Stephen Brennan - An Autobiography of Davy Crockett

An

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

of

DAVY CROCKETT

An

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

of

DAVY CROCKETT

Edited by Stephen Brennan

Copyright 2011 by Stephen Brennan

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Crockett, Davy.

An autobiography of Davy Crockett / edited by Steve Brennan.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-61608-400-4 (hc : alk. paper)

1. Crockett, Davy, 17861836. 2. PioneersTennesseeBiography.
3. LegislatorsUnited StatesBiography. 4. United States. Congress. HouseBiography. I. Brennan, Steve, 1952 II. Title.

F436.C95A3 2011
976.804092dc23
[B]

2011028504

Printed in the United States of America

For Andy, remembering all those days in the woods when
we both really believed we were Davy Crockett.

Be sure you're right, then go ahead

David Crockett's Motto

N ot much you can say about Davy Crockett hasn't already been said. Or is there? We all know Davy Crockett, or think we dothough we frequently mix the man and the myth together. But the history of the man is pretty straight up. There are records and reports of all kinds: land deeds, commercial undertakings and other legal documents, newspaper citations, campaign circulars and election records, all attesting to the when's and where's of Crockett's life. There are memoirs and reminiscences, by friend and by foe. There are a hundred personal anecdotes by men who actually shook his hand, and thousands more by folks whowhatever they might claimnever had that privilege. And best of all, we have this wonderful work, the true story of the man, in his own words. It is a rare thing to have the actual wordssworn and attested toof a Mythic Hero, for certainly that is just what David Crockett has become.

This idea of mythic hero is not so easily unpacked, but we can get something of a make on it by having a look at the journey or process by which David Crockett of Tennessee became Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. David appears first, in history and in lore, as a local hero, an honest man, a doer of mighty deeds, and beloved by his neighbors. They soon make him a Justice of the Peace, elect him Colonel of a local militia regiment, and later to the Tennessee State Legislature. When in 1827, he is elected to Congress, he becomes, almost over-night, a national celebrity and a veritable legend in his own time. Here was your bone fide wild man, come out of the frontier Westa backwoods firecracker, a Gentleman from the Cane, an honest man, independent, self-reliant, funny as a cow up a tree. His unlettered charm, outsized personality, and his deep humor must have been striking, but something else was at work here. At that time the young nation was settling on an idea of itself, and part of that process was a general recognition of, or choice of a national icon or type. Just as fifty years later the Cowboy was to play the role, at that time it was the Frontiersman who most engaged the popular imagination. Here was the new man, the real manan altogether better man, come out of the West, and Davy Crockett was his avatar.

In Washington, Crockett stood up against Andrew Jackson's very popular government, and was finally driven from office. And then, like magic, and like many another legendary hero, Crockett disappeared. Now you see him, now you don't. Months later the world wondered to hear of his fiery death at the Alamo. There began the myth. Because the action or force of myth is implosive, over time, meanings gather to it, significances adhere, and each subsequent age latches-on to some aspect of the story that best resonates with its own challenging time. In this sense, each era remakes the myth of Davy Crockett in its own image.

But, hold on a jiffbefore we get carried awaywe do have here, between these very covers, the actual words of the man himself.

The text of this version of Davy's Autobiography is composed of two works, originally published just over a year apart: A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of TennesseeWritten by Himself (and his friend Thomas Chilton, Representative from the State of Kentucky) and An Account of Colonel Crockett's Tour to the North and Down East, etc.Written by Himself (and Representative William Clark, from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.) It appears that Crockett took a larger hand in the writing of the first publication. Tom Chilton and he had both originally come to Washington as western Democrats, pledged Jackson men, devoted to the cause of the Common Man. Both men seem to have soured on Jackson, his machine and his new Age or order, at about the same time. Both men bunked in the same DC boardinghouse. One can imagine the late nights in an upstairs room. The whale-oil lamp flickers. We see Tom, hunched over the table scribbling away, while Davy stalks the floor, forever talking and remembering and laughing. Good chance there's a bottle in his hand. The friendship of the two men appears evident in their collaboration, a near perfect partnership between an author and his ghost.

With William Clark and the second book it was different. An Account of Colonel Crockett's Tour, etc. was complied from notes Crockett provided Clark and is much less a masterpiece, and much more a campaign document, written with an eye to cashing in on his notoriety. Even with all the care Clark takes render it in a backwoods idiom, this book is little more than travelogue with sketches and a few tall tales of bear-hunting adventures.

But Crockett approved the finished version and put his name to it, so we have to count it as his. Ultimately, there's no way to definitively fix the relative contributions between Crockett, Chilton and Clarkwe have to take them all in all. Our choice for inclusion in a true autobiography must fall only on those works that David actually set his hand to, and acknowledged as his own. Of all the dozens of versions of his story making that claim, all the penny-dreadful romances, the almanacs, stage-plays, movies, and TV shows, only these two books can fairly be counted as Davy Crockett's Autobiography.