WEBVTT - Ep. 110: David Crockett - Celebrity (Part 1) 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:06.000 Think about it. 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:09.200 If you're a factory worker and you're in Philadelphia and 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:12.720 it's hot and it's dirty, and you're on dirty streets 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:16.200 and smelly streets, and then here's this guy representing beautiful 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:20.160 water and green grass and you know, the wide open spaces. 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.160 You know you'd want more of that. It intrigued people. 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:27.760 On this episode, we're exploring the man many say was 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.880 America's first true celebrity, and it was built on his 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.040 identity as a bear hunter. He was world famous in 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:38.200 his lifetime, and he believed that it all came upon 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:42.320 him completely by accident. All he did was played the 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:48.600 part of himself. David Crockett, this folksy Tennessee backwoodsman, embodied 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.360 the narrative of the self made man and manifest destiny 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.240 that became a national obsession and deeply influenced our culture 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:59.920 even to this day. I'm interested in how his life 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.480 has affected my life as an American. What do you 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:06.039 know about Davy Crockett other than that he wore a 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:09.839 coonskin cap. Of course, you know that that ringtail hat 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:13.160 is a low hanging field edge acren compared to what 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:17.040 we're about to discover. The crocket myth and reality will 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.040 be hard to parse through, but one thing's for sure. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.440 I love this guy, and I doubt you're gonna want 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:24.199 to miss this one. 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:29.639 Folkloric characters are created and sustained because of a need 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:40.280 the culture needs them. 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.200 My name is Klay Nukem, and this is the Bear 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:48.240 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.960 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:56.120 story of Americans who live their lives close to the land, 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:02.360 presented by f HF Gear, American made purpose built hunting 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:05.920 and fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:06.560 the place. 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:07.240 As we explore. 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:18.440 I need a baseline understanding of what average American people 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.280 know about David Crockett. And in case you think of 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:26.359 already misspoken, he never called himself Davy. That didn't start 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:30.440 until one hundred and twenty years after his death. You 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:34.000 two are just the guys I've been looking for. Tell 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:37.040 me everything that you know about Davy Crockett. 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:40.519 I don't know much about David Crockett. I did read 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:44.079 about him some. I know who he is, I don't 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:45.200 necessarily know where he was from. 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:47.680 From Kentucky. Close interesting? 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:50.840 Okay, all right in the area, Like, what did he do? 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:53.799 Here's a hunter, right, yeah, he's a hunter. 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:57.840 Sir, I'm talking to another gentleman here. What could you 0:02:57.880 --> 0:02:59.960 fill in the gap? What do you know about David. 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:05.040 Cron I mean Davy Davy Crockett. He can go at 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:06.079 the wild Frontier. 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:09.519 He killed him a bear when he was only three. 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:11.440 I love it. 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:15.920 We've tapped into some skeletal details about Crockett. He was 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.160 from Tennessee and a bear hunter, true story, but he 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.079 didn't kill a bear when he was only three. Can 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.239 you sing that song? The fact that this dude can 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.839 sing this song means something. He was reaching deep into 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.639 the recesses of his childhood. I need more info from 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:38.520 these American commoners. Excuse me, sir, what what do you 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:40.720 know about Davy Crockett. 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.840 Davy Crockett, he was a man's man. Okay, then I 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:46.880 don't know anything about David Crily. You don't know anything. 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:48.440 You don't have any sense of where it's from, what 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:50.600 he did, how he affected American identity. 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.560 No comment. You're you're a you're a well educated man too, Senator, 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:56.640 I do not recall are you an American? 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.120 It's hard to tell country it's hard to know. Parley 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:01.800 on Glass, I don't I don't know. 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:07.560 He was a man's man. Did Crockett give our culture 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.840 ideas about manhood? This is getting out of hand. I'm 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.560 very interested in how we're unconsciously born with a value 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:19.720 system because of a geographic location. Most of the world, 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:23.120 especially at the time of Crockett, didn't identify with the 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:24.560 American value system. 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:25.920 It was completely new. 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.680 This is Josh Landbridge, Spillmaker and his wife Christie. 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.760 He was a big man, Davy Crockett. 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:37.719 Wasn't there a song about him? 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:38.760 A Disney song. 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:42.800 About Davy Crockett was at the Alamo? Yeah, and he 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:44.880 was the king of the wildfront here. He was the 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:49.000 king of the wild Frontier. Definitely. Yes, he wore buckskin. 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:50.280 Skin hat, for sure. 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.240 He wore con't skin hat. I think that's a I 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:55.200 think that's a farce. 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:58.320 But wasn't he a giant man? No? 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:03.800 Do you have any of how d C. Davy Crockett 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:10.920 influenced American identity, like even how you think about yourself? No, 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:13.840 you guys did pretty good in the song the Walt 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.200 Disney song, Davey Crockett was king of the wild Frontier. 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.880 He was roughly six foot tall, so it wasn't giant. 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:24.440 He's from Tennessee. He wore a coonskin hat only after 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.560 there was a play about him in New York City 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.599 and the actor wore a coonskin hat, and then for 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.520 a good part of his life he started wearing a 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:34.920 coonskin hat after that. 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:38.960 So I mean legendary character, but none of us know 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.080 what the legend is all about. Like I think every 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.000 American would be familiar with the name Davy Crockett, but 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:46.080 not know why. 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.760 Well, what you're gonna learn is is that David Crockett 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:55.400 was truly America's first celebrity. Daniel Boone was our first, 0:05:55.600 --> 0:06:00.520 one of our first folk heroes. D c was truly 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:02.920 a celebrity, global celebrity. 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:11.240 Born on them out the top of Tennessee Breen Estate, 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:13.839 in the Land of the Three, raised in the woods, 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.040 so than you ever Tree killed Tim Lebar when he 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:22.200 was only three day. Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:28.120 walk single handed through the engine war till the Greeks whipped. 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.599 And the piece that song is the Ballad of Davy 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:35.800 Crockett from Walt Disney's nineteen fifty four David Crockett trilogy. 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.080 The song seems to be embedded in the hearts of 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:42.320 all American boys over the age of forty. It was 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.279 number one on the Top ten list in America for 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:49.640 thirteen weeks and sold over four million copies. It was 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.680 a true American hit at almost the exact same time 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:58.760 Elvis Presley came onto the scene. Crockett had two surging 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:03.359 peaks of American and even global popularity, one starting in 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.080 the eighteen thirties in his lifetime, in the second one 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:11.920 in the nineteen fifties. National myths are simple, but their 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.040 real story, usually based in some level of truth, is 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:19.200 more complex. Crockett was a Tennessee pioneer born in seventeen 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:19.880 eighty six. 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:22.520 He was a renowned bear hunter and houndsman. 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.680 He fought in the Creek Indian Wars, which was part 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.240 of the War of eighteen twelve, and he became one 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:33.160 of America's first commoner politicians, or what we'd call a populist. 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:37.160 He almost ran for president and was the arch enemy 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.520 of Old Hickory himself Andrew Jackson, who had become president. 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.920 But most notably he was the wild American backwoodsman that 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:49.440 gained global fame in his lifetime because of his folksy, witty, humorous, 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:54.040 self deprecating way of communicating. But of all that stuff, 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:56.280 he most identified as a bear hunter. 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:01.600 I love it. In the words of Cross biographer Michael. 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:05.640 Wallace, his bear hunting ability became a key ingredient in 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:10.600 the manufacture of the populist, hyper masculine persona he often 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.600 used to bolster his public image and political career. 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:14.640 End of quote. 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.840 But Crockett would seal his fame and myth in America's 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.440 Hall of Fame when he died of martyr at the 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.200 Alamo in Texas in eighteen thirty six. It's the age 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:27.400 of forty nine, which there is much controversy around his 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.280 martyr status, and we'll get into that in later episodes. 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:36.200 So bam, there you go. That's Crockett in a nutshell. 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:41.000 Our story delivery strategy is that we're gonna look at 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:45.040 Crockett's influence first, so we just kind of understand what 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:47.640 he did and how he did it, and then we'll 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:50.520 dive into the specifics of his life that made him. 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:53.080 We're gonna spend a lot of time on Crockett because 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.720 of how important he was to American culture and let's 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.679 head something off at the pass. Many would view our 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.000 below of Daniel Boone and David Crockett as basically the 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:07.160 same person, and there were many confusing commonalities, but they're 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:11.320 very different people at different times did different stuff. However, 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.520 they were both involved in claiming land on the western 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:18.640 frontier that were commercial hunters, were involved in Native American conflicts. 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:22.040 Both were failed entrepreneurs, both were in politics. Both were 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:26.840 renowned storytellers that people were enamored with. However, Crockett was 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.439 much more of what we would call a true celebrity. 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.240 He knew about his fame, he interacted with that fame, 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:37.160 but Daniel Boone dB didn't gain his fame until he 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:40.040 was in his mid fifties, and he would die a 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:44.079 common impoverished man in Missouri in eighteen twenty at the 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:47.720 age of eighty six. Boone was fifty two years old 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:52.440 when Crockett was born in seventeen eighty six. Their lives overlapped, 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:56.360 but they never met. Probably the main reason people get 0:09:56.400 --> 0:10:00.440 him mixed up is because the same Hollywood actor Fest 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:04.400 Parker played Crockett in the nineteen fifty five Walt Disney. 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:09.600 David Crockett trilogy and fest Parker, very confusingly, also starred 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:14.760 as Daniel Boone in Disney's nineteen sixty series. In both, 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:18.120 he wore buckskin, a coonskin hat, fought indians, shot a 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:23.560 long rifle. But perhaps the differences in Boone are inconsequential 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.160 to the masses, and in some ways they represent similar things. 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.200 But to those of us desirous of parsing out the 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:34.480 nuance of that backwoods, rough and tumble, self made man 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:38.040 identity that we just woke up and found ourselves in, 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:43.240 the distinction between Boone and Crockett is important. More on 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:48.280 this later, bros. Here's the clip from Disney's wildly popular 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.120 David Crockett Indian Fighters. 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:56.520 Pucket. 0:10:58.000 --> 0:10:58.880 Where's Crockett? 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:01.319 Speak up? Man? 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.640 Where is Crockett? Soldiers are looking for Crockett, But he's 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:07.640 in the bushes with a growling bear. 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:09.160 Where is he? 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:11.480 A man points in the bushes? 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:12.800 What's he doing in there? 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:16.360 What's he doing? 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:17.839 Experimenting? 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:22.760 He's trying to grin down a bear. 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.760 Grin down, you backwards buffalos. 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:31.920 Think the rest of us will believe anything, don't you Crockett? Crockett, 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:38.160 can't you hear me? Come out of here man. 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.320 Crockett's thrown out of the woods by the beast. 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.800 You sure sparm things good. Now I gotta do it 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:51.000 the old fashion way, Eh give my perd. 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.040 Crockett's experiment grinning down the bear fails, so he goes 0:11:55.120 --> 0:12:00.959 back in with his knife to finish the job. Crockett 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.520 was the original voice of American frontier dialect that touched 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.200 the world. He was a folksy orator, had an unquenchable 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:12.439 reservoir of anecdotes with keen, humorous wit. In real life, 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:16.120 he often said that he could grin a coon out 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.320 of a tree, and even grinned down a bear. Disney 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:23.680 didn't make this up. Crockett did once in a political speech. 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:28.320 The real Crocket, not the actor, said this, I discovered 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.240 a long time ago that a coon couldn't stand my grin. 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.520 I could bring one tumbling down from the highest tree. 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.520 I never wasted, powdered and lead when I wanted one. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:38.280 Of those creatures. 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:41.960 He went on to describe how he once thought he 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:44.440 was grinned out a coon, but it turned out to 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:46.720 be a knot on a tree branch, and he said, 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.040 I saw that I grinned all the bark off that 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:54.040 tree and left the knot perfectly smooth. Now, fellow citizens, 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:57.160 you must be convinced that in the grinning line, I 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:00.800 myself am not slow. Yet when I look upon my 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:05.680 opponent's countenance. Remember he's talking about his political opponent, I 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:08.080 must admit that he is my superior. 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:09.560 You must all admit it. 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:13.439 Therefore, be wide awake, look sharp, and don't let him 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:18.199 grina out of your votes. Crockett proved to be an 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:24.000 incredibly savvy politician, self deprecating, funny, but always sincere what 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:27.600 he was saying. That his opponent was all smile, an 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:31.640 elite pretty boy, but Crockett smile could actually do something 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:36.360 for you. Crockett would become famous for his political antics 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:40.680 and showdowns. More on this later. Here is author and 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.640 Crockett biographer R. Scott Williams of West Tennessee. He wrote 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.520 a book called the Accidental Fame and Lack of Fortune 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:49.400 of West Tennessee's David Crockett. 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:50.400 There are a. 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:55.200 Ton of Crockett biographies. We're inside an authentic log cabin 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:59.920 at the Discovery Park of America Museum in Union City, Tennessee. 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:01.400 It's incredible. 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.040 I mean, the way I've been describing it is he 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:09.080 is America's first celebrity. I've got a poster in my 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:14.440 office of folk heros from the United States, and each 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.760 one is placed in the state where they're from, and 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:20.280 so there's an awful lot of foulk heroes. But I 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:24.120 would definitely say, in my opinion, he was the first celebrity. 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:29.960 He had lithographs with his image and his signature printed 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.560 and sold. You know, I don't know if any you know, 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:34.600 certainly Daniel Boone. 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.920 Never did anything like that. You know, he went on 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:38.520 a book tour. 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:41.320 He saw that people were making money off his name, 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.800 image and likeness, and so he wanted a piece of it, 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.880 and so he himself went to somebuddies that could help 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.720 him write and publish this autobiography and then went on 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:54.800 a book tour, you know. And so you read about 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.440 that book tour and the audiences were screaming and yelling, 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:01.080 and you know, I think he absolutely Lee was the 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:04.720 first in his lifetime, first and biggest celebrity. 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:10.480 David Crockett was considered an exotic celebrity who rose amid 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:15.800 America's growing nationalism. We were feverishly grasping for identity that 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:19.480 would signify how we were different than the Europe from 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:22.400 which we were hewn. The eyes of the world were 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:25.240 on the western edge of the American frontier. I think 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.880 it's hard for us to understand today how intriguing American 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:33.720 expansion into the West was. It was a wildly unknown world, 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.080 just first explored by Lewis and Clark in eighteen oh four, 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:41.120 and it was considered a wilderness free to those brave 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.800 enough to come and take it, in a world dominated 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:49.080 by poverty and personal land ownership only for the ultra wealthy. 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:52.680 There is nothing like this in the world today, a 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.120 land grab like this, and nor will there ever be again. 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.640 A very important piece of the Crocket puzzle is understanding 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:05.239 the worldview and characteristics of his people, the Ulster Scots 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:07.840 from Ireland. Man, I told you this is going to 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:12.920 be a deep due boy. You guys remember Robert Morgan, 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:17.360 the author of the best Boone biography of all time Boone, 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:19.960 but he's also a Crockett expert. 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:21.920 Here's mister Morgan. 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:26.440 There's a long history of the Ulster Scots and it 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:30.640 does explain, I think the aggressiveness of people looking for land. 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:36.400 They had been encouraged. Let's say to leave Scotland to 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:40.760 go to Northern Ireland and settle there, to have a 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:46.120 Protestant presence in this Catholic country, and were offered land, 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:49.520 and of course land was the important thing. Land was 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:53.520 owned by the big land owners, the gentry, the aristocracy, 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:56.840 and the best you could do the poor person was 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:02.760 pay quit rents and their lease. So they had moved 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:08.520 over from Scotland, and then the upper class wanted that land, 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:14.400 so they were kicked off and many came to North America. 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.040 That was the thing where there's lots and lots of land. 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.359 So these people had basically been kicked off land in 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:24.360 Scotland and then Northern Ireland. And we was so hungry 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:28.679 to own land and to be able to hunt, to 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.159 be able to go into the wilderness and arrive in 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.879 the New world. And there's an infinite amount of land 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:39.920 and deer and bear and smaller animals. So where would 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:42.399 they go. The free land or the cheap land is 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:47.720 on the frontier. And those people are really a part 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.800 of the settlement in the history of the United States. 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.359 They were re aggressive, they were determined, they learned to 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.960 use weapons, They were willing to go into the wilderness 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:03.080 and nothing was going to stop from no treaties, no laws, 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:08.440 no Indians, anything that stood in their way to have land. Yeah, 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:13.000 it's hard for us to understand that hunger and the 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:15.640 idea of letting the native people stand in the way 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:21.760 to them were just ridiculous. The scott Irish were very, 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:26.480 very determined and aggressive and explain an awful lot of 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.480 the history of the frontier. They were not alone. There 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:33.720 were Germans, there were welsh People, people from England, people 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:39.480 from Scotland. But the most aggressive people, I think were 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:44.560 the scotch Irish. They have names like Jackson and Crockett. 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:49.080 The people of the United States and Europe couldn't intake 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:53.680 enough media about the Frontier, this thin edge where our 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:55.400 people met the wilderness. 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:57.040 That's where Crockett was. 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:00.879 The frontier became the breeding grounds of our national identity 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:04.600 and the new to the world democratic ideas of the 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:10.240 self made man. From this unique situation, creating a unique ideology, 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:15.040 America grew to become one of human history's most powerful empires. 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.240 It wasn't just a land grab, but it was an 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:23.000 experiment in government and ideology, and this ideology became attached 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.520 to people who gained mythical status at this time as 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.760 the hype of the moment became personified and in Crockett's time, 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.920 and even after almost two hundred years since his death, 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:36.560 he still carries the baton. 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:38.439 Here's mister Morgan. 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:42.399 We can only speculate on why would he become such 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:46.560 a celebrity. Well, he was charming, he was funny, but 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:52.639 he met a need. Folkloric characters are created and sustained 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:57.119 because of a need the culture needs them. Daniel Boone 0:19:57.160 --> 0:19:59.680 becomes so famous because they needed somebody who with a 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.719 great gone into the wilderness, who was self sufficient. Johnny 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:09.439 Appleseed becomes this iconic figure because this aggressive society needs 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:14.080 a folkloreis figure who's so gentle and doesn't kill the 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.639 Indians and plants apple trees and thought they need that 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.160 kind of character as opposed to the people who kill 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:24.960 the Indians take their land. And Crockett becomes so famous 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:28.439 because at that particular point is eighteen and thirty, the 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:32.560 country needs, on the one hand, somebody looked down on, 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.280 not as good as they are, but somebody who's really 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:40.560 smart and funny and tells these jokes. And again the 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:43.800 parallel is with the minstrel shows and all these people 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:47.240 in the Northeast and to somebody in the South, are 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:51.199 amused by this fellow who's not quality, but he's a 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:54.240 lot of fun. We can you know. He's from the cane, 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.760 he's from the backwoods. He has it double because the 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:02.800 people from the backwoods and the working people, so he's 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:04.040 popular with everybody. 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:08.720 The people from the city thought he was a sensational, 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:12.400 crass wild man, and the people from the backwoods thought 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:15.240 he was one of them. On all sides, people had 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.879 reasons to be attracted to Crockett. It's interesting to me 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:22.719 that many of the armor bearers of American identity weren't 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:27.280 the rich, elite, and educated, but rather a category unique 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:29.400 to the world, the backwoodsman. 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:31.120 Crockett was a. 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:34.439 Part of the first generation to carry America's torch without 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:38.560 the help of the founding fathers. Author Paul Hutton said 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:42.080 the rise of men like Crockett represented to many the 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:46.760 triumph of pure democracy and a complete rejection of European 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.840 values of social class and aristocracy. These were common men 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:55.240 who made their economic and political fortunes through hard work 0:21:55.320 --> 0:22:01.159 coupled with natural ability. Crockett came to symbolize a rough egality, freedom, 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:06.960 of opportunity, manifest destiny, and reaffirmation of the cherished principles 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:09.119 of the Declaration of Independence. 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:11.080 End of quote. 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:14.280 I think part of the reason Americans are so enamored 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:18.200 or appalled by Britain's royal family is because of how 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:21.720 we've outright rejected the idea of a monarchy. 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:23.680 It's so foreign to us. 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:28.320 A king, a man given honor and title without merit 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:31.240 because of his birth. I know some of you boys 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:34.000 probably don't even know it, but King Charles was just 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:39.840 made king yep. I think gazing upon the antithesis of 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:42.800 our values helps us define our values. 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:44.960 It helps to define what we're not. 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:49.040 A deep American value is that you get what you 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:53.880 have by merit. But honestly, this is even a myth. 0:22:54.720 --> 0:23:00.280 Here's more from Scott on Crockett's influence. Why was Americas 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:02.360 so enamored with this guy? 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:02.959 Like? 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:06.760 What, what did he do? What was the character of 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:09.440 him that made him so so appealing? 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:13.280 I think it was a combination of humor. I think 0:23:13.280 --> 0:23:14.920 he was funny, you know. I think he was one 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:22.320 of America's first comedians. I think that he was self depreciating, 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:25.000 and so I think that was something that people weren't 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:25.440 used to. 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:30.840 He was representing America's future. 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:34.320 So if this guy's out there, look how successful he is, 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:35.320 Look what he's doing. 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:38.040 And I think for them that was exciting. 0:23:38.080 --> 0:23:41.000 It was an exciting time to think there's brand new 0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:44.359 lands that we can you know, imagine if we had 0:23:44.600 --> 0:23:48.760 millions of acres and it's available and we're trying to decide, 0:23:48.800 --> 0:23:50.080 You and I are trying to decide, Hey, are we 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:53.200 going to hitch our wagons up and wagon train over there. 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:59.760 My own ancestors settled on Revolutionary Land, Grant Land here 0:23:59.800 --> 0:24:04.000 in in West Tennessee, so they were probably influenced by Crockett, absolutely, 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:07.399 you know, and he was there represented. So my ancestors 0:24:07.400 --> 0:24:12.120 traveled across the state and settled here and then they 0:24:12.119 --> 0:24:15.000 did not leave until my parents went to college in 0:24:15.119 --> 0:24:17.320 the fifties. And so both sides of my family come 0:24:17.359 --> 0:24:19.600 out of that group of people. You know, those were 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:22.639 the kind of people that David Crockett was representing. People 0:24:22.680 --> 0:24:26.080 with enough spirit and enough attitude that they're willing to 0:24:26.119 --> 0:24:29.200 say goodbye to their families forever, knowing that they will 0:24:29.240 --> 0:24:31.680