 1: So he finally did hit somebody. Um So the ball 1058 00:56:28,200 --> 00:56:31,680 Speaker 1: passes through directly through Denny's hand in it into Jim 1059 00:56:31,719 --> 00:56:35,279 Speaker 1: Bowie's lung, and with a concussion and a bullet in 1060 00:56:35,320 --> 00:56:39,239 Speaker 1: their lung, most men probably would have stopped fighting. But 1061 00:56:39,320 --> 00:56:42,040 Speaker 1: as one of Jim Bowie's friends later noted, if there 1062 00:56:42,080 --> 00:56:44,919 Speaker 1: ever lived a man who never felt the sensation of fear, 1063 00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:47,200 Speaker 1: it was James Bowie. It was his habit to settle 1064 00:56:47,239 --> 00:56:49,840 Speaker 1: all difficulties without regard to time or place, and this 1065 00:56:50,120 --> 00:56:52,840 Speaker 1: it was the same whether he met one or many enemies. 1066 00:56:53,440 --> 00:56:55,759 Speaker 1: So Jim Bowie, bullet and his lung and a fucking 1067 00:56:55,800 --> 00:56:59,880 Speaker 1: concussion charges Norris Right, waving a gigantic knife. He got 1068 00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:03,279 Speaker 1: about fifteen feet when two of Wright's friends arrived with 1069 00:57:03,400 --> 00:57:06,439 Speaker 1: fresh guns and opened fire. One bullet hit Jim Bowie 1070 00:57:06,520 --> 00:57:09,080 Speaker 1: in the thigh and took him down again. Now Right 1071 00:57:09,160 --> 00:57:11,800 Speaker 1: had been running away from the madman with the sword, 1072 00:57:12,120 --> 00:57:14,880 Speaker 1: but as soon as Bowie dropped Norris Wright whipped out 1073 00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:21,760 Speaker 1: a sword cane and charged him again. Now the guy 1074 00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:24,120 Speaker 1: who shot Bowie in the thigh also pulled out a 1075 00:57:24,160 --> 00:57:26,880 Speaker 1: sword cane, and the two just start stabbing Jim Bowie 1076 00:57:26,920 --> 00:57:33,440 Speaker 1: to death a bunch. So the next moment in this 1077 00:57:33,640 --> 00:57:35,880 Speaker 1: fight is the one that would earn the name Bowie 1078 00:57:35,960 --> 00:57:38,560 Speaker 1: Knife a proud place in the long history of human 1079 00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:41,960 Speaker 1: fighting implements. Shot through the lung and the thigh, probably 1080 00:57:42,040 --> 00:57:46,280 Speaker 1: can coast and repeatedly stabbed with sword canes canes, Bowie 1081 00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:49,360 Speaker 1: draws his giant knife again and fights off both men's 1082 00:57:49,360 --> 00:57:52,440 Speaker 1: sword canes, parrying their jabs with his mighty dagger. He 1083 00:57:52,560 --> 00:57:55,280 Speaker 1: gashed both of them repeatedly on the hands in the arms. 1084 00:57:55,640 --> 00:57:57,840 Speaker 1: In response, they stab him through the hands and the wrist. 1085 00:57:58,160 --> 00:58:00,439 Speaker 1: I'm gonna quote now from William C. David, his book 1086 00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:03,720 Speaker 1: on how the fight ended. Quote Bowie got himself up 1087 00:58:03,760 --> 00:58:06,040 Speaker 1: to a sitting position. Then in one lunge, he reached 1088 00:58:06,120 --> 00:58:08,160 Speaker 1: up to grab Norris Right by the collar and his 1089 00:58:08,320 --> 00:58:11,040 Speaker 1: right tried to straighten himself, he inadvertently helped raise Bowie 1090 00:58:11,120 --> 00:58:13,760 Speaker 1: to a near standing position. As Bowie later told the 1091 00:58:13,800 --> 00:58:17,280 Speaker 1: story to Reson in Their Friend, he said in Wright's ear, now, Major, 1092 00:58:17,440 --> 00:58:20,200 Speaker 1: you die with a single savage thrust. He drove the 1093 00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:23,240 Speaker 1: knife through Right's chest, boasting afterwards that he twisted it 1094 00:58:23,320 --> 00:58:27,600 Speaker 1: to cut his heart strings. Ah, well he's not, he's not. 1095 00:58:27,840 --> 00:58:30,480 Speaker 1: That's not how that works. But yeah, he guts him 1096 00:58:30,600 --> 00:58:33,560 Speaker 1: is how most people related. Is he just he pulls 1097 00:58:33,640 --> 00:58:36,560 Speaker 1: this guy down while being stabbed and just opens his 1098 00:58:36,680 --> 00:58:40,800 Speaker 1: belly with his gigantic sword knife, and yeah, it kills 1099 00:58:40,840 --> 00:58:45,440 Speaker 1: the ship out of him. Yeah. So Jim Bowie passes 1100 00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:48,680 Speaker 1: out immediately after stabbing Norris Right to death, and the 1101 00:58:48,760 --> 00:58:51,520 Speaker 1: attending physician who observed him after this found a gash 1102 00:58:51,600 --> 00:58:54,600 Speaker 1: on his forehead, seven stab wounds, and two bullet wounds. 1103 00:58:55,040 --> 00:58:56,880 Speaker 1: They all kind of assumed he was going to die 1104 00:58:56,920 --> 00:58:59,000 Speaker 1: of his injuries, but he didn't, and over the next 1105 00:58:59,040 --> 00:59:02,840 Speaker 1: two months, Jimbowie gradually recovered from his many injuries. Meanwhile, 1106 00:59:02,920 --> 00:59:04,720 Speaker 1: the story of how he stabbed a dude to death 1107 00:59:04,840 --> 00:59:12,520 Speaker 1: became national news. So most duels were all like regional stories, um, 1108 00:59:13,000 --> 00:59:14,840 Speaker 1: and it wasn't a common people to die in them. 1109 00:59:14,920 --> 00:59:18,320 Speaker 1: But the Sandbar fight became legend for one reason. Jim 1110 00:59:18,360 --> 00:59:22,080 Speaker 1: Bowie Davis writes that in typical frontier fights quote, the 1111 00:59:22,160 --> 00:59:24,480 Speaker 1: real fighters risked themselves only when they seem to have 1112 00:59:24,560 --> 00:59:27,760 Speaker 1: the advantage and happily ran to cover otherwise. But Booie, 1113 00:59:28,000 --> 00:59:30,080 Speaker 1: impelled by the rage that blinded him to fear or 1114 00:59:30,080 --> 00:59:33,120 Speaker 1: self protection, stood his ground and simply kept fighting. That 1115 00:59:33,280 --> 00:59:35,680 Speaker 1: was the sort of thing that turned brutal, pointless brawling 1116 00:59:35,720 --> 00:59:42,560 Speaker 1: into legend. Yeah he does, because yeah, you're not human anymore. Yeah, 1117 00:59:42,640 --> 00:59:44,840 Speaker 1: it's totally human to like stand in front of another 1118 00:59:44,880 --> 00:59:46,400 Speaker 1: guy and you both shoot at each other and one 1119 00:59:46,400 --> 00:59:50,200 Speaker 1: of you dies, and when he doesn't what Bowie does, Like, Yeah, 1120 00:59:50,280 --> 00:59:52,760 Speaker 1: he because he's like a fucking superhero, because he does 1121 00:59:52,840 --> 00:59:56,120 Speaker 1: he survives this, and because he goes so fucking far 1122 00:59:56,240 --> 00:59:58,880 Speaker 1: beyond what any rational person would do in the era. 1123 00:59:59,240 --> 01:00:01,560 Speaker 1: So yeah, there's also probably he's not the guy that 1124 01:00:01,760 --> 01:00:05,000 Speaker 1: like afterwards, while he's like healing, he's also enough the 1125 01:00:05,080 --> 01:00:10,920 Speaker 1: kind of guy I was, like, I got carried away. No, No, 1126 01:00:11,120 --> 01:00:13,720 Speaker 1: he was just like, yeah, come at me again. Yeah, 1127 01:00:14,640 --> 01:00:19,040 Speaker 1: you out. And that's exactly what happens. So newspapers write 1128 01:00:19,200 --> 01:00:22,040 Speaker 1: huge spreads about the Sandbar Fight, and of course they 1129 01:00:22,080 --> 01:00:24,720 Speaker 1: exaggerate everything that happens in it, and people are in 1130 01:00:24,760 --> 01:00:27,600 Speaker 1: Americas start talking about Jim Booie, and Booie's canny enough 1131 01:00:27,640 --> 01:00:30,680 Speaker 1: to lean into the legend. So he spent weeks bedridden 1132 01:00:30,960 --> 01:00:33,800 Speaker 1: like from gunshot wounds, but he would invite reporters and 1133 01:00:33,880 --> 01:00:35,120 Speaker 1: to talk to him, and he would tell all of 1134 01:00:35,160 --> 01:00:36,720 Speaker 1: them the story of the fight. And he would always 1135 01:00:36,760 --> 01:00:38,800 Speaker 1: have his knife strapped to his chest while he was 1136 01:00:38,840 --> 01:00:40,480 Speaker 1: in his sick bed so he could show it off 1137 01:00:40,560 --> 01:00:43,240 Speaker 1: to reporters and the steady stream of well wishers who 1138 01:00:43,280 --> 01:00:47,240 Speaker 1: came by to talk to him. Um. So the bowie 1139 01:00:47,280 --> 01:00:50,200 Speaker 1: knife becomes incredibly famous as a result of this, and 1140 01:00:50,320 --> 01:00:54,959 Speaker 1: suddenly like every guy who feels who wants to feel 1141 01:00:55,040 --> 01:00:58,200 Speaker 1: like a badass, has to have a bowie knife. Um. 1142 01:00:58,480 --> 01:01:00,640 Speaker 1: And I found a fun right up on sort of 1143 01:01:00,720 --> 01:01:02,320 Speaker 1: the spread of the Booeye knife in the wake of this, 1144 01:01:02,480 --> 01:01:04,400 Speaker 1: by a site called the History Bandits, and it is 1145 01:01:04,440 --> 01:01:06,440 Speaker 1: a pretty good job of tracing how Jim and all 1146 01:01:06,480 --> 01:01:09,280 Speaker 1: of his brothers capitalized on the fame of the family 1147 01:01:09,360 --> 01:01:13,200 Speaker 1: knife quote. The Bowie family quickly made efforts to actively 1148 01:01:13,240 --> 01:01:16,400 Speaker 1: link the Bowie name with the famous knife's design and quality. 1149 01:01:16,480 --> 01:01:19,280 Speaker 1: Bowie's older brother, Resin, who would have allegedly given Jim 1150 01:01:19,360 --> 01:01:22,480 Speaker 1: his blade before the Sandbar incident, began promoting similar knives, 1151 01:01:22,520 --> 01:01:24,960 Speaker 1: which he advertised more trustworthy in the hands of a 1152 01:01:25,040 --> 01:01:27,400 Speaker 1: strong man than a pistol, which, given the fact that 1153 01:01:27,480 --> 01:01:31,960 Speaker 1: everyone missed at the duel, is not necessarily inaccurate at 1154 01:01:32,000 --> 01:01:34,960 Speaker 1: the time of it. Yeah Yeah. Within months of the incident, 1155 01:01:35,000 --> 01:01:36,840 Speaker 1: the name of Bowie was forever linked with the large, 1156 01:01:36,920 --> 01:01:39,400 Speaker 1: hilted knives of the southern back country. As the story 1157 01:01:39,440 --> 01:01:42,120 Speaker 1: of Jim Bowie's feats with his knife spread, blacksmiths across 1158 01:01:42,120 --> 01:01:44,680 Speaker 1: the country began to receive requests from customers to make 1159 01:01:44,760 --> 01:01:47,600 Speaker 1: them a knife like Bowie's. As far afield as England, 1160 01:01:47,600 --> 01:01:49,960 Speaker 1: the Bowie knife became a novelty in knife shops, and 1161 01:01:50,040 --> 01:01:52,440 Speaker 1: easterners of the United States purchase Booie knives is a 1162 01:01:52,520 --> 01:01:55,240 Speaker 1: symbol of the frontier. Even backwoodsman who were used to 1163 01:01:55,280 --> 01:01:58,040 Speaker 1: such knives adopted the new terminology of the eighteen thirties 1164 01:01:58,200 --> 01:02:01,440 Speaker 1: and requested buoy knives. It's by name, It's Smithy's from St. 1165 01:02:01,480 --> 01:02:04,880 Speaker 1: Louis to the Mexican border. The Red Rible, The Red 1166 01:02:05,000 --> 01:02:09,000 Speaker 1: River Herald of Necatochez, Louisiana, claimed that, with hyperbole, that 1167 01:02:09,200 --> 01:02:11,720 Speaker 1: all the steel in the country, it seemed, had immediately 1168 01:02:11,800 --> 01:02:15,120 Speaker 1: been converted into Booie knives. By eighteen thirty, the Booie 1169 01:02:15,160 --> 01:02:18,440 Speaker 1: knife became a staple at forgeries across the American continent. 1170 01:02:18,840 --> 01:02:27,560 Speaker 1: So that's cool. Yeah, it's just it's yeah, it's reassuring 1171 01:02:27,640 --> 01:02:31,320 Speaker 1: that America has always kind of been like this. Yeah, 1172 01:02:31,480 --> 01:02:33,840 Speaker 1: it's fun. The right up I found on this actually 1173 01:02:33,880 --> 01:02:38,120 Speaker 1: compares the Booie Brothers in particular to Bear Grills Um, 1174 01:02:38,400 --> 01:02:41,280 Speaker 1: because Bear Girls has like an incredibly popular series of 1175 01:02:41,400 --> 01:02:44,640 Speaker 1: knives UM made just based off the fact that he's 1176 01:02:44,680 --> 01:02:46,520 Speaker 1: good at being in the woods and has been on 1177 01:02:46,640 --> 01:02:49,520 Speaker 1: camera like using you know, camping knives and stuff. So 1178 01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:53,160 Speaker 1: like the knife companies like Gerber like, hey, what if 1179 01:02:53,200 --> 01:02:54,800 Speaker 1: we made a knife and stick your name on it, 1180 01:02:54,920 --> 01:02:56,880 Speaker 1: And sure enough, now they're incredibly pop You can find 1181 01:02:56,960 --> 01:02:59,280 Speaker 1: them in any outdoorsman story and they're not bad knives. Um. 1182 01:02:59,360 --> 01:03:01,760 Speaker 1: I don't like the hill very much, but whatever, Uh, 1183 01:03:02,040 --> 01:03:05,360 Speaker 1: so in the Booie Like, what I find interesting about 1184 01:03:05,360 --> 01:03:07,240 Speaker 1: this right up is that they kind of say make 1185 01:03:07,320 --> 01:03:09,520 Speaker 1: the point that, like the Bowie family is the first, 1186 01:03:10,760 --> 01:03:13,400 Speaker 1: the first in that line. Like they do basically what 1187 01:03:13,520 --> 01:03:16,400 Speaker 1: Bear Gruels has done. They create a brand with their 1188 01:03:16,440 --> 01:03:20,080 Speaker 1: family name for giant fuck off knives. That's kind of 1189 01:03:20,200 --> 01:03:24,840 Speaker 1: neat the duck dudes too, Yeah, like Duck dynasty. This 1190 01:03:25,000 --> 01:03:28,360 Speaker 1: is like the very first time that happened in American history, right, 1191 01:03:28,400 --> 01:03:32,560 Speaker 1: The Bowie family definitely has some powerful Duck dynasty energy 1192 01:03:32,680 --> 01:03:35,400 Speaker 1: to it. Well, it's the same area, yeah, and it 1193 01:03:35,560 --> 01:03:40,439 Speaker 1: is the same area. They might in fact be related. Well, yes, 1194 01:03:40,600 --> 01:03:42,240 Speaker 1: there's not a lot of people down there because they 1195 01:03:42,280 --> 01:03:48,880 Speaker 1: get killing each other. Yeah. So yeah, Jim Bowie, slave trader, 1196 01:03:49,400 --> 01:03:53,040 Speaker 1: land con artist, and guy who stabbed a person to 1197 01:03:53,160 --> 01:03:56,880 Speaker 1: death becomes a celebrity mainly for stabbing a person to death. 1198 01:03:57,680 --> 01:04:00,240 Speaker 1: And uh yeah, we'll talk about what comes next and 1199 01:04:00,360 --> 01:04:02,840 Speaker 1: how he gets to the Alamo in part two. But 1200 01:04:03,080 --> 01:04:05,760 Speaker 1: right now, Billy, it's time for you to celebrate your 1201 01:04:05,800 --> 01:04:08,800 Speaker 1: own knife. What would a Billy knife be, Billy, it 1202 01:04:08,800 --> 01:04:12,080 Speaker 1: would probably just be like a form of the kukrie. 1203 01:04:12,840 --> 01:04:14,520 Speaker 1: You would want it to be a cookery kind of 1204 01:04:14,680 --> 01:04:18,640 Speaker 1: like that. I really I'm enjoying the cookery. I like 1205 01:04:18,720 --> 01:04:21,800 Speaker 1: it a lot. Yeah, cookeries are nice. I enjoy the uh. 1206 01:04:22,440 --> 01:04:26,200 Speaker 1: I enjoy the the feel of a kukery. If I 1207 01:04:26,400 --> 01:04:28,800 Speaker 1: was going to have a Robert knife, I would want 1208 01:04:28,840 --> 01:04:32,000 Speaker 1: it to be I wanted to be a knife that's 1209 01:04:32,000 --> 01:04:33,840 Speaker 1: too large to be wielded. I would like it to 1210 01:04:33,920 --> 01:04:36,200 Speaker 1: be like a hunting knife, but one that has to 1211 01:04:36,240 --> 01:04:38,040 Speaker 1: actually be mounted to the bed of a truck. Like 1212 01:04:38,080 --> 01:04:39,720 Speaker 1: you know how they have technicals in the Middle East 1213 01:04:39,760 --> 01:04:41,920 Speaker 1: with machine guns in the back. I want that, but 1214 01:04:42,040 --> 01:04:44,080 Speaker 1: with a knife that you have to like drive at 1215 01:04:44,120 --> 01:04:47,080 Speaker 1: a target you want to stab it. You just want 1216 01:04:47,120 --> 01:04:50,040 Speaker 1: a bayonet for a Humby, Yeah, I want a bayonet 1217 01:04:50,160 --> 01:04:52,840 Speaker 1: for I'm more like a bayonet for an eighteen wheeler. 1218 01:04:53,120 --> 01:04:56,120 Speaker 1: That's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, that would be. I would 1219 01:04:56,160 --> 01:04:58,560 Speaker 1: like a Robert knife to be a knife that requires 1220 01:04:58,600 --> 01:05:01,680 Speaker 1: as much steel as a small skyscraper. That would be. 1221 01:05:02,200 --> 01:05:06,560 Speaker 1: That would be the legacy I'd like to have. If 1222 01:05:06,800 --> 01:05:08,960 Speaker 1: they ever give us the TV show, we could make 1223 01:05:09,000 --> 01:05:13,200 Speaker 1: that happen. We could make that happen. All right, Well, um, 1224 01:05:13,480 --> 01:05:18,320 Speaker 1: if you want me to uh get my own branded knife, 1225 01:05:18,720 --> 01:05:22,400 Speaker 1: uh find bear girls on Twitter and send him pictures, 1226 01:05:22,640 --> 01:05:25,280 Speaker 1: send him your favorite Simpsons screen grab. Let's make it 1227 01:05:25,360 --> 01:05:28,320 Speaker 1: confusing for old bear. Um. And if you want to 1228 01:05:28,360 --> 01:05:29,920 Speaker 1: find us on the internet, you can find us at 1229 01:05:29,920 --> 01:05:32,040 Speaker 1: Behind the Bastards dot com. Uh, you can find t 1230 01:05:32,160 --> 01:05:34,280 Speaker 1: shirts on t public. And I have a podcast called 1231 01:05:34,400 --> 01:05:38,400 Speaker 1: The Women's War that is about Rojava and uh does 1232 01:05:38,600 --> 01:05:41,480 Speaker 1: include a little bit about knives. So there we go. 1233 01:05:41,880 --> 01:05:47,240 Speaker 1: It's an optimistic podcast. It is optimistic. Also optimistic is 1234 01:05:47,280 --> 01:05:49,760 Speaker 1: my co host today, Mr Billy Wayne Davis. Billy, you 1235 01:05:49,800 --> 01:05:52,240 Speaker 1: want to tell the people where they can find you? Yes, 1236 01:05:52,440 --> 01:05:56,720 Speaker 1: I at Billy Wayne Davis on Twitter and Instagraham. If 1237 01:05:56,720 --> 01:05:59,560 Speaker 1: I ever start touring again, we're allowed to bet bd 1238 01:05:59,720 --> 01:06:03,120 Speaker 1: tour dot com. And then I have a podcast about 1239 01:06:03,240 --> 01:06:06,960 Speaker 1: the people that make up cannabis communities and it's called 1240 01:06:07,040 --> 01:06:10,960 Speaker 1: Grown Local. In season one is based in Eugene, or 1241 01:06:11,800 --> 01:06:15,120 Speaker 1: speaking of both the marijuana industry and Eugene, Oregon. A 1242 01:06:15,200 --> 01:06:17,480 Speaker 1: lot of people getting stabbed to death with large knives. 1243 01:06:18,600 --> 01:06:21,920 Speaker 1: Definitely lots of that, not in your podcast, necessarily, just 1244 01:06:22,160 --> 01:06:26,560 Speaker 1: in the industry and in Eugene, Oregon. Yeah, and probably 1245 01:06:26,720 --> 01:06:33,400 Speaker 1: not even related, no no, no, I mean yeah, alright, 1246 01:06:33,880 --> 01:06:34,600 Speaker 1: Episode done