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Speaker 1: There was a real Crockett out there, not just the

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Speaker 1: one we saw on TV that my family had known

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Speaker 1: and been involved with.

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Speaker 2: On the last episode, we learned that David Crockett was

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Speaker 2: America's first celebrity and that his identity was founded on

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Speaker 2: being a bear hunter. We learned that there were four

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Speaker 2: Crocketts that America knew, the bear hunter, the soldier, the politician,

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Speaker 2: and the martyr at the Alamo. Today we'll dive into

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Speaker 2: what I believe was the most important part of his life,

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Speaker 2: his childhood. In early life, they didn't put this part

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Speaker 2: of his story on television and make cartoons of it

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Speaker 2: to put on lunchboxes, and this period led him to

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Speaker 2: being a soldier, which we're going to talk about. We'll

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Speaker 2: hear again from Cornell professor Robert Morgan, and meet the

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Speaker 2: man who's had one of Crockett's first guns in his

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Speaker 2: family since eighteen oh three, to shoulder the gun they

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Speaker 2: call Betsy, And we might even hear from the greatest

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Speaker 2: of all time, Michael Jordan. The way forward is complex,

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Speaker 2: the truth is narrow and elusive, but Crockett's influence on

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Speaker 2: American culture is invaluable in learning why we are The

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Speaker 2: way we are. I doubt you're gonna want to miss

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Speaker 2: this one.

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Speaker 3: That was part of his charm if you had this background,

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Speaker 3: very different from most other leaders and the politicians, and

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Speaker 3: you could draw on that again like Lincoln who had

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Speaker 3: all these stories from the farm and from the wild

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Speaker 3: part of the country.

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Speaker 2: My name is Clay nukemb and this is the Bear

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Speaker 2: Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search

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Speaker 2: for insight and unlikely places where we'll tell the story

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Speaker 2: of Americans who live their lives close to the land.

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Speaker 2: Presented by FHF gear, American made purpose built hunting and

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Speaker 2: fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as the

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Speaker 2: places we explore. I'm trying to get a grasp on

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Speaker 2: the amount of residual knowledge Americans have on David Crockett.

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Speaker 2: He's down in there, deep in almost all of us.

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Speaker 2: Nearly two hundred years after his death, Americans seem to

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Speaker 2: be born with some knowledge of him. I'm about to

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Speaker 2: ask some folks about him. Excuse me, Jellen Kay, asking

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Speaker 2: you guys a few things here. Absolutely, what do you

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Speaker 2: guys know about David Crockett?

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Speaker 4: Tell me everything you know Davy Crockett. The only thing

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Speaker 4: I know is he's a guy that was a woodsman,

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Speaker 4: and that's really all I know. Woods It's been a while,

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Speaker 4: so you know much about David Crockett. I don't know that.

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Speaker 5: I know a whole lot. The thing that comes to

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Speaker 5: my mind is like when I when I think of

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Speaker 5: like American history, he's one of the like, to me,

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Speaker 5: one of the main frontiersmen that was back in the day.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so American frontiersman. Good, Thank you guys. Good woodsman

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Speaker 2: an American frontiersman.

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Speaker 4: Not bad.

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Speaker 2: As soon as I stopped recording, this guy says he

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Speaker 2: remembers the Davy Crockett song, which was first recorded in

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Speaker 2: nineteen fifty four to accompany Disney's Crockett trilogy. The song

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Speaker 2: would become America's number one hit for thirteen weeks. I

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Speaker 2: click the recorder back on. So do you know that song?

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Speaker 2: Do you know the Davy Crockett song?

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Speaker 4: I remember hearing it.

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Speaker 1: Can you sing it?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll sing the.

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Speaker 5: Part Davy Crockett king, Oh the while front tier day.

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Speaker 1: Let's see.

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Speaker 5: I don't know all these words. I think I remember

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Speaker 5: the Kentucky Headhunters singing in or something.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, wonder the Kentucky Headhunters. Yep.

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Speaker 2: The Kentucky Headhunters recorded the Ballad of Davy Crockett in

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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one on a mountain green instead in the

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Speaker 2: Land of the Free Rain in the Woods.

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Speaker 4: Who Haven't Killing My mind? You one adream?

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Speaker 2: Their music video has the live band playing in front

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Speaker 2: of a dancing crowd, all wearing coonskin caps. Crockett of

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Speaker 2: the Wild rock Here they pan to the drummer. Behind

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Speaker 2: him is a window with the bear looking in. The

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Speaker 2: drummer abandons the set and chases after the bear with

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Speaker 2: his fists. The crowd cheers on the drummer chasing the bear,

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Speaker 2: and then the man is attacked by children with bows

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Speaker 2: Crockett on.

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Speaker 3: The live run here.

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Speaker 2: This video taps into two of Crockett's four identities that

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Speaker 2: Robert Morgan spoke about. He was a bear hunter and

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Speaker 2: a soldier in the Creek War. It's unadvisable and unnecessary

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Speaker 2: for a man to speak ill of the Kentucky Headhunters.

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Speaker 2: But that's not my favorite recording of the Ballad of

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Speaker 2: Davy Crockett. I'm a big fan of the Fest Parker version.

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Speaker 2: Do you recall in the nineteen eighty five movie Back

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Speaker 2: to the Future, which is set in nineteen fifty five.

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Speaker 2: Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, goes back in

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Speaker 2: time and walks into a diner. In Fest Parker's The

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Speaker 2: Ballad of Davy, Crockett is playing on the juke box.

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Speaker 4: Hey hid, could you do jump ship?

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Speaker 6: Which?

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Speaker 4: What the life preserver?

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Speaker 6: I just want to use the phone and it's.

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Speaker 1: In the back.

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Speaker 2: The Crockett craze of the nineteen fifties hammered America hard,

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Speaker 2: and the frenzy created a new template for how TV

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Speaker 2: movies could be heavily merchandised. Everything in anything you could

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Speaker 2: imagine was branded with Crockett's name and his signature coonskin cap,

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Speaker 2: pocket knives, lunchboxes, postcards, books, and guitars. But this wasn't

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Speaker 2: the first commercialization of Crockett. In his lifetime, he was

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Speaker 2: heavily commercialized without his permission by multiple fake autobiographies. A

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Speaker 2: world famous Broadway play was made about him, which led

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Speaker 2: him to writing a real autobiography, which was a global bestseller.

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Speaker 2: Europe and the Americans in the East couldn't get enough. Crockett,

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Speaker 2: who had gained notoriety being America's first frontier populist, politician

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Speaker 2: and boldly opposing Andrew Jackson. Crockett's anecdotal stories about bear hunting,

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Speaker 2: squirrel hunting competitions, and being able to grin coons out

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Speaker 2: of the tree mesmerize people, giving them insight into this

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Speaker 2: uniquely American identity of the frontier, which I would say

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Speaker 2: is still alive today. We're now going to leave the

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Speaker 2: hype behind and look at the real Crockett, a real

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Speaker 2: American backwoodsman. I've got a friend of meat eater whose

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Speaker 2: name rhymes with Cleaves Stanella that has historically been dismissive

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Speaker 2: of Crockett, viewing him to be a vein man, not

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Speaker 2: worthy to stand as a peer to Bear Grease Hall

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Speaker 2: of Famer Daniel Boone. This is like trying to compare

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Speaker 2: Michael Jordan to any other player. Jordan is the goat

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Speaker 2: and Boone is the indisputable goat of the American Frontier.

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Speaker 4: Crockett is clearly the.

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Speaker 2: Lebron James of the American Frontier, which is major. Here

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Speaker 2: is Michael Jordan in this clip. A reporter asked him

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Speaker 2: about Lebron. I think Cleave could learn something here.

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Speaker 7: How do you personally view that legacy that he's built

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Speaker 7: and do you think that by the end he will

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Speaker 7: merit a place in that conversation of top three Ton.

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Speaker 2: James insert Crockett's names for Lebron Jordan Is Boon.

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Speaker 6: I just think that, you know, we're playing different Eras's.

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Speaker 6: He's an unbelievable player. He's one of the best players

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Speaker 6: in the world, if not the best player in the world.

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Speaker 6: I know it's a natural tendency to compare Eras to Eras,

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Speaker 6: and you know it's going to continue to happen. I'm

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Speaker 6: a fan of his I love watching him play, you know.

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Speaker 6: I think he's made his mark, he will continue to

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Speaker 6: do so over a period of time. But when you

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Speaker 6: start the comparisons, I think it is what it is.

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Speaker 6: You know, it's just a standard measurement, you know, And

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Speaker 6: I take it with the greens. He is a heck

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Speaker 6: of a basketball player, without a doubt.

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Speaker 2: I'd take any comparison of Boone and Crockett with the

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Speaker 2: grain of salt. Now we're going to continue our walk

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Speaker 2: through Crockett's life chronologically. We left off with him working

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Speaker 2: for an honest Dutchman named Canaday. We're trying to understand

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Speaker 2: where all this Crockett hype came from.

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Speaker 4: Here's Robert Morgan.

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Speaker 3: He was born where Limestone Creek runs into the Naulachucky.

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Speaker 2: River and seventeen eighty six.

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Speaker 3: And August seventeenth, seventeen eighty six, and he was born

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Speaker 3: in the state of Franklin, which was this state that

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Speaker 3: lasted only four or five years, and then North Carolina,

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Speaker 3: with the help of the federal government, declared it illegal,

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Speaker 3: and then of course it became part of the state

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Speaker 3: of Tennessee. But I've always seen that as kind of significant,

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Speaker 3: this place that only lasted for four or five years

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Speaker 3: and was like his life. He moved and moved, the

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Speaker 3: kind of instability as his debts catch up with him

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Speaker 3: and he's moving into the frontier, into cheaper lynn Freelin

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Speaker 3: and starting all over. He's like Daniel Boone in that,

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Speaker 3: I mean, he runs up debts and then you know

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Speaker 3: he has to has to try again, start again. But

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Speaker 3: he was kind of bound out by his father to

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Speaker 3: labor for other people to pay the father's debts. John

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Speaker 3: Crockett was always getting into debt. He was borrowing money,

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Speaker 3: and again he was like Daniel Boone and the older

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Speaker 3: crocketted the same way. He had to keep borrowing money

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Speaker 3: was always in debt. And this is very interesting that

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Speaker 3: this father would put his young son out to labor

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Speaker 3: when he was so young, to work hard. And this

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Speaker 3: is really important and understanding that from a very early

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Speaker 3: age he was this heavy labor hit farms.

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Speaker 2: When he was twelve years old, he was what he

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Speaker 2: called bound out by his father to a complete stranger

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Speaker 2: that had come through the town. Kroccutt's father owned a

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Speaker 2: tavern in what is now Morristown, Tennessee. It was a

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Speaker 2: primitive hotel and restaurant. I want to read out of

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Speaker 2: Crockett's biography about a formative moment in his young life.

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Speaker 2: I don't want to take for granted that we can

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Speaker 2: hear these stories in Crockett's own voice. In history, a

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Speaker 2: primary source, a first hand to count is major. The

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Speaker 2: middlemen and their interpretation are absent from this. This is

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Speaker 2: when Crockett was bound out to a complete stranger by

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Speaker 2: his father. An old Dutchman by the name of Jacob Siler,

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Speaker 2: who was moving from Knox County to Rockbridge in the

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Speaker 2: state of Virginia in passing, made a stop at my

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Speaker 2: father's house. He had a large stock of cattle that

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Speaker 2: he was carried on with him. I suppose made some

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Speaker 2: proposition to my father to hire someone to assist him.

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Speaker 2: Being hard run every way and having no thought as

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Speaker 2: I believe that I was cut out for Congress.

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Speaker 4: Or the like.

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Speaker 2: Young as I was and as little as I knew

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Speaker 2: about traveling or being from home, he hired me to

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Speaker 2: the old Dutchman to go four hundred miles on foot

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Speaker 2: with a perfect stranger that I had never seen until

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Speaker 2: the evening before. Crockett seemed to be surprised that his

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Speaker 2: dad did this. Even a frontier child raised in such

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Speaker 2: a wild environment thought this was a touch irresponsible. I'm

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Speaker 2: certain Juju wouldn't approve, But then again, she did let

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Speaker 2: me and Chris Roberts float Briar Creek in a leaky

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Speaker 2: canoe without life jackets after a four inch rain in

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Speaker 2: May in nineteen ninety eight. You can listen to meeting

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Speaker 2: your close calls for that story. I'm out drowned, and

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Speaker 2: I'm not blaming Juju. Did your parents ever do anything

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Speaker 2: that looking back surprises you. I've found myself on the

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Speaker 2: trail of a rabbit.

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Speaker 4: Brothers and sisters. Let's get back to Crockett.

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Speaker 2: Crockett's family were those aggressive Ulster Scots that came from Ireland.

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Speaker 2: His father, John Crockett, wasn't born in America. David said

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Speaker 2: he didn't know if his dad was born in Ireland

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Speaker 2: or on the boat passage over. His mother, Rebecca Hawkins,

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Speaker 2: had been born in America. Crockett's grandparents were some of

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Speaker 2: the first white folks to settle in eastern Tennessee, and

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Speaker 2: were killed in their cabin by Creek Indians in seventeen

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Speaker 2: seventy seven, nine years before David's birth. During the raid,

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Speaker 2: Crockett's uncle, who was both deaf and dumb, who they

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Speaker 2: fondly called Dumb Jimmy, was captured by the Creeks and

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Speaker 2: lived with them for seventeen years and nine months before

218
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Speaker 2: John Crockett, David's father, located his brother and purchased him

219
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Speaker 2: back from the Creeks. David wrote that he didn't remember

220
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Speaker 2: how much they paid for him. I bet Jimmy had

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Speaker 2: some wild stories. This was the world Crockett was born into.

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Speaker 2: His parents lived in extreme poverty on the frontier. His

223
00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:09,679
Speaker 2: father fought in the Revolutionary War but never talked about it,

224
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Speaker 2: and in his autobiography, David recalls as a boy watching

225
00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:17,839
Speaker 2: his father cleanse a gunshot wound using a muzzleloader ramrod

226
00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:22,200
Speaker 2: to push a silk scarf through a man's abdomen. Crockett's

227
00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:24,920
Speaker 2: cousin shot his neighbor who was picking wild grapes in

228
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Speaker 2: the woods after he mistook him for a deer. It

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00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:30,840
Speaker 2: was a hunting accident. They called John Crockett, who saved

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Speaker 2: the man's life. David Crockett was one of nine siblings,

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Speaker 2: born fifth in the order. He was a middle child,

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Speaker 2: and he said, quote, I stood no chance to become

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Speaker 2: great in any other way than by accident. As my

234
00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:48,160
Speaker 2: father was very poor and living as he did far

235
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Speaker 2: in the backwoods.

236
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Speaker 4: He had neither the means.

237
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Speaker 2: Nor the opportunity to give me or any of the

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Speaker 2: rest of his children any learning.

239
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Speaker 4: End of quote.

240
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Speaker 2: Here's mister Morgan on Crockett's ex experience as a kid.

241
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Speaker 3: Well, he was hired to help drive a herd of

242
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Speaker 3: cattle up that wilderness road, the old road, all the

243
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Speaker 3: way into Virginia, I think beyond Lynchburg. That's really something

244
00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:16,960
Speaker 3: to think about, this twelve year old kid being sent

245
00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:19,240
Speaker 3: to do that kind of heavy work. I mean, driving

246
00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:22,800
Speaker 3: cattle is a kind of tough thing. You've got to

247
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Speaker 3: keep them in line. You've got to fend off the

248
00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:28,600
Speaker 3: dogs that run out and scare them and make sure

249
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Speaker 3: they have enough to eat. And in cattle on a

250
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Speaker 3: long crip line, you can possibly carry enough feed for them.

251
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Speaker 3: So you've got to find a place, usually at a

252
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Speaker 3: what's called a drover's stand, somebody who has a kind

253
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Speaker 3: of tavern, and you stay the night and they sell

254
00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:45,800
Speaker 3: you corn meal or something to feed your cattle, and

255
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Speaker 3: then you move on to some very rough people out

256
00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:51,680
Speaker 3: there on the road in those taverns. So Crockett from

257
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Speaker 3: a very early age was exposed to kind of rough society.

258
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Speaker 2: Crockett was exposed at an early age to the roughness

259
00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:03,840
Speaker 2: of the American frontier. I'm certain in his childhood the

260
00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:07,000
Speaker 2: people he dealt with greatly influenced who he would become,

261
00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:10,200
Speaker 2: how he talked, how he saw the world, who he was.

262
00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:13,160
Speaker 2: It appears to me that Crockett had a very tender,

263
00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:16,760
Speaker 2: loyal heart, and it's exposed many times in his book,

264
00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:20,760
Speaker 2: but can be lost in his boisterousness. This tender heart

265
00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:23,960
Speaker 2: will also be exposed later in his politics, as he

266
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,480
Speaker 2: would fight hard for the rights of the common people

267
00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:31,720
Speaker 2: and aggressively oppose the harsh Native American removal policies. As

268
00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:34,880
Speaker 2: a kid, he worked for this dutchman he was hired

269
00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:38,400
Speaker 2: out to for the entirety of their agreement. Crockett was

270
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:41,600
Speaker 2: an honest man, but decided the guy was just going

271
00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:44,600
Speaker 2: to keep him, so as a young boy, he planned

272
00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:48,800
Speaker 2: a secret escape. He wrote quote, I went to bed

273
00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:51,600
Speaker 2: early that night, but sleep seemed to be a stranger

274
00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:54,360
Speaker 2: to me. For though I was a wild boy, yet

275
00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:57,920
Speaker 2: I dearly loved my father and mother, and their images

276
00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:01,600
Speaker 2: appeared to be so deeply fixed in my mind that

277
00:17:01,680 --> 00:17:05,879
Speaker 2: I could not sleep for thinking about him. Crockett loved

278
00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:09,200
Speaker 2: his mom and dad. That leaves a tender mark on

279
00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:13,000
Speaker 2: one's legacy. Crockett leaves in a snowstorm that will cover

280
00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:15,800
Speaker 2: his tracks as he starts a treacherous at least one

281
00:17:15,880 --> 00:17:19,960
Speaker 2: hundred mile journey home. Here he talks about what happens.

282
00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:25,320
Speaker 2: I was fortunately overtaken by a gentleman who was returning

283
00:17:25,359 --> 00:17:27,560
Speaker 2: from market to which you had been, with a drove

284
00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:30,560
Speaker 2: of horses. He had a lead horse with a bridle

285
00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:33,040
Speaker 2: and saddle on him, and he kindly offered to let

286
00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:34,480
Speaker 2: me get on his horse and ride.

287
00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:36,640
Speaker 4: I did so, and was glad of the.

288
00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:39,720
Speaker 2: Chance, for I was tired, and moreover near the first

289
00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:42,880
Speaker 2: crossing of the Roanoak, which I would have been compelled

290
00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:45,560
Speaker 2: to wade, cold as the water was, if I had

291
00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:48,560
Speaker 2: not fortunately met this good man. I traveled with him

292
00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:51,879
Speaker 2: in this way without anything turning up worthy of recording,

293
00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:54,760
Speaker 2: until we got within fifteen miles of my father's house.

294
00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:57,879
Speaker 2: There we parted, and he went to Kentucky, and I

295
00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:01,439
Speaker 2: trudged on homeward which place I reached that evening. The

296
00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:05,119
Speaker 2: name of this kind gentleman I have entirely forgotten, and

297
00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:07,760
Speaker 2: I'm sorry for it, for it deserves a high place

298
00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:10,760
Speaker 2: in my little book. A remembrance of his kindness to

299
00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:14,760
Speaker 2: a little straggling boy and a stranger to him, has, however,

300
00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:18,160
Speaker 2: a resting place in my heart, and there it will

301
00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:24,040
Speaker 2: remain as long as I live. Crockett's tender recollection of

302
00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:27,640
Speaker 2: this stranger is touching. He would be loyal and generous

303
00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:31,120
Speaker 2: to his friends and his family his whole life. Crocatt

304
00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:33,440
Speaker 2: would make it home and stay for about a year

305
00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:36,159
Speaker 2: before his father tried to put him in school, but

306
00:18:36,359 --> 00:18:39,440
Speaker 2: Davy couldn't take it. He got in a fight at

307
00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:46,120
Speaker 2: school and started skipping class here's what happened. At last, However,

308
00:18:46,160 --> 00:18:49,240
Speaker 2: the master wrote a note to my father inquiring why

309
00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:51,760
Speaker 2: I was not sent to school. When he read this note,

310
00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:53,560
Speaker 2: he called me up, and I knew very well that

311
00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:55,600
Speaker 2: I was in a devil of a hobble, for my

312
00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:58,359
Speaker 2: father had been taking a few horns and was in

313
00:18:58,440 --> 00:19:01,480
Speaker 2: good condition to make the fur fly. He called on

314
00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:03,560
Speaker 2: me to know why I had not been to school,

315
00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:05,639
Speaker 2: and I told him I was afraid to go, and

316
00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:08,040
Speaker 2: that the master would whip me. For I knew quite

317
00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:10,760
Speaker 2: well if I turned over to this old kitchen, I

318
00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:13,240
Speaker 2: should be cooked up to a crackling in a little.

319
00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:13,720
Speaker 4: Or no time.

320
00:19:14,119 --> 00:19:16,600
Speaker 2: But I soon found that I was not to expect

321
00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:18,960
Speaker 2: a much better fate at home, for my father told

322
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,000
Speaker 2: me in a very angry manner, that he would whip

323
00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:23,359
Speaker 2: me an eternal sight worse than the master if I

324
00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:26,879
Speaker 2: didn't start immediately to the school. I tried again to

325
00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:29,679
Speaker 2: beg off that nothing would do but go to the school.

326
00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:33,879
Speaker 2: Finding me rather too slow about starting, he gathered about

327
00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:36,720
Speaker 2: a two year old hickory and broke after me. I

328
00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:38,640
Speaker 2: put out with all my might, and soon we were

329
00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:41,560
Speaker 2: both up to our top speed. We had a tolerable

330
00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:43,760
Speaker 2: tough race for about a mile. But mind me not

331
00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:45,960
Speaker 2: on the schoolhouse road, for I was trying to get

332
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:48,840
Speaker 2: as far as tother way as possible. And yet I

333
00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:51,040
Speaker 2: believe if my father and the school master could have

334
00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:53,280
Speaker 2: both levied on me at the same time, I should

335
00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:55,760
Speaker 2: have never been called on to sitting the counsels of

336
00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:58,520
Speaker 2: the nations, for I think they would have used me up.

337
00:19:58,880 --> 00:19:59,800
Speaker 4: But fortunately for.

338
00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:02,399
Speaker 2: Me, about this time I saw just before me a

339
00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:05,840
Speaker 2: hill over which I made headway like a young steamboat.

340
00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:08,000
Speaker 2: As soon as I had passed over it, I turned

341
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,119
Speaker 2: to one side and hid myself in the bushes. And

342
00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:13,440
Speaker 2: here I waited until the old gentleman passed by, puffing

343
00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:16,119
Speaker 2: and blowing as though his steam was high enough to

344
00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:19,159
Speaker 2: burst his boilers. I waited until he gave up his

345
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:22,480
Speaker 2: hunt and passed back again. Then I cut out and

346
00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:24,720
Speaker 2: went to the house of an old acquaintance a few

347
00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:27,399
Speaker 2: miles off, who was just about to start with the drove.

348
00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:31,040
Speaker 2: His name was Jesse Cheek, and I hired myself to

349
00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:35,040
Speaker 2: go with him, determining not to return home as home

350
00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:38,679
Speaker 2: in the schoolhouse had both become too hot for me.

351
00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:47,879
Speaker 2: Crockett bailed home in school when he was thirteen years old,

352
00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:51,200
Speaker 2: and he would be gone on a wild excursion for

353
00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:54,920
Speaker 2: over two years. He lives a wild life of adventure,

354
00:20:55,359 --> 00:20:58,960
Speaker 2: rivaling the fictional characters of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer,

355
00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:04,600
Speaker 2: exceptrocket stories were real. We'll later learn, surprise surprise, that

356
00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:09,280
Speaker 2: Crockett most definitely influenced Mark Twain's riding. Crockett would again

357
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:12,240
Speaker 2: work on a cattle drive, and as what he called

358
00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:16,920
Speaker 2: a wagoneer, he drove a wagon hauling supplies. Here's one

359
00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:25,280
Speaker 2: of Crockett's wagoneering tales. Our load consisted of flower in barrels.

360
00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:27,720
Speaker 2: Here I got into the wagon for the purpose of

361
00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:30,680
Speaker 2: changing my clothing, not thinking I was in any danger.

362
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,120
Speaker 2: But while I was in there, we were met by

363
00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:35,960
Speaker 2: some wheelbarrowed men who were working on the road, and

364
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,520
Speaker 2: the horses took a scare and away they went like

365
00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:41,280
Speaker 2: they'd seen a ghost. They made a sudden wheel around

366
00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:43,720
Speaker 2: and broke the wagon. Tongue slapped short off as a

367
00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:46,720
Speaker 2: pipe stem, and snap went both of the axles at

368
00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:50,080
Speaker 2: the same time, and all of the devilish flouncing of

369
00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:53,119
Speaker 2: the flower barrels that had ever been seen. Even a

370
00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:55,359
Speaker 2: rat would have stood a bad chance in a straight

371
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:58,320
Speaker 2: race among them, and not much better in a crooked one,

372
00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:00,520
Speaker 2: for he would have been in a good way to

373
00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:03,200
Speaker 2: be ground up as fine as ginger for their rolling

374
00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:06,199
Speaker 2: over him. But this proved to me that if a

375
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:08,320
Speaker 2: fellow is born to be hung.

376
00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:09,920
Speaker 4: He will never be drowned.

377
00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:13,159
Speaker 2: And further, if he is born for a seat in Congress,

378
00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:18,159
Speaker 2: even flower barrels can't make mash of him. If a

379
00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:22,280
Speaker 2: man's born to be hung, he'll never drowned. Now that's good,

380
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:25,399
Speaker 2: but I hope that isn't why I survived Briar Creek.

381
00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:29,200
Speaker 2: Remember this book is written in the peak of Crockett's

382
00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:32,720
Speaker 2: political career, so he often mentioned his seat in Congress.

383
00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:36,560
Speaker 2: On Crockett's sojourn at the age of fourteen, he was

384
00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:40,520
Speaker 2: minutes away from taking a job sailing to London when

385
00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:44,840
Speaker 2: his older wagoneer boss physically restrained him from going. Crockett

386
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:47,920
Speaker 2: would bounce around for some time more, but would head

387
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:52,199
Speaker 2: home to Tennessee after two years, but not before a

388
00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:55,840
Speaker 2: wild canoe ride trying to get home. This was Crockett's

389
00:22:55,840 --> 00:23:01,800
Speaker 2: own Briar Creek experience. When I reached the river at

390
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:04,160
Speaker 2: the mouth of the small stream called the Little River,

391
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:07,080
Speaker 2: the white caps were flying so that I couldn't get

392
00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:10,480
Speaker 2: anybody to attempt to put me across. I argued the

393
00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:12,359
Speaker 2: case as well as I could, but they told me

394
00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:15,040
Speaker 2: there was danger of being capsized and drowned if I

395
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 2: attempted to cross. I told them if I could get

396
00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:20,840
Speaker 2: a canoe, I would venture caps or no caps. They

397
00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:23,320
Speaker 2: tried to persuade me out of it, but finding they

398
00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,119
Speaker 2: could not, they agreed I might take a canoe, and

399
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:29,160
Speaker 2: so I did and put off. I tied my clothes

400
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:31,040
Speaker 2: to the rope of the canoe to have them safe

401
00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:34,840
Speaker 2: whatever might happen. But I found it mighty ticklish business,

402
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:37,520
Speaker 2: I tell you. When I got fairly out on the river,

403
00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:40,040
Speaker 2: I would have given the world if it had belonged

404
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:42,520
Speaker 2: to me, to have been back on shore. But there

405
00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:45,000
Speaker 2: was no time to lose now, so I just determined

406
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,360
Speaker 2: to do the best I could, and the devil take

407
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 2: the hind most. I turned the canoe across the waves

408
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:52,679
Speaker 2: to do which I had to turn it nearly up

409
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:55,399
Speaker 2: the river as the wind came from that way, and

410
00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:58,320
Speaker 2: I went two miles before I could land. When I

411
00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:00,960
Speaker 2: struck land, my canoe was about a full of water,

412
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:03,600
Speaker 2: and I was as wet as a drowned rat. But

413
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:06,679
Speaker 2: I was so rejoiced that I scarcely felt the cold,

414
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,240
Speaker 2: though my clothes were frozen on me. And in this situation,

415
00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 2: I had to go above three miles before I could

416
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:18,199
Speaker 2: find any house or fire to warmat. I'm certain that

417
00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:22,600
Speaker 2: was a wild ride. He ended up two miles downstream anyway.

418
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:24,800
Speaker 2: Crockett was on his way home after two and a

419
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:29,520
Speaker 2: half years, and he returns to his father's tavern completely unannounced.

420
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:35,360
Speaker 2: He's now fifteen years old and they don't recognize him.

421
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 2: I then went to my father's, which place I had

422
00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 2: reached late in the evening. Several wagons were there for

423
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:45,439
Speaker 2: the night, and a considerable company about the house. I

424
00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:47,480
Speaker 2: inquired if I could stay all night, for I did

425
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,720
Speaker 2: not intend to make myself known until I saw whether

426
00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:53,199
Speaker 2: any of the family would find me out. I was

427
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:55,479
Speaker 2: told that I could stay, and I went in, but

428
00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:58,760
Speaker 2: had mighty little to say to anybody. I'd been gone

429
00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 2: so long and had grown so much that the family

430
00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 2: didn't know me at first. And another, and perhaps a

431
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:08,080
Speaker 2: stronger reason was they had no thought or expectation of me,

432
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 2: for they all long given me up for finally lost

433
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:14,639
Speaker 2: after a while we were all called to supper. I

434
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:17,080
Speaker 2: went with the rest. We had sat down at the

435
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:20,800
Speaker 2: table and begun to eat. When my eldest sister recollected me.

436
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:24,440
Speaker 2: She sprung up ran and seized me around the neck

437
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:28,720
Speaker 2: and claimed, here is my lost brother. My feelings at

438
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:31,159
Speaker 2: this time it would be vain and foolish for me

439
00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:34,800
Speaker 2: to attempt to describe I had often thought I felt before,

440
00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:37,919
Speaker 2: and I suppose I had, but sure I am I

441
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 2: had never felt as I did then. The joy of

442
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:44,080
Speaker 2: my sisters and my mother, and indeed all of the family,

443
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:47,399
Speaker 2: was such that it humbled me and made me sorry

444
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:50,879
Speaker 2: I hadn't submitted to one hundred whippings sooner than caused

445
00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,320
Speaker 2: so much affliction as they had suffered. On my account.

446
00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 2: I found the family had never heard a word for me.

447
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:59,000
Speaker 2: From the time my brother left me, I was now

448
00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:02,200
Speaker 2: almost fifteen years old, and my increased age in size,

449
00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:04,600
Speaker 2: together with the joy of my father occasioned by my

450
00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:08,199
Speaker 2: unexpected return, I was sure would secure me against my

451
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:11,480
Speaker 2: long dreaded whipping, And so they did. But it will

452
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,119
Speaker 2: be a source of astonishment to many who reflect that

453
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:16,840
Speaker 2: I am now a member of the American Congress, the

454
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:19,760
Speaker 2: most enlightened body of men in the world that at

455
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 2: so advanced an age, the age of fifteen, I did

456
00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 2: not know the first letter in the book. Here's an

457
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:32,600
Speaker 2: interesting parallel between Crockett and Boone. Both were gone on

458
00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:36,560
Speaker 2: a two year transformative journey and then reunited with their

459
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:40,760
Speaker 2: families and changed enlightened men. Daniel Boone went to Kentucky

460
00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:44,199
Speaker 2: for two years. His family assumed him dead, and the

461
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:47,119
Speaker 2: legend has it when he returned, Rebecca was nursing a

462
00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:51,680
Speaker 2: newborn child fathered by Boone's brother. It said Rebecca didn't

463
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,639
Speaker 2: recognize him when he returned and thought him a stranger.

464
00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:55,719
Speaker 4: Interesting.

465
00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:59,480
Speaker 2: Here's mister Morgan with more stuff that sounds a lot

466
00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:04,160
Speaker 2: like Boone, but also some interesting insight into Crockett's influence

467
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:08,280
Speaker 2: on American culture through a writer that helped tell the

468
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:09,560
Speaker 2: world who we were.

469
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 3: All his life he was acting a part. He was

470
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:20,720
Speaker 3: like Boone in that way. He loved to create a

471
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:24,760
Speaker 3: persona and it started very early that people would remember him.

472
00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:28,760
Speaker 3: He have this fabulous ability to make people remember him

473
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:32,439
Speaker 3: and to always be the center of attention. He was

474
00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:36,159
Speaker 3: a storyteller that people who met him remembered him, and

475
00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:40,000
Speaker 3: this came in very handy in politics later and probably

476
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:43,200
Speaker 3: when he was in the military. And remember that when

477
00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:47,119
Speaker 3: he's writing the narrative of his life, he wants to

478
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,359
Speaker 3: tell it so people would be entertained, and he was

479
00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:54,520
Speaker 3: hoping to run for president. So it's not that, you know,

480
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:58,399
Speaker 3: necessarily he wasn't telling it accurately, but he wanted to

481
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:03,879
Speaker 3: tell it memorably. But one of the greatest influences he

482
00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 3: ever had was Mark Twain. He's not only a model

483
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:11,159
Speaker 3: for Lincoln in the politics. Read a little bit of

484
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:14,440
Speaker 3: his autobiography and then read the first page of Huckleberry

485
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:19,359
Speaker 3: Finn and you will see the impact he had in

486
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 3: storytelling first person in dialect.

487
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:24,359
Speaker 2: So Crockett had influence on Mark Twain.

488
00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:27,560
Speaker 3: He absolutely did, yes, and then other writers, but the

489
00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:31,440
Speaker 3: greatest impact was on Mark Twain. The stories, even some

490
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:34,240
Speaker 3: of that was taken out of Huckleberry Finn and the

491
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:38,960
Speaker 3: Tall Tale where the guys fight on the barge. I'm

492
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:43,000
Speaker 3: half alligator, half horse, et cetera. That that's Crockett and

493
00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:46,520
Speaker 3: that had a you know, on Southwestern humor. But I'm

494
00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:49,400
Speaker 3: the greatest writer of the period of Mark Twain, and

495
00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:52,959
Speaker 3: so that's part of this tremendous impact that Crockett had

496
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:54,000
Speaker 3: on American culture.

497
00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:59,800
Speaker 2: Crockett influenced the way Americans told stories. Mark Twain was

498
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 2: born in eighteen thirty five, about four months before Crockett

499
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:07,600
Speaker 2: died in March of eighteen thirty six. Their lives barely

500
00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 2: overlapped the people our lives barely overlap is interesting to consider.

501
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:17,120
Speaker 2: I was born in nineteen seventy nine, so certainly when

502
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 2: I was born there were people alive from the eighteen hundreds,

503
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:24,040
Speaker 2: when people relied on horses for transportation, and the creation

504
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 2: of the automobile and the airplane hadn't happened. Time has

505
00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:31,760
Speaker 2: considered the fourth dimension of reality, and hard units of

506
00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:36,320
Speaker 2: time measured in years, months, and hours are deceptive. Time

507
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 2: is a mysterious, intoxicating phenomenon, often measured more functionally by

508
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 2: fickle units of feelings, like that feels like it was

509
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:50,440
Speaker 2: a long time ago, or that feels like it happened quick.

510
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 4: Time is rarely perceived as it actually is.

511
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:57,520
Speaker 2: We interact with time as if it's a physical substance

512
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:00,360
Speaker 2: like water that can be measured and touched, But it's

513
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 2: more like a spiritual substance that we interact with but

514
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:05,719
Speaker 2: can't see and can't manipulate.

515
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 4: What's my point.

516
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:11,640
Speaker 2: Crockett's life and ours aren't that far apart. Back to

517
00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 2: Crockett's childhood. After Crockett returns home at age fifteen, he's

518
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:19,920
Speaker 2: immediately farmed out again to pay his father's debt.

519
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 4: Poverty is ruthless.

520
00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:25,080
Speaker 2: This was normal back then, so Crockett didn't seem to

521
00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:27,760
Speaker 2: think much of it. The debt was thirty six dollars

522
00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:29,760
Speaker 2: and it took him six months to pay it off.

523
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,000
Speaker 2: But it's here that Crockett began to work for himself

524
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:35,760
Speaker 2: and finds a man that will be very influential in

525
00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 2: his life. I want you to hear it straight from Crockett.

526
00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 2: I next went to the house of an honest Quaker

527
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 2: by the name of John Cannaday, who had removed from

528
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:50,160
Speaker 2: North Carolina, and proposed to hire myself to him at

529
00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 2: two shillings a day. He agreed to take me up

530
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 2: on a week trial, and at the end which he

531
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:57,520
Speaker 2: appeared pleased with my work, informed me that he held

532
00:30:57,560 --> 00:31:00,920
Speaker 2: a note on my father for forty dollars that he

533
00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:03,040
Speaker 2: would give me that note if I would work for

534
00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 2: him for six months. I was certain enough that I

535
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 2: should never get any part of the note. But then

536
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:10,360
Speaker 2: I remembered that it was my father that owed it,

537
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:12,840
Speaker 2: and I concluded it was my duty as a child

538
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 2: to help him along and to ease his lot as

539
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:17,840
Speaker 2: much as I could. I told the Quaker I would

540
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:20,600
Speaker 2: take him up at his offer, and immediately went to work.

541
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,840
Speaker 2: I never visited my father's house during the whole time

542
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,800
Speaker 2: of this engagement, though he lived only fifteen miles off.

543
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 2: But when it was finished and I had got the note,

544
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 2: I borrowed one of my employer's horses, and on a

545
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:36,120
Speaker 2: Sunday evening went to pay my parents a visit. Sometime

546
00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:38,160
Speaker 2: after I got there, I pulled out the note and

547
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:41,760
Speaker 2: handed it to my father, who supposed mister Cannaday had

548
00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:45,680
Speaker 2: sent up for collection. The old man looked mighty sorry

549
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:48,360
Speaker 2: and said to me he had not the money to

550
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:51,240
Speaker 2: pay it and didn't know what he should do. I

551
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 2: then told him that I had paid it for him,

552
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:55,840
Speaker 2: and it was then his own, that it was not

553
00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:59,480
Speaker 2: presented for collection, but as a present for me. At

554
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:02,080
Speaker 2: this he shed a heap of tears, and as soon

555
00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:04,040
Speaker 2: as he got a little over it, he said he

556
00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 2: was sorry he couldn't give me anything, but he was

557
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:12,760
Speaker 2: not able he was too poor. Here you see deep

558
00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:16,200
Speaker 2: into Crockett's character and again you see that love he

559
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:21,120
Speaker 2: had for his father. Here's Robert Morgan on Canaday's influence.

560
00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 3: Canaday had an enormous influence over the young Crockett. He

561
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:31,440
Speaker 3: was literate, it was kind. He influenced him in I'm

562
00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:33,719
Speaker 3: sure in the use of language that here was an

563
00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:37,719
Speaker 3: educated person who gave him an example of somebody who

564
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:42,000
Speaker 3: knew how to speak. It was generous one of his sons,

565
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 3: I think around a school, and he worked out this

566
00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 3: deal with the son that he would work four days

567
00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:49,800
Speaker 3: a week and get two days of education. Or maybe

568
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:52,960
Speaker 3: it was vice versa, but it was the young Canaday

569
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,320
Speaker 3: who really taught him to read and write and do arithmetic.

570
00:32:58,520 --> 00:32:59,800
Speaker 4: Canaday was a father.

571
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:03,240
Speaker 2: Father figure for him, really absolutely in a critical period

572
00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:07,000
Speaker 2: of a young man's life from sixteen to twenty one, boy,

573
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,200
Speaker 2: that is right when somebody is really trying to figure

574
00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:13,640
Speaker 2: out who they are. And Canaday was such a stark

575
00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:19,360
Speaker 2: contrast from his own father, who was a poor, impoverished backwoodsman.

576
00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:22,960
Speaker 2: But then Canaday was a staunch Quaker.

577
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:28,160
Speaker 3: He was very, very strict. He didn't believe in dancing,

578
00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:32,120
Speaker 3: didn't believe in parties, and Crockett and his friend would

579
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:35,840
Speaker 3: slip out a day and go to these parties. Crockett

580
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:38,400
Speaker 3: always life loved to dance.

581
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:40,640
Speaker 2: To the fiddle, He loved to play the fiddle.

582
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 3: He liked to drink, and he'd go out to these

583
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:46,480
Speaker 3: parties and drink several horns, as he called it.

584
00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:48,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, a drink was a horn.

585
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 3: Then he would slip back in.

586
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:55,640
Speaker 2: It's hard to estimate the power of people's influence who

587
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 2: are outside of our immediate family, especially when you're between

588
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:02,280
Speaker 2: the ages of sixteen and twenty one. And a big

589
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:06,760
Speaker 2: part of Crockett was his love for dancing, fiddling, and drinking.

590
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:13,400
Speaker 3: The Kennedy period overlapped with the beginning of the romantic period.

591
00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:17,959
Speaker 3: At a very young age, Crockett discovered girls who could

592
00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:22,759
Speaker 3: say and fell just absolutely hid over heels in love.

593
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:26,240
Speaker 3: Turned out, the woman I think her name was Margaret,

594
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:31,000
Speaker 3: Margaret Elder, was already well, she did marry somebody else.

595
00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:32,480
Speaker 2: He first jilted him.

596
00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:35,400
Speaker 3: Before that, he fell in love with one of Kennedy's

597
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:38,399
Speaker 3: relatives and she was already engaged, very kind to him,

598
00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:44,640
Speaker 3: but he just absolutely was dazed by this beautiful girls

599
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:45,760
Speaker 3: around him.

600
00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:46,520
Speaker 2: I guess.

601
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:50,840
Speaker 3: When he was about twenty, he married Polly Findlay, the

602
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:55,640
Speaker 3: beautiful and very kind woman his first wife, and worked

603
00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:57,960
Speaker 3: on a farm. They rented a farm. She had to

604
00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:01,440
Speaker 3: work very hard. They had two sons, and he realized

605
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 3: he couldn't really make anything. He had to pay a

606
00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:07,920
Speaker 3: lot for rent on that farm, and they just weren't

607
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:11,200
Speaker 3: getting ahead at tall. One of the famous sentences in

608
00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:15,160
Speaker 3: his autobiography is I realized I was better at making

609
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 3: a family at increasing a family, increasing my fortune.

610
00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:24,480
Speaker 2: Another thing he said in his autobiography he said when

611
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:28,040
Speaker 2: he was actually talking about his first serious love with

612
00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:30,680
Speaker 2: a girl that jilted him, as he said, I would

613
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,960
Speaker 2: have agreed to fight a whole regiment of wildcats if

614
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:35,920
Speaker 2: she would have only said she would have had me.

615
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:39,560
Speaker 3: He was always so colorful, but he was very good

616
00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:44,080
Speaker 3: at hyperbolated exaggerations, and also the things to do with

617
00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 3: animals of the wilderness, with hunting. That was part of

618
00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:50,640
Speaker 3: his charm that he had this background, very different from

619
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:55,040
Speaker 3: most other leaders and politicians, and he could draw on

620
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:59,000
Speaker 3: that again like Lincoln who held all these stories from

621
00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:02,000
Speaker 3: the farm and from the wild part of the country.

622
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:08,120
Speaker 2: People loved Crockett because his humanity was always on full display.

623
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:12,359
Speaker 2: He goes into considerable detail about being jilted the day

624
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:16,040
Speaker 2: before his wedding. He said, quote, this was as sudden

625
00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:17,919
Speaker 2: to me as a clap of thunder on a bright,

626
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,399
Speaker 2: shiny day. It was the capstone of all the afflictions

627
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 2: I had ever been met with, and it seemed to

628
00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:27,040
Speaker 2: me that it was more than any human creature could endure.

629
00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:30,439
Speaker 2: It struck me perfectly speechless for some time, and made

630
00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:33,320
Speaker 2: me feel so weak that I thought I should sink down.

631
00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:36,880
Speaker 2: My heart was bruised and my spirits were broken down.

632
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 2: So I bit her farewell, and turned my lonesome and

633
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:44,120
Speaker 2: miserable steps back again homeward. My appetite failed me and

634
00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:47,440
Speaker 2: grew daily worse and worse. They all thought I was sick,

635
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,800
Speaker 2: and so I was. It was the worst kind of sickness,

636
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 2: a sickness of the heart and all the tender parts

637
00:36:54,200 --> 00:36:56,160
Speaker 2: produced by disappointed love.

638
00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:57,600
Speaker 4: End of quote.

639
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:01,840
Speaker 2: Despite being a heartbroken by this, Gal Crockett, at age

640
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:06,359
Speaker 2: twenty in eighteen oh six, would marry Polly Finley, and

641
00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:10,200
Speaker 2: they quickly had two sons. It was clear that Crockett

642
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:14,640
Speaker 2: really loved Polly. They settled in Jefferson County in Finley's Gap,

643
00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:19,000
Speaker 2: approximately sixty miles south of the Cumberland Gap in near

644
00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:23,759
Speaker 2: current day Knoxville, Tennessee. Polly was a weaver and a homemaker.

645
00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:28,200
Speaker 2: David farmed, hunted, and often attended shooting matches, which he

646
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 2: regularly won. He was legitimately an incredible shot, no myth needed.

647
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:37,960
Speaker 2: David had bought his first forty eight caliber flintlock rifle

648
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:41,440
Speaker 2: from Canaday's son when he was seventeen years old. He

649
00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:45,239
Speaker 2: later traded the gun to James mcquisten. The gun is

650
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:50,680
Speaker 2: still in possession of mcquistin's relatives today. I was able

651
00:37:50,719 --> 00:37:54,200
Speaker 2: to travel to East Tennessee to see the gun they

652
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:58,359
Speaker 2: call Betsy, and to meet the owner, Joe Swan and

653
00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:03,560
Speaker 2: his son Ben behind glass in the East Tennessee Historical

654
00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:11,360
Speaker 2: Society Museum in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. I'm inside of the museum.

655
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:14,000
Speaker 4: Oh, I think you're right on the top one.

656
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:20,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, I try that. Oh. Wow, is that amazing year

657
00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:22,680
Speaker 1: old gun has got its own spring in it?

658
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:30,160
Speaker 2: Wow? The gun has a patch box to store ball

659
00:38:30,239 --> 00:38:33,520
Speaker 2: patches hollowed out of the butt stock with a brass

660
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:38,560
Speaker 2: spring opening lid that opens with amazing precision and smoothness

661
00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:42,920
Speaker 2: like the glove box of a Mercedes Benz. So I'm

662
00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:47,319
Speaker 2: standing here at the East Tennessee Historical Society Museum with

663
00:38:47,880 --> 00:38:53,080
Speaker 2: Joe Swan. Joe, you own one of Crockett's first guns.

664
00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:54,280
Speaker 3: Is that right? That's true?

665
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:57,879
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, we're just sitting here looking at it. How

666
00:38:57,880 --> 00:38:59,879
Speaker 2: did you come about owning this gun?

667
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:05,400
Speaker 1: Well, my father had told me. When the Disney Crockett

668
00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:08,319
Speaker 1: thing came about, I got so excited about it. I

669
00:39:08,360 --> 00:39:10,600
Speaker 1: had to have all the stuff that they sold and

670
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:14,759
Speaker 1: all that business, and so I really was into Crockett

671
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:18,359
Speaker 1: in a big way, more than most kids, probably even

672
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:19,719
Speaker 1: for that era. There are a lot of us that

673
00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:24,759
Speaker 1: were Crockett fanatics because of the Disney shows. But the

674
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:28,279
Speaker 1: whole process of finding out that Crockett had been a

675
00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 1: neighbor of my ancestors up in Dandridge and Jefferson County, Tennessee,

676
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:38,040
Speaker 1: and knowing that there was a real Crockett out there,

677
00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:41,120
Speaker 1: not just the one we saw on TV, that my

678
00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:43,799
Speaker 1: family had known and been involved with.

679
00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:50,280
Speaker 2: Joe's great great grandfather, James mcquisten, traded Crockett a horse

680
00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:51,000
Speaker 2: for the gun in.

681
00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:51,799
Speaker 4: Eighteen oh three.

682
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:56,640
Speaker 2: It's a forty eight caliber Kentucky long rifle style muzzloader.

683
00:39:56,920 --> 00:40:00,200
Speaker 2: It was made in Pennsylvania in seventeen ninety two. It

684
00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:02,680
Speaker 2: says that on the gun it's sixty two and a

685
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:05,680
Speaker 2: half inches long and weighs ten and a half pounds.

686
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,400
Speaker 2: It has a swamp barrel, which means that tapers to

687
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:12,760
Speaker 2: the smallest point near the middle of the barrel, making

688
00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:17,160
Speaker 2: the balance point just right. So with Quistin ended up

689
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 2: with this gun that ultimately one hundred and fifty years

690
00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:23,320
Speaker 2: later ended up was your cousin's.

691
00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:23,879
Speaker 6: Yep.

692
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:25,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, it made its way all the way to the

693
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:27,040
Speaker 1: coast Californian back.

694
00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:30,360
Speaker 2: But yeah, now when your cousin had it, did people

695
00:40:30,680 --> 00:40:32,080
Speaker 2: know about it or was it just kind of like

696
00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:34,920
Speaker 2: in the family we just knew. Yep, old cousin Bill's

697
00:40:34,960 --> 00:40:36,160
Speaker 2: got Crocott's gun.

698
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:43,360
Speaker 1: My father's uncle. My dad went out to Oklahoma to

699
00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:46,600
Speaker 1: visit and that's where he saw the Crockett rifle, and

700
00:40:46,640 --> 00:40:49,360
Speaker 1: so he remembered that. And then when he told me

701
00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:54,560
Speaker 1: about that story, you got me interested in going out

702
00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:55,840
Speaker 1: to try to get the.

703
00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:58,239
Speaker 4: Rifle back in the seventies.

704
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:01,239
Speaker 1: Yes, nineteen seventy seven it, yes, and.

705
00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:03,960
Speaker 2: So this is Joe's son Ben. You said your dad

706
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:06,440
Speaker 2: used to take this gun to your elementary school.

707
00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:10,520
Speaker 8: Yeah, I grew up with dad bringing the rifle to

708
00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:12,600
Speaker 8: classrooms and different events.

709
00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:14,799
Speaker 2: And is that hanging around the house for a lot

710
00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:18,080
Speaker 2: of years before you let them display it here?

711
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:20,919
Speaker 8: It's been in other museums, and so Dad's always wanted

712
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:23,080
Speaker 8: people to see it, and you know, doesn't want to

713
00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:24,759
Speaker 8: hide in a dark room. It needs to be looked

714
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:28,280
Speaker 8: at and appreciate it. And it's a beautiful piece of history.

715
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:30,319
Speaker 2: So here here's the question of the hour. Have you

716
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:35,799
Speaker 2: ever shot it? Would it shoot? I bet it would shoot.

717
00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:38,840
Speaker 1: It probably, Yes, yes, it probably would shoot, but it

718
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:44,200
Speaker 1: would be it's just too old. The wood particularly so dry,

719
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:46,399
Speaker 1: and the wood is so delicate, I mean it's so thin.

720
00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:51,720
Speaker 2: And what kind of curly which is a strong wood?

721
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:52,200
Speaker 6: Yes?

722
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:56,880
Speaker 1: Yes, very very hard. Well, it was the wood everybody wanted.

723
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:00,600
Speaker 2: Really, was this gun like a really nice gun or

724
00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:01,439
Speaker 2: an average gun?

725
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:03,879
Speaker 1: It was a nice gun. Yeah, it was a better

726
00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:04,800
Speaker 1: than an average gun.

727
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:07,919
Speaker 2: I would a young, impoverished Crockett would have been able

728
00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:08,560
Speaker 2: to afford that.

729
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:11,920
Speaker 1: I mean, I think by the time he got in

730
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:13,920
Speaker 1: it to be about twenty was just about the time

731
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:16,799
Speaker 1: I think he got this gun. He would have accumulated

732
00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:21,680
Speaker 1: enough of trading. He was a pretty good trader to

733
00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:24,600
Speaker 1: get enough enough money to buy a nice gun like that.

734
00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:26,920
Speaker 2: You know, I think Crockett was smart enough to know

735
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:29,840
Speaker 2: what the limiting factor was in his hunting, so he

736
00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:32,239
Speaker 2: knew he had to have a good gun. He lived

737
00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:34,400
Speaker 2: in a shanty and didn't have much money, but he

738
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:38,840
Speaker 2: knew he needed to invest in a good gun. I

739
00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:43,000
Speaker 2: think that highly successful people are good at identifying limiting

740
00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:47,760
Speaker 2: factors in their success and targeting those areas. In Crockett's time,

741
00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:51,640
Speaker 2: a muslim loading rifle was a major limiting factor to

742
00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:55,880
Speaker 2: hunting and war success. Today it's not as much the

743
00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:58,480
Speaker 2: cheapest gun on the market is going to shoot okay

744
00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:03,240
Speaker 2: under normal condition. Back then, wet powdering guns not firing

745
00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:07,040
Speaker 2: were extremely common. The good guns were more consistent, and

746
00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:08,840
Speaker 2: a young Crockett bought.

747
00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:09,160
Speaker 4: A good one.

748
00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:13,080
Speaker 2: Now, now, why do we call this one Betsy.

749
00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:16,160
Speaker 1: That's more what everybody else calls it.

750
00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:20,400
Speaker 2: So that wasn't that's not really connected back to Crockett.

751
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:24,280
Speaker 1: Crockett had a sister, Betsy that it was his favorite sister,

752
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:27,200
Speaker 1: and she was the youngest sister. I believe by being her,

753
00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:30,480
Speaker 1: his favorite. I think he started calling his guns Betsy

754
00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:31,280
Speaker 1: after his sister.

755
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:35,400
Speaker 9: Might be safe to say this is Davy's oldest rifle,

756
00:43:35,560 --> 00:43:38,839
Speaker 9: but it's impossible to say if it was his first. Right,

757
00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:41,880
Speaker 9: So some people say his first rifle was called old Betsy,

758
00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:44,200
Speaker 9: but I think that name was something that just stuck

759
00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:46,880
Speaker 9: with his rifles, and it's hard to say, you know

760
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:48,600
Speaker 9: what I mean, which was his first rifle?

761
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:51,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, his Crockett had this before he was the Davy

762
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:53,000
Speaker 2: Crockett that we know.

763
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:55,400
Speaker 1: Right before he became Davy Crockett.

764
00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:56,480
Speaker 6: Yeah.

765
00:43:56,120 --> 00:43:58,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wonder if they ever and I know you

766
00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:00,480
Speaker 2: don't know the answer to this, no one, but I

767
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:02,720
Speaker 2: wonder if they used it just like as a functional

768
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 2: gun for a long time, because, you know, people, the

769
00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:08,200
Speaker 2: way we treat history is a lot of times you

770
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:12,799
Speaker 2: don't know something was special until a generation later. You know,

771
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:15,920
Speaker 2: it would have just been like, well, yeah, it's David

772
00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:18,319
Speaker 2: Crockett's gun. Big deal, let's go kill a deer, let's

773
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:21,879
Speaker 2: go shoot a bear. And then eventually Crockett becomes this

774
00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:27,040
Speaker 2: national hero and his fame grows after his death, and

775
00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:29,000
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden, it's like, oh, we have

776
00:44:29,120 --> 00:44:33,520
Speaker 2: David Crockett's gun because like it, I even equated in

777
00:44:33,560 --> 00:44:37,000
Speaker 2: some ways to Native American stone points. There was a

778
00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:41,560
Speaker 2: time when people finding stone points on the ground it

779
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:45,399
Speaker 2: was so common because it happened so recently that it

780
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:47,560
Speaker 2: was just they didn't pick him up. But today when

781
00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:50,120
Speaker 2: we see a stone point, it's like it's a major

782
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:51,719
Speaker 2: thing to find it. And there was a time when

783
00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:55,400
Speaker 2: it wasn't even just a common common thing, And there

784
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:57,840
Speaker 2: would have been a time when everybody in the woods

785
00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:01,240
Speaker 2: had a gun just like this. And then it's interesting

786
00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:04,240
Speaker 2: to me to think about when did this become something

787
00:45:04,480 --> 00:45:05,280
Speaker 2: so special?

788
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:05,759
Speaker 3: You know?

789
00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:09,520
Speaker 2: And Walt Disney helped, I guess in the nineteen fifties.

790
00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:10,720
Speaker 1: He helped a lot.

791
00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:13,800
Speaker 4: Joe and Ben.

792
00:45:13,920 --> 00:45:17,520
Speaker 2: Let me hold Crockett's old gun and look down the barrel,

793
00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:19,680
Speaker 2: the long barrel and iron sights.

794
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:20,400
Speaker 4: Feel good.

795
00:45:20,800 --> 00:45:24,239
Speaker 2: You can see a video of old Betsy on my Instagram,

796
00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:27,799
Speaker 2: and you can even buy an exact replica of this

797
00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:30,759
Speaker 2: gun and go hunting. I don't know why we get

798
00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:35,160
Speaker 2: excited about physical, common objects that were handled by famous people,

799
00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:36,319
Speaker 2: but humans have.

800
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:37,359
Speaker 4: Always done this.

801
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:44,760
Speaker 2: We're gonna get back to the chronology of Crockett's movement,

802
00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:48,000
Speaker 2: West David and poly stayed in Jefferson County until the

803
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:51,440
Speaker 2: fall of eighteen eleven, when they headed further west. Crockett

804
00:45:51,440 --> 00:45:54,239
Speaker 2: said there weren't enough bears there and he wanted to

805
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:57,280
Speaker 2: head deeper into the frontier, and he ended up settling

806
00:45:57,360 --> 00:46:01,279
Speaker 2: in Lincoln County, Tennessee, south of current in Nashville, at

807
00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:04,680
Speaker 2: the mouth of Mulberry Creek on the Elk River. Crockett

808
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:08,640
Speaker 2: was now twenty five years old. He said, quote, I

809
00:46:08,719 --> 00:46:11,279
Speaker 2: found this a very rich country, and so knew that

810
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:14,680
Speaker 2: game of different sorts was plenty. It was here that

811
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:17,960
Speaker 2: I began to distinguish myself as a hunter and lay

812
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:20,520
Speaker 2: the foundation for all my future greatness.

813
00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:23,960
Speaker 4: But mighty little did I know of what sort it

814
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:24,560
Speaker 4: was going to be.

815
00:46:24,760 --> 00:46:27,799
Speaker 2: End of quote from Crockett's own mouth, We see that

816
00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:30,520
Speaker 2: he viewed himself as a hunter. He's coming of age,

817
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:32,400
Speaker 2: and this is that time period when he said he

818
00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:35,280
Speaker 2: had seven of the most vicious bear dogs in the South.

819
00:46:36,160 --> 00:46:39,440
Speaker 2: I want to read another account of one of Crockett's

820
00:46:39,520 --> 00:46:45,520
Speaker 2: bear hunts that he included in his autobiography. That night

821
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:48,040
Speaker 2: there fell a heavy rain and it turned to a sleet.

822
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:51,560
Speaker 2: In the morning, all hands turned out hunting. My young

823
00:46:51,640 --> 00:46:53,920
Speaker 2: man and a brother in law who had lately settled

824
00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 2: close by me, went down river to hunt for turkeys,

825
00:46:56,840 --> 00:46:59,640
Speaker 2: but I was for larger game. I told them I

826
00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:02,359
Speaker 2: had a dreamed the night before, and I knowed it

827
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:04,640
Speaker 2: was a sign that I was to have a battle

828
00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:07,880
Speaker 2: with a bear, for in bear country. I never knowed

829
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:10,800
Speaker 2: such a dream to fail, so I started up above

830
00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:14,080
Speaker 2: the hurricane, determined to have a bear. I had two

831
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:16,839
Speaker 2: pretty good dogs and an old hound, all of which

832
00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:19,960
Speaker 2: I took along. I had gone about six miles up river,

833
00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:23,000
Speaker 2: and it was about four miles across to the main obien,

834
00:47:23,320 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 2: so I determined to strike across that, as I had

835
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:28,959
Speaker 2: found nothing yet to kill. I got onto the river

836
00:47:29,160 --> 00:47:32,040
Speaker 2: and turned down it. But the sleep was getting worse

837
00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:34,560
Speaker 2: and worse. The bushes were all bent down and locked

838
00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:37,800
Speaker 2: together with ice, so it was almost impossible to get along.

839
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:41,120
Speaker 2: In a little time, my dog started a large gang

840
00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:44,000
Speaker 2: of old gobbler turkeys, and I killed two of them

841
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:46,840
Speaker 2: of the biggest sort. I shouldered them up and moved

842
00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:49,080
Speaker 2: them on until I got through the hurricane. When I

843
00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:51,880
Speaker 2: was so tired, I laid my gobblers down to rest,

844
00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:55,040
Speaker 2: as they were confounded heavy, and I was mighty tired.

845
00:47:55,480 --> 00:47:57,680
Speaker 2: While I was resting, my old hound went to a

846
00:47:57,719 --> 00:48:01,279
Speaker 2: log and smelted awhile, then raised his eyes towards the.

847
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:02,319
Speaker 4: Sky and cried out.

848
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:05,279
Speaker 2: Away he went, and my other dogs with him, and

849
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:07,919
Speaker 2: I shouldered my turkeys again and followed on as hard

850
00:48:07,920 --> 00:48:10,279
Speaker 2: as I could drive. They were soon out of sight,

851
00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:12,760
Speaker 2: and the very little time I heard them begin to bark.

852
00:48:13,239 --> 00:48:15,400
Speaker 2: When I got to them, they were barking up a tree,

853
00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:18,279
Speaker 2: but there was no game there. I concluded it had

854
00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:20,719
Speaker 2: been a turkey, and that it had flew away when

855
00:48:20,719 --> 00:48:23,399
Speaker 2: they saw me coming. They went away again, and after

856
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:26,239
Speaker 2: a little time began to bark as before. When I

857
00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:28,080
Speaker 2: got near him, I found they were barking up the

858
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:30,839
Speaker 2: wrong tree again, as there was no game there. They

859
00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:33,160
Speaker 2: served me in this way three or four times, until

860
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:35,800
Speaker 2: I was so infernal mad that I determined if I

861
00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:38,560
Speaker 2: could get near enough to shoot the old hound at least.

862
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:41,520
Speaker 2: With this intention, I pushed on the harder till I

863
00:48:41,600 --> 00:48:44,720
Speaker 2: came to the edge of an open area, and looking

864
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:47,719
Speaker 2: on before my dogs, I saw in and about the

865
00:48:47,760 --> 00:48:52,360
Speaker 2: biggest bear that ever was seen in America. He looked

866
00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:54,960
Speaker 2: at the distance he was for me like a large

867
00:48:55,040 --> 00:48:58,160
Speaker 2: black bull. My dogs were afraid to attack him, and

868
00:48:58,239 --> 00:49:00,400
Speaker 2: that was the reason they had stopped so often that

869
00:49:00,480 --> 00:49:03,440
Speaker 2: I might overtake them. But they were now almost up

870
00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:05,760
Speaker 2: with him, and I took my gobblers from my back

871
00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:08,239
Speaker 2: and hung them up in a sapling and broke like

872
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:10,520
Speaker 2: a quarter horse after my bear, for the sight of

873
00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:13,279
Speaker 2: him had put new springs in me. I soon got

874
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:16,240
Speaker 2: near them, but they were just getting into a roaring thicket,

875
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:17,960
Speaker 2: and so I couldn't run through it, but had to

876
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:20,759
Speaker 2: pick my way along and had to work close even

877
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:23,080
Speaker 2: at that And a little time I saw the bear

878
00:49:23,200 --> 00:49:26,360
Speaker 2: climbing up a large black oak tree, and I crawled

879
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:28,640
Speaker 2: on till I got within about eighty yards of him.

880
00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:31,000
Speaker 2: He was setting with his breast towards me, and so

881
00:49:31,080 --> 00:49:33,680
Speaker 2: I put a fresh priming in my gun and fired

882
00:49:33,719 --> 00:49:36,520
Speaker 2: at him. At this he raised one of his paws

883
00:49:36,560 --> 00:49:40,080
Speaker 2: and snorted loudly. I loaded again as quickly as I could,

884
00:49:40,160 --> 00:49:42,440
Speaker 2: and fired as near the same place in his breast

885
00:49:42,440 --> 00:49:45,080
Speaker 2: as possible, And at the crack of my gun here

886
00:49:45,120 --> 00:49:48,040
Speaker 2: he came tumbling down, and the moment he touched the ground,

887
00:49:48,080 --> 00:49:50,680
Speaker 2: I heard one of my best dogs cry out. I

888
00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:53,640
Speaker 2: took my tomahawk in one hand, my big butcher knife

889
00:49:53,680 --> 00:49:56,000
Speaker 2: in the other and run up within four or five

890
00:49:56,120 --> 00:49:58,880
Speaker 2: paces of him, at which he let my dog go

891
00:49:59,360 --> 00:50:02,120
Speaker 2: and fixed his his eyes on me. I got back

892
00:50:02,160 --> 00:50:04,200
Speaker 2: in all sorts of a hurry, for I knowed if

893
00:50:04,239 --> 00:50:06,080
Speaker 2: he got a hold of me, he would hug me

894
00:50:06,239 --> 00:50:09,080
Speaker 2: all together too close for comfort. I went to my

895
00:50:09,200 --> 00:50:11,560
Speaker 2: gun and hastily loaded her again and shot him a

896
00:50:11,600 --> 00:50:15,120
Speaker 2: third time, which killed him good. I now began to

897
00:50:15,160 --> 00:50:17,439
Speaker 2: think about getting him home, but I didn't know how

898
00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:20,080
Speaker 2: far it was, so I left him and started, and

899
00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:22,400
Speaker 2: in order to find him again, I would blaze a

900
00:50:22,440 --> 00:50:25,720
Speaker 2: sapling every little distance, which would show me the way back.

901
00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:28,520
Speaker 2: I continued this till I got within a mile of

902
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:32,319
Speaker 2: my home, for there I knowed very well where I was,

903
00:50:32,719 --> 00:50:34,640
Speaker 2: and that I could easily find the way back to

904
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:37,120
Speaker 2: my blazes. When I got home, I took my brother

905
00:50:37,160 --> 00:50:39,480
Speaker 2: in law and my young man and four horses and

906
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:42,160
Speaker 2: went back. We got there just before dark and struck

907
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:44,400
Speaker 2: up a fire and commenced a butcher in my bear.

908
00:50:44,760 --> 00:50:47,040
Speaker 2: It was some time in the night before he finished,

909
00:50:47,080 --> 00:50:50,200
Speaker 2: and I can assert on my honor I believe he

910
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:52,880
Speaker 2: would have weighed six hundred pounds. It was the second

911
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:56,000
Speaker 2: largest I ever saw I killed one a few years

912
00:50:56,040 --> 00:50:59,719
Speaker 2: after that weighed six hundred and seventy pounds. I now

913
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:03,080
Speaker 2: he felt fully compensated for my sufferings and going after

914
00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:06,640
Speaker 2: my powder, and well satisfied that a dog might sometimes

915
00:51:06,680 --> 00:51:09,600
Speaker 2: be doing a good business, even when he seemed to

916
00:51:09,600 --> 00:51:12,880
Speaker 2: be barking up the wrong tree. We got our meat home,

917
00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:15,040
Speaker 2: and I now had the pleasure to know that we

918
00:51:15,160 --> 00:51:18,680
Speaker 2: had plenty, and that of the best. I continued through

919
00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:22,440
Speaker 2: the winter to supply my family abundantly with bear meat

920
00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:30,040
Speaker 2: and venison from the woods. A six hundred plus pound

921
00:51:30,080 --> 00:51:32,880
Speaker 2: black bear is a big one, but I believe every

922
00:51:32,960 --> 00:51:35,760
Speaker 2: word of it. If you've ever hunted bears with hounds,

923
00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:39,160
Speaker 2: you can spot Crockett's authenticity. He was the real deal.

924
00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:43,600
Speaker 2: It's interesting today how hound hunting for bears is scrutinized

925
00:51:43,680 --> 00:51:47,640
Speaker 2: by some woke groups, but it's a deep American tradition.

926
00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:51,080
Speaker 2: There's even many accounts of Native Americans using hounds. In

927
00:51:51,120 --> 00:51:54,760
Speaker 2: the eighteen hundreds, the Tennessee and North Carolina Bear Hunters

928
00:51:54,840 --> 00:52:01,120
Speaker 2: Associations both using their tagline quote our national heritage bear

929
00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:04,680
Speaker 2: hunting with hounds. I have a Tennessee Bear Hunter's Association

930
00:52:04,800 --> 00:52:08,080
Speaker 2: sticker on the window in my office. I am adamant

931
00:52:08,120 --> 00:52:11,680
Speaker 2: and passionate about the future of bear hunting with hounds.

932
00:52:12,280 --> 00:52:13,480
Speaker 4: Here's Robert Morgan.

933
00:52:14,760 --> 00:52:17,799
Speaker 3: It was very important these bear dogs. As you say,

934
00:52:17,880 --> 00:52:22,320
Speaker 3: he didn't like pure bread dogs. He had mongrel dogs,

935
00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:25,720
Speaker 3: and I wish I knew what kind of pack he had,

936
00:52:25,840 --> 00:52:28,640
Speaker 3: because they're very important to a bear hunter. My good dogs.

937
00:52:28,680 --> 00:52:32,839
Speaker 3: You have where I grew up, people that would love

938
00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:35,759
Speaker 3: to brag about their bear dogs, how many of them had,

939
00:52:36,080 --> 00:52:39,600
Speaker 3: and the thing you had to have some in that

940
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:42,560
Speaker 3: area what's called a plot hound, Yes, a dog that

941
00:52:42,600 --> 00:52:45,520
Speaker 3: had been bred by the Plot family from bear hunting.

942
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:50,080
Speaker 2: There's one descriptor in Crockett's I believe it's his autobiography

943
00:52:50,440 --> 00:52:53,279
Speaker 2: when he talks about going in on a bad bear

944
00:52:53,320 --> 00:52:56,759
Speaker 2: at night and one of the dogs was white, just

945
00:52:56,880 --> 00:52:59,799
Speaker 2: one of them, though, which would have indicated that it

946
00:52:59,920 --> 00:53:03,160
Speaker 2: was was a walker hound, which is a type of

947
00:53:03,239 --> 00:53:06,160
Speaker 2: bear dog. But then all the other dogs were dark

948
00:53:06,200 --> 00:53:08,440
Speaker 2: colored because he couldn't see him in the dark, And

949
00:53:08,520 --> 00:53:10,960
Speaker 2: so there's a lot of people that speculate of what

950
00:53:11,080 --> 00:53:14,040
Speaker 2: they were because a dark bear dog could have been

951
00:53:14,080 --> 00:53:17,680
Speaker 2: a plot dog, which would have been unlikely that soon

952
00:53:17,840 --> 00:53:21,040
Speaker 2: after the plots got into America, those dogs would have

953
00:53:21,080 --> 00:53:24,440
Speaker 2: been distributed that widely, because it wasn't until later that

954
00:53:24,480 --> 00:53:26,800
Speaker 2: they kind of started to distribute out heavily from the

955
00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:30,439
Speaker 2: Plot family. But those bear dogs became really important for him.

956
00:53:30,920 --> 00:53:33,960
Speaker 2: So it was during this period of his life between

957
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:36,920
Speaker 2: twenty and thirty after he got married, that he did

958
00:53:37,400 --> 00:53:40,799
Speaker 2: become He identified himself as a bear hunter, probably more

959
00:53:40,840 --> 00:53:43,799
Speaker 2: than anything in as far as a backwoodsman is that

960
00:53:43,840 --> 00:53:45,759
Speaker 2: he was a bear hunter, and to him that meant

961
00:53:45,800 --> 00:53:50,040
Speaker 2: bear hunting with dogs. The pure bred dogs in America

962
00:53:50,080 --> 00:53:52,799
Speaker 2: at that time would have been variants of foxhounds and

963
00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:56,960
Speaker 2: big game dogs brought over by Europeans. George Washington was

964
00:53:57,000 --> 00:54:01,080
Speaker 2: an avid houndsman, and then of course the Plots, who

965
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:03,960
Speaker 2: developed their own breed of hounds specifically for bear in

966
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:07,000
Speaker 2: the Southern Appalachians. If you hadn't seen our video on

967
00:54:07,040 --> 00:54:10,640
Speaker 2: the meter YouTube channel on Plot Hounds and Bear Greas

968
00:54:10,680 --> 00:54:12,239
Speaker 2: Hall of Famer Roy Clark.

969
00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:13,160
Speaker 4: You should check it out.

970
00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:17,960
Speaker 2: Like Daniel Boone, Crockett was involved in market hunting. Here's

971
00:54:18,000 --> 00:54:22,520
Speaker 2: an excerpt from Michael Wallace's book David Crockett, The Lion

972
00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:26,640
Speaker 2: of the West. And if I was recommending the best

973
00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:31,080
Speaker 2: Crockett biography that I've read, I would recommend Wallace's book.

974
00:54:34,600 --> 00:54:37,319
Speaker 2: Both bear meat and bear oil from the layers of

975
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:40,120
Speaker 2: fat were in great demand across the American frontier and

976
00:54:40,120 --> 00:54:44,560
Speaker 2: well beyond. Bear pelts were fabricated into a variety of goods,

977
00:54:44,640 --> 00:54:49,560
Speaker 2: including rugs, bedrobes, coats, and tall, dressy fur caps fashioned

978
00:54:49,600 --> 00:54:52,799
Speaker 2: from the prize thick, glossy fur of a mother bear

979
00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:56,520
Speaker 2: with their cubs, and proudly worn by various army regiments.

980
00:54:57,040 --> 00:55:01,279
Speaker 2: As early as the mid seventeen hundred's, Colonial America exported

981
00:55:01,360 --> 00:55:04,520
Speaker 2: thousands of bare pelts. By the time of crocod who

982
00:55:04,520 --> 00:55:06,520
Speaker 2: took to the woods with his hounds and long gun,

983
00:55:06,640 --> 00:55:10,719
Speaker 2: great quantities of bear fat and oil, stowed in barrels

984
00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:13,520
Speaker 2: or sewn up in deer skins, were being shipped by

985
00:55:13,560 --> 00:55:17,320
Speaker 2: barges down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, Eastern Seaboard cities,

986
00:55:17,320 --> 00:55:18,560
Speaker 2: and European markets.

987
00:55:19,040 --> 00:55:19,640
Speaker 4: In the field.

988
00:55:19,719 --> 00:55:22,680
Speaker 2: Following to kill, hunters wrapped the butchered meat in the

989
00:55:22,680 --> 00:55:25,840
Speaker 2: bear's own skin and carried the oil home in the

990
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:29,920
Speaker 2: bear's bladder. The oil was clarified by boiling it with

991
00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:34,040
Speaker 2: shaved slippery elm bark, and then stored for later use.

992
00:55:34,480 --> 00:55:36,920
Speaker 2: The bladder could be used as an oil cloth for

993
00:55:36,960 --> 00:55:41,640
Speaker 2: wrapping packages, and the fat served as cooking oil, lamp fuel,

994
00:55:42,080 --> 00:55:46,279
Speaker 2: various home rivities, and insect repellent. Smart hunters such as

995
00:55:46,320 --> 00:55:49,759
Speaker 2: Crockett sometimes followed the example of many Indian tribes and

996
00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:53,080
Speaker 2: slathered bear fat on them to protect their bodies from

997
00:55:53,120 --> 00:56:00,520
Speaker 2: the cold. Bre oil clarified with slippery elm. Bark tried that,

998
00:56:01,080 --> 00:56:04,960
Speaker 2: but storing oil in animal bladders is a Native American practice,

999
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:07,520
Speaker 2: and clearly Crockett or as people got this from them.

1000
00:56:07,960 --> 00:56:11,600
Speaker 2: When the bladder dries, it becomes semi translucent, and when

1001
00:56:11,719 --> 00:56:15,160
Speaker 2: left for several months, it separates into a beautiful clear

1002
00:56:15,280 --> 00:56:19,320
Speaker 2: amber liquid and a white opaque portion settles to the bottom.

1003
00:56:19,680 --> 00:56:22,240
Speaker 2: It's cream white on the bottom and looks like olive

1004
00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:26,200
Speaker 2: oil on the top. The separation line of these distinct

1005
00:56:26,480 --> 00:56:31,840
Speaker 2: sections mysteriously changes. Sometimes the line is completely sharp and flat,

1006
00:56:32,120 --> 00:56:36,440
Speaker 2: other days it's a thicker, cloudy mix. Sometimes odd shapes

1007
00:56:36,520 --> 00:56:40,840
Speaker 2: emerge in this transition zone. Some Native Americans believed you

1008
00:56:40,880 --> 00:56:45,400
Speaker 2: could forecast the weather with bare oil in a translucent bladder.

1009
00:56:46,000 --> 00:56:49,239
Speaker 2: I've been watching bear oil in mason jars for well

1010
00:56:49,280 --> 00:56:52,960
Speaker 2: over a decade, and it's clear that it changes with

1011
00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:56,440
Speaker 2: the weather and temperature. In a world without Doppler radar

1012
00:56:56,480 --> 00:57:00,879
Speaker 2: and communication, anything, and I mean anything that indicated any

1013
00:57:00,960 --> 00:57:05,319
Speaker 2: insight into weather patterns was observed and noted. This wasn't

1014
00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:09,440
Speaker 2: spooky spiritual voodoo, but humans being humans and using their

1015
00:57:09,520 --> 00:57:13,800
Speaker 2: brain and spirit to note patterns, correlations and make conclusions

1016
00:57:14,040 --> 00:57:16,800
Speaker 2: as normal. I'm fully convinced that there is a one

1017
00:57:16,920 --> 00:57:21,320
Speaker 2: hundred percent scientific explanation to bear oil's presumable reaction to

1018
00:57:21,360 --> 00:57:25,600
Speaker 2: bearometric pressure. But I'm also one hundred percent fully convinced

1019
00:57:25,600 --> 00:57:28,360
Speaker 2: that the spirit realm is more real than this natural realm,

1020
00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:31,400
Speaker 2: and if my life depended on it, I'd have my

1021
00:57:31,560 --> 00:57:34,440
Speaker 2: spirit running full throttle when I was looking at.

1022
00:57:34,400 --> 00:57:35,560
Speaker 4: That grease line.

1023
00:57:37,240 --> 00:57:41,080
Speaker 2: In view of the chronology of Crockett's life, it's eighteen thirteen.

1024
00:57:41,400 --> 00:57:44,280
Speaker 2: He's twenty seven years old, living in Middle Tennessee and

1025
00:57:44,320 --> 00:57:47,840
Speaker 2: Lincoln County with Polly and the kids. In eighteen seventy five,

1026
00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:53,160
Speaker 2: Crockett biographer John Abbott wrote about Crockett's frontier life, and

1027
00:57:53,200 --> 00:57:57,920
Speaker 2: he said, quote, he loved to wander in busy idleness

1028
00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:00,560
Speaker 2: all the day with fishing rod and rye rifle and

1029
00:58:00,600 --> 00:58:02,880
Speaker 2: he would often return at night with a very ample

1030
00:58:02,920 --> 00:58:05,880
Speaker 2: supply of game. He would then lounge about his hut

1031
00:58:05,960 --> 00:58:10,320
Speaker 2: tannandeer skins for moccasins and breeches, performing other little jobs,

1032
00:58:10,360 --> 00:58:14,560
Speaker 2: and entirely neglecting all endeavors to improve his farm or

1033
00:58:14,600 --> 00:58:17,520
Speaker 2: to add to the appearance of comfort of the miserable

1034
00:58:17,600 --> 00:58:19,160
Speaker 2: shanty which he called home.

1035
00:58:19,520 --> 00:58:20,160
Speaker 4: End of quote.

1036
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:24,640
Speaker 2: This sounds like a harsh critique, but Abbott also pointed

1037
00:58:24,680 --> 00:58:28,200
Speaker 2: out Crockett's strength quote. He had an active mind in

1038
00:58:28,280 --> 00:58:31,800
Speaker 2: a very singular command of the language of the low

1039
00:58:32,240 --> 00:58:36,720
Speaker 2: illiterate life, and especially backwoods slang. Though not exactly a

1040
00:58:36,840 --> 00:58:42,040
Speaker 2: vain man, his self confidence was imperturbable, and there was

1041
00:58:42,120 --> 00:58:45,680
Speaker 2: perhaps not an individual in the world whom he looked

1042
00:58:45,760 --> 00:58:49,120
Speaker 2: up to in any sense as his superior. In his

1043
00:58:49,200 --> 00:58:53,160
Speaker 2: hunting skill, he became very remarkable, and few, even of

1044
00:58:53,200 --> 00:58:57,160
Speaker 2: the best marksmen, could throw a bullet with more unerring

1045
00:58:57,360 --> 00:59:03,000
Speaker 2: aim end of quote. Marksmanship skill and the self confidence

1046
00:59:03,080 --> 00:59:06,720
Speaker 2: would come in handy. In other places, a monumental event

1047
00:59:06,760 --> 00:59:10,240
Speaker 2: would take place that would change the course of his life.

1048
00:59:11,120 --> 00:59:18,720
Speaker 3: War eighteen thirteen, as this enormous nation of Indians in

1049
00:59:18,800 --> 00:59:22,560
Speaker 3: Alabama and Georgia the Muscogees. Whites call them the Creeks,

1050
00:59:23,240 --> 00:59:27,400
Speaker 3: and they got into a war between different factions became

1051
00:59:27,480 --> 00:59:30,800
Speaker 3: the Creek War, and particularly a militant group were called

1052
00:59:30,840 --> 00:59:36,000
Speaker 3: the Red Sticks, and they were very angry at their

1053
00:59:36,200 --> 00:59:40,360
Speaker 3: kinsmen who were so friendly to the white people and

1054
00:59:40,480 --> 00:59:44,120
Speaker 3: selling them land and marrying white people. So they'd got

1055
00:59:44,160 --> 00:59:48,240
Speaker 3: in this conflict, and the war really began at a

1056
00:59:48,240 --> 00:59:53,200
Speaker 3: place called Burnt Corn, where one faction kills some of

1057
00:59:53,240 --> 00:59:57,400
Speaker 3: the Upper Creeks, the Red Sticks, and in revenge, the

1058
00:59:57,440 --> 01:00:01,360
Speaker 3: Red Sticks attacked Fort Mims to just north of Mobile

1059
01:00:01,680 --> 01:00:05,800
Speaker 3: and killed everybody the Fort Mems Massacre. And there were

1060
01:00:05,800 --> 01:00:08,200
Speaker 3: a lot of white people there too, and word of

1061
01:00:08,320 --> 01:00:11,240
Speaker 3: this terrible massacre got out. I mean some people said

1062
01:00:11,240 --> 01:00:13,080
Speaker 3: it was three hundred and forty they killed, and some

1063
01:00:13,120 --> 01:00:15,960
Speaker 3: people said four hundred and five hundred. It was a

1064
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:17,000
Speaker 3: lot of people.

1065
01:00:16,800 --> 01:00:19,960
Speaker 2: At the time. It was really significant the Fort Memes.

1066
01:00:20,000 --> 01:00:24,200
Speaker 3: It spread over the country, but especially into Tennessee was

1067
01:00:24,280 --> 01:00:27,560
Speaker 3: just north of that, and people are already afraid of creeks,

1068
01:00:28,280 --> 01:00:33,240
Speaker 3: so this reached Middle Tennessee where Crockett was actually reached

1069
01:00:33,320 --> 01:00:37,040
Speaker 3: him before it reached Nashville, where Andrew Jackson heard about it.

1070
01:00:37,320 --> 01:00:42,280
Speaker 3: And immediately they started forming militias to go down and

1071
01:00:42,360 --> 01:00:46,760
Speaker 3: attack the Creeks. Now we're talking about eighteen in of

1072
01:00:46,800 --> 01:00:50,600
Speaker 3: eighteen thirteen, eighteen fourteen, and already there was a war

1073
01:00:50,720 --> 01:00:54,439
Speaker 3: going on the War of eighteen twelve, and the Red

1074
01:00:54,520 --> 01:00:58,960
Speaker 3: Stick Creeks had an alliance with the British and even

1075
01:00:59,000 --> 01:01:01,080
Speaker 3: of the Spanish. So this has become part of the

1076
01:01:01,080 --> 01:01:02,520
Speaker 3: War of eighteen twelve.

1077
01:01:04,240 --> 01:01:06,840
Speaker 2: The Shawnee leader to come so visited the Creeks in

1078
01:01:06,920 --> 01:01:10,800
Speaker 2: Alabama in eighteen eleven with his doctrine of Indian unification

1079
01:01:11,120 --> 01:01:14,959
Speaker 2: and resistance to white expansion. His words split the Creek

1080
01:01:15,080 --> 01:01:19,560
Speaker 2: nation and instigated the war. It's interesting how all these guys'

1081
01:01:19,560 --> 01:01:23,919
Speaker 2: lives were connected. In his autobiography, Crockett gave insight into

1082
01:01:23,920 --> 01:01:26,600
Speaker 2: how Polly didn't want him to go to war, and

1083
01:01:26,680 --> 01:01:30,040
Speaker 2: he wrote, quote, if every man would wait till his

1084
01:01:30,160 --> 01:01:32,840
Speaker 2: wife got willing for him to go to war, there

1085
01:01:32,840 --> 01:01:35,720
Speaker 2: would be no fighting done until we would all be

1086
01:01:35,880 --> 01:01:38,960
Speaker 2: killed in our houses. That I was able to go

1087
01:01:39,040 --> 01:01:41,680
Speaker 2: as any man in the world, and that I believed

1088
01:01:41,800 --> 01:01:43,960
Speaker 2: it was a duty I owed my country.

1089
01:01:44,400 --> 01:01:45,120
Speaker 4: End of quote.

1090
01:01:45,680 --> 01:01:49,760
Speaker 2: Crockett enlisted and fought under Andrew Jackson in the Creek War.

1091
01:01:50,360 --> 01:01:53,040
Speaker 2: It was here that he began to build a case

1092
01:01:53,120 --> 01:01:56,640
Speaker 2: against Jackson that would define his life. Jackson was twenty

1093
01:01:56,720 --> 01:02:00,520
Speaker 2: years older than Crockett, and they would both later emerge

1094
01:02:00,520 --> 01:02:05,680
Speaker 2: as famous, populous Tennessee politicians. But during the war, this

1095
01:02:05,760 --> 01:02:07,280
Speaker 2: is where their beef started.

1096
01:02:07,960 --> 01:02:11,760
Speaker 3: Andrew Jackson had a terrible trouble feeding his army because

1097
01:02:11,840 --> 01:02:15,240
Speaker 3: the people who had contracted these loads of food to

1098
01:02:15,360 --> 01:02:20,880
Speaker 3: them got lost for dishonest people some of them. It's

1099
01:02:20,880 --> 01:02:25,000
Speaker 3: a starving army. And Crockett becomes very well known because

1100
01:02:25,040 --> 01:02:26,800
Speaker 3: he's the best hunter there and you've go out and

1101
01:02:27,120 --> 01:02:30,240
Speaker 3: bring in some venison. But he is caught up in

1102
01:02:30,320 --> 01:02:34,720
Speaker 3: some of this terrible fighting. The worst point, really lowest point,

1103
01:02:35,560 --> 01:02:39,720
Speaker 3: is the attack and the burning of the town of Taloosahatchie.

1104
01:02:40,360 --> 01:02:44,000
Speaker 3: They do burn it and kill the people, that kill everybody,

1105
01:02:44,320 --> 01:02:47,760
Speaker 3: and they later return there because there's some potatoes in

1106
01:02:47,840 --> 01:02:51,800
Speaker 3: the basement of the house. The bodies that they burn,

1107
01:02:52,640 --> 01:02:55,520
Speaker 3: the grease dripped down, and the rest of his life,

1108
01:02:55,560 --> 01:02:58,800
Speaker 3: I mean, he's he's affected. That isn't like potatoes because

1109
01:02:58,800 --> 01:03:01,200
Speaker 3: he ate them hungry.

1110
01:03:01,440 --> 01:03:06,560
Speaker 2: They were so basically burning human flesh, roasted these potatoes

1111
01:03:06,600 --> 01:03:09,080
Speaker 2: that were under the cellar, and they were so hungry

1112
01:03:09,320 --> 01:03:10,120
Speaker 2: that they ate him.

1113
01:03:10,120 --> 01:03:13,880
Speaker 3: Indeed, he never forgot it. And the two other things

1114
01:03:13,920 --> 01:03:17,760
Speaker 3: that are very important in the Greek War for Crockett. One,

1115
01:03:18,080 --> 01:03:21,920
Speaker 3: he brought a message to Colonel Coffee, who was his commander,

1116
01:03:22,400 --> 01:03:25,320
Speaker 3: that there was some redsticks roving in a certain area.

1117
01:03:25,680 --> 01:03:28,080
Speaker 3: And the colonel didn't pay an attention to what he

1118
01:03:28,160 --> 01:03:31,720
Speaker 3: said until a lieutenant came and told him the same thing.

1119
01:03:32,080 --> 01:03:36,320
Speaker 3: And this may be the beginning of Crockett's contempt for

1120
01:03:36,440 --> 01:03:40,920
Speaker 3: officers and upper classes, and just ignored him titles, title,

1121
01:03:41,120 --> 01:03:45,600
Speaker 3: and that burned him. He never forgot that.

1122
01:03:45,840 --> 01:03:46,480
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1123
01:03:46,840 --> 01:03:49,720
Speaker 3: Other thing was very important is in I think it

1124
01:03:49,760 --> 01:03:56,200
Speaker 3: was December of eighteen fourteen. These soldiers pretty much filled

1125
01:03:56,200 --> 01:03:59,760
Speaker 3: out their enlistment. They hadn't brought any warm clothes for

1126
01:03:59,760 --> 01:04:03,120
Speaker 3: a very cold and often they had nothing to eat.

1127
01:04:03,800 --> 01:04:06,520
Speaker 3: And they got together and said, some of the officers,

1128
01:04:06,560 --> 01:04:09,040
Speaker 3: actually one just enlisted in, that we've got to go home.

1129
01:04:09,600 --> 01:04:13,560
Speaker 3: And Andrew Jackson thought differently. He needed to continue the war.

1130
01:04:13,640 --> 01:04:17,040
Speaker 3: He hadn't destroyed the Red Sticks, and they were lined

1131
01:04:17,160 --> 01:04:21,480
Speaker 3: up to confront him. He was a tough guy. Jackson

1132
01:04:21,520 --> 01:04:23,600
Speaker 3: the wrot and said that will kill the first men

1133
01:04:23,680 --> 01:04:28,240
Speaker 3: who moved and they backed down. Crockett tells it different

1134
01:04:28,840 --> 01:04:30,960
Speaker 3: in his autobio arser.

1135
01:04:30,760 --> 01:04:32,320
Speaker 4: Crockett was there, He was there.

1136
01:04:32,920 --> 01:04:35,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, they did a little bit later, get released and

1137
01:04:35,880 --> 01:04:36,320
Speaker 3: go home.

1138
01:04:38,440 --> 01:04:41,800
Speaker 2: Three things happened in the Creek War. Crockett becomes the

1139
01:04:41,920 --> 01:04:45,760
Speaker 2: army's hunter and gains popularity, learning how to set himself

1140
01:04:45,800 --> 01:04:51,200
Speaker 2: apart and engender people's respect. Secondly, the Creek slaughter at

1141
01:04:51,200 --> 01:04:57,880
Speaker 2: Telousahatchie deeply impacts him, presumably igniting this empathy towards Native Americans.

1142
01:04:58,160 --> 01:05:01,080
Speaker 2: Crockett talks about how they had fifty Indians backed into

1143
01:05:01,120 --> 01:05:04,600
Speaker 2: a wigwam. An old woman was sitting at the doorway,

1144
01:05:04,880 --> 01:05:07,360
Speaker 2: and she used her foot to hold the handle of

1145
01:05:07,360 --> 01:05:10,000
Speaker 2: the bow and her fingers to pull the string back,

1146
01:05:10,040 --> 01:05:13,080
Speaker 2: and she shot an arrow that killed one of Crockett's buddies.

1147
01:05:13,560 --> 01:05:15,520
Speaker 2: He said it was the first time he'd seen a

1148
01:05:15,560 --> 01:05:19,520
Speaker 2: white man die by an arrow. The army opened fire

1149
01:05:19,640 --> 01:05:23,240
Speaker 2: on the woman and burned the wigwam and the Indians inside,

1150
01:05:23,320 --> 01:05:25,040
Speaker 2: with the potato celler underneath.

1151
01:05:25,480 --> 01:05:26,640
Speaker 4: It impacted him.

1152
01:05:27,240 --> 01:05:30,560
Speaker 2: Lastly, the third thing is that he starts to hate

1153
01:05:30,880 --> 01:05:34,200
Speaker 2: Andrew Jackson, and this rivalry would now.

1154
01:05:34,120 --> 01:05:36,120
Speaker 4: Begin to define his life.

1155
01:05:36,160 --> 01:05:39,720
Speaker 2: On the next episode, we're going to get into Crockett's

1156
01:05:39,720 --> 01:05:44,720
Speaker 2: political career and the development of his celebrity status. It's

1157
01:05:44,760 --> 01:05:53,880
Speaker 2: about to get fun. I told you the ride was

1158
01:05:53,960 --> 01:05:56,920
Speaker 2: gonna be wild. I can't thank you enough for listening

1159
01:05:56,960 --> 01:06:01,120
Speaker 2: to Bear Grease. You can follow me on Instagram, Clay Underscore,

1160
01:06:01,200 --> 01:06:04,439
Speaker 2: nukelem and please leave us a review on iTunes. I'd

1161
01:06:04,480 --> 01:06:07,400
Speaker 2: also like to take just a second to thank Phil

1162
01:06:07,520 --> 01:06:11,200
Speaker 2: Taylor of Meat Eater. He works with heart and precision

1163
01:06:11,320 --> 01:06:13,840
Speaker 2: on the audio production side of Bear Grease.

1164
01:06:14,200 --> 01:06:16,760
Speaker 4: This thing wouldn't be what it is without Phil.

1165
01:06:17,520 --> 01:06:19,680
Speaker 2: I look forward to talking with all the folks on

1166
01:06:19,720 --> 01:06:23,640
Speaker 2: the Render next week and hearing what mischief Brent Reeves

1167
01:06:23,720 --> 01:06:26,640
Speaker 2: is up to on the This Country Life podcast.