By then, the United States had outlawed the importation of slaves from Africa, and most southern states allowed anyone who informed on a slave trader to receive half of what the imported slaves would earn at auction as a reward. Bowie made three trips to Lafitte's compound on Galveston Island. On each occasion, he bought smuggled slaves and took them directly to a customhouse to inform on his own actions. When the customs officers offered the slaves for auction, Bowie purchased them and received back half the price he had paid, as allowed by the state laws. He could legally transport the slaves and resell them at a greater market value in New Orleans or areas farther up the Mississippi River.[29][30] Using this scheme, the brothers collected $65,000 to use for their land speculation.[30][31]
The Bowies bought the slaves from Laffite for a dollar a pound and took them directly to a customhouse in St. Landry Parish, where they reported that the slaves had been found in the possession of smugglers.
He didn't inform on himself, he reported the discovery of illegal slaves.
Abolitionists knew they couldn't immediately force through complete outlawing of holding slaves since this would financially ruin a lot of people, so they first settled for "no more importation" as a stepping stone.
They were made into legal property of the government when he turned them in to the government. The government would then put them up for public auction, and would give him half of the money made as a reward. They do this even if he himself is the purchaser, in which case the reward is essentially a 50% discount on his purchase.
Check out the concept of Neoslavery in the US post civil war. Here is an npr article/talk about it that I haven't seen. Here is a Knowing Better YouTube video that I have watched and thought was good. The civil war was not the end of black race-targeted slavery in the US. (Phrased it that way simply to exclude "legitimate", for lack of a better word, slavery in prisons)
Chattel slavery means human beings are owned by other human beings as property that can be bought and sold. The law views them as property or livestock, not human beings
Being imprisoned and forced to work for and by the state is not that.
I believe not because, for example, in Knowing Better's video he describes a scheme whereby black men would be faced with trumped up charges and sent to prison, and from there to the mines to work themselves to death within a few years. Chattel slavery in contrast was about individual ownership of people while in that scheme technically no person actually owned the slave. In chattel slavery the offspring of slaves were always (often? I'm not sure) slaves whereas that is not the case in these neoslavery schemes.
In the case of the above Bowie scheme, those people ended up in chattel slavery but that was not always the case. Bowie's scheme took place before the Civil War which I didn't realize when I made my comment. Post civil war, I believe that chattel slavery was outlawed, and ended in truth on Juneteenth.
Whelp, that’s disgusting. I thought it might be the assholes who snatched free black people from northern states and sold them in the South. Which is its own atrocity.
The short of it was that, at the time, while owning slaves was legal, bringing new slaves into the US was illegal (as of 1808). But, once a slave was trafficked into the US, even though it was done illegally, they still remained slaves. To add to that, there was a bounty for turning in illegally imported slaves (I think it was roughly half of the slave’s value, measured by their weight).
Bowie met a French pirate who looped him in on a scheme. The French pirate would bring (usually sick) slaves that wouldn’t sell well on an open market. Bowie and his brother(s) would then “find” the slaves and turn them over to the US government to collect the bounty. The illegally imported slaves were then made legal slaves, who were then put up for auction by the federal government. Bowie would then use his bounty to buy the sick slaves at a discounted profit.
Essentially, Bowie found a way to legally import slaves for himself and have the government pay him to do it It’s comically the textbook definition of laundering, and a reflection on the man that he somehow made an evil institution somehow worse.
Cool secondary rabbit hole. Texas succeeded from Mexican because Mexico made slavery illegal and they, Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, et. al. wanted to keep their slaves.
Sometimes, terms are obscure because they're horrible in a context that is, in itself, also horrible. It's better to know than to not know things, but knowing this will probably make you wish you didn't.
In a nutshell, it was illegal to import slaves in Americain the 1800s. Jim Bowie would buy the slaves from a pirate and have a patsy hold the slaves.
There is a reward for turning in people who try to sell illegal slaves, the bowies would turn the Patsy into the authorities and collect the reward. They would then use the reward money to buy the slaves back and then sell the slaves legally.
So first of all. Googles AI thing is shit. It was total bullshit. Slave laundering is more of a modern term associated with the trafficking of illegals and whatnot. Like people pay to get into the US from san salvador or whatever and make payments. Did shit like this happen back then? I am sure it did but it seems to be a modern term. That's my 15 minute dive interpretation.
No, he absolutely laundered slaves. The short of it was that, at the time, while owning slaves was legal, bringing new slaves into the US was illegal (as of 1808). But, once a slave was trafficked into the US, even though it was done illegally, they still remained slaves. To add to that, there was a bounty for turning in illegally imported slaves (I think it was roughly half of the slave’s value, measured by their weight).
Bowie met a French pirate who looped him in on a scheme. The French pirate would bring (usually sick) slaves that wouldn’t sell well on an open market. Bowie and his brother(s) would then “find” the slaves and turn them over to the US government to collect the bounty. The illegally imported slaves were then made legal slaves, who were then put up for auction by the federal government. Bowie would then use his bounty to buy the sick slaves at a discounted profit.
It’s comically the textbook definition of laundering, and a reflection on the man that he somehow made an evil institution somehow worse.
Is that the same sandbar fight Judge Roy Bean had a part in? I remember going to his museum in Texas and while my mother loved it, all I could think of is that he was the biggest prick of all time.
...ok so it's not just me. The Walkin Tall dude was pretty good. And obviously the L Ron stuff and the Rice Krispies guy who never masturbated. But some are just so dark I'm like "dude I need a break"...
It's not just for killing people. They make outstanding bushwhacking and pioneering knives. They are hefty enough for battoning, and hacking brambles to clear a trail, but not so big as to be unwieldy to carry like a machete. They're a good all-around size. The fact that a big knife is good in a knife fight is unimportant for people buying them today.
Jim and his brother were both massive pieces of shit. Neither of them are worth remembering, much less celebrating.
Many Texas heroes are giant piles of steaming pig shit lionized in Texas mythology. My state has spent a tremendous amount of effort being on the wrong side of history as much as it possibly can.
I remember visiting the Texas State Capital and taking a picture of a plaque well removed from the normal tour guide route.. specifically stating that Texas succeeded over the right to own slaves. Framed. Hanging in the Capitol building. I was never more ashamed of the history of my home.
I mean, you know "Remember the Alamo" and all that bullshit about their massive stand off against Gen. Santa Anna that Texas is so proud of?
Yeah, Texas was fighting for the right to own slaves. Literally one of the things they're most proud of is they were fighting to subjugate black people and fucking lost. Seriously, fuck Texas.
Also about 50% (150 out of 300) of the Alamo’s defenders were tejanos and enslaved blacks that were granted amnesty by Santa Anna before the siege began, so the Texan apologists can’t even claim that every man fell in the battle; just every slaver
He gave amnesty to the Tejano civilians and African slaves because they were non-combatants. The Texas Revolution was a Tejano Revolution hijacked by white settlers. Santa Anna was in no way inclined to give amnesty to Tejano revolutionaries as they were actively rebelling against him. And in fact he would later mass murder hundreds of surrendering Tejanos in the Goliad massacre only two weeks later.
Before the siege began, Santa Anna offered terms of surrender that would allow all non-officers, white or tejano, to keep their lives (though in hindsight, with what we know happened to surrendering troops later, this is an offer that may have not been honored). The officers (obviously) refused those terms. Once the siege began, Santa Anna made it clear there would be no prisoners taken.
I'm all for shitting on slavers, but Tejanos had valid reasons for wanting independence from a tyrant, and they died all the same.
Where did you get that number? The only numbers I can find online state that there were only 187 defenders of the Alamo. Of those 187, only 11 were Hispanic and only 2 were black. The survivors were non-combatants except for two men. The one, Brigido Guerrero, only survived because of pretending to be a prisoner of the Texans. The other was a slave of William Travis named Joe. Joe was spared only because of his status as a slave.
Three Roads to the Alamo by William C. Davis expands on this. It is a parallel biography of Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett and William Travis. Of the three Crockett (who supported among other things free elementary education over governmental support for the elites in colleges and universities) comes off much better. Travis abandoned his wife and child and kept a diary of his sexual encounters.
TIL: In 1999 Gaston Glock caught his financial advisor embezzling who then hired a French mercenary to kill Glock but he, despite being 70 years old, beat the assassin up in a fistfight.
Also, I always assumed the Glock 17 was called that because it held 17 rounds but it's that it was his 17th patent, which I guess makes his first patent, a curtain rod, the Glock 1.
Not just the founding fathers. Majority of folks who are rich now got their money via nefarious means. If it’s inherited wealth it’s likely extra awful.
Remember kids, texas rebelled against Mexico because Mexico outlawed slavery. The texas revolution was a direct result. So all those Alamo movies are about protecting slavery and its practices. Fuck the Alamo.
This is why Sam Houston sent no reinforcements to San Antonio. There was no way the old mission could provide a strategic advantage over the invading Mexican army.
Mexico was happy enough to turn a blind eye to slavery so long as they got a slice of the pie through taxation. The government was no group of saints either.
Slavery was absolutely a factor, but not the main one. The bigger issue was Santa Ana’s attempts at centralization and his rejection of federalism, which led to uprisings throughout the Mexican states. Texas was just a smaller part of a larger conflict within Mexican society
Behind the Bastards did a great episode(s) on him. He made money selling land that wasn't his and was a colossal arsehole. He also died shitting himself to death at the Alamo.
A good rule of thumb is that anyone Texans valorize is probably a big piece of shit.
Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, Bowie, even George W. Bush.
The folks at the Alamo were defending their right to own slaves. Mexico had abolished slavery, the white American Texans (Texians) were trying to keep doing it.
He wasn’t even the one who invented the knife! It was his brother. He just made it famous because of his legendary status at the battle of the Alamo.
Also, just a tidbit. There were zero accounts of him being surrounded by dead Mexican soldiers with empty revolvers. All accounts lead to him already being dead when Mexican troops overran the compound.
Fun fact, David Bowie was born Davy Jones. But the monkeys got famous before he did, so he changed his last name to be different.
And if you don’t know the monkeys, they basically invented mtv in the 60s. They had a show where they made wild music videos and held them together with a little silly dialog. Well worth digging up and watching!
Its also likely he did not make the knife. There are some who say his brother RezIn Pleasant Bowie did. As he was listed as an inventor..He was also as nasty a piece of work as his brother
Was also a notorious coward. I’m a little hazy on the history and welcome correction, but I think it was his brother(s?) who commissioned a giant knife for him because he was a dick and needed to protect himself all the time. The Bowie knife was more fatal than most gun wounds and I believe there were steps taken to ban it, even in wild Texas. My recollection is he was basically a shitty worm of a guy hiding behind an enormous knife
My Texan friend made fun of me for mispronouncing his name.
Apparently it’s “Boo-y.” Which I guess they should know, seeing he was from there.
But all my life I said “Boe-y” (like David Bowie).
Yeah, slavery imports were actually illegal before the Civil War. But southerners still had no problem running their fields for decades. There's only one way that happens.
slave laundering is a new term for me. Excuse me while I dive into a rabbit hole
For anyone curious via the wiki.
By then, the United States had outlawed the importation of slaves from Africa, and most southern states allowed anyone who informed on a slave trader to receive half of what the imported slaves would earn at auction as a reward. Bowie made three trips to Lafitte's compound on Galveston Island. On each occasion, he bought smuggled slaves and took them directly to a customhouse to inform on his own actions. When the customs officers offered the slaves for auction, Bowie purchased them and received back half the price he had paid, as allowed by the state laws. He could legally transport the slaves and resell them at a greater market value in New Orleans or areas farther up the Mississippi River.[29][30] Using this scheme, the brothers collected $65,000 to use for their land speculation.[30][31]
Am I reading that right?! He informed on his self, got a reward, then used the reward to buy his illegal slaves, which made them then legal?!
With a bit of complexity, yes. He was informing on the operation but didn't declare that he was the head of it.
Well that's confusing but I thought this was about David Bowie for a minute..
I think he did it, too.
His slaves were all goblin puppets
The Thin White Duke period was a dark one indeed.
lmao
He did turn and face the strange, however
Yes, he trafficked slaves in his starship.
Those poor spiders.
Well, David Bowie’s real name is David Robert Jones, and he adopted the stage name of David Bowie as a tribute to Jim Bowie.
It was a god awful small affair
Yup these kinds of cash for information deals are super fraught for reasons like these.
He didn't inform on himself, he reported the discovery of illegal slaves.
He stabbed a patsy in the back.
Good ole southern hospitality.
They were priced by weight?
Somehow that makes it even more vile.
Probably no fat ones so more weight means muscle and/or body size.
NGL, that doesn’t make it less vile.
He didn’t receive a reward. He got half the money back from legally buying them.
He essentially paid a small fine to legalise his imported slave, and then sold them for a profit.
How were the slaves still legally property?
Abolitionists knew they couldn't immediately force through complete outlawing of holding slaves since this would financially ruin a lot of people, so they first settled for "no more importation" as a stepping stone.
Back then it was illegal to import slaves, but still legal to own them and breed them domestically (ew).
They were made into legal property of the government when he turned them in to the government. The government would then put them up for public auction, and would give him half of the money made as a reward. They do this even if he himself is the purchaser, in which case the reward is essentially a 50% discount on his purchase.
Feels like the south may have been doing some malicious compliance if you can believe it.
Well that settles it. Those guys were no good!
Imo the worst part of the slave trade was the hypocrisy
Not to mention the lack of respect
Idk the rape and torture of millions was pretty bad too
I was going to continue the chain of jokes here, but instead I'll just have to solemnly observe that yes, it really was truly horrific.
Not sure where killing fits in here but it should at least be mentioned, I feel? Not really sure.
Let's just say slavery is... pretty bad
Ah tyvm
aka "loop hole"
He basically found a glitch and exploited the fuck out it, then sold everything on the resale market.
The North hates this one simple trick!
Check out the concept of Neoslavery in the US post civil war. Here is an npr article/talk about it that I haven't seen. Here is a Knowing Better YouTube video that I have watched and thought was good. The civil war was not the end of black race-targeted slavery in the US. (Phrased it that way simply to exclude "legitimate", for lack of a better word, slavery in prisons)
Would the phrase "chattel slavery" convey the same intention?
Chattel slavery means human beings are owned by other human beings as property that can be bought and sold. The law views them as property or livestock, not human beings
Being imprisoned and forced to work for and by the state is not that.
I believe not because, for example, in Knowing Better's video he describes a scheme whereby black men would be faced with trumped up charges and sent to prison, and from there to the mines to work themselves to death within a few years. Chattel slavery in contrast was about individual ownership of people while in that scheme technically no person actually owned the slave. In chattel slavery the offspring of slaves were always (often? I'm not sure) slaves whereas that is not the case in these neoslavery schemes.
In the case of the above Bowie scheme, those people ended up in chattel slavery but that was not always the case. Bowie's scheme took place before the Civil War which I didn't realize when I made my comment. Post civil war, I believe that chattel slavery was outlawed, and ended in truth on Juneteenth.
Well…not exactly)
65,000 in those days was a bajillion dollars btw
$1,800,000ish
How many human lives was that though?
About 10 to 20
a million trillion
A+ do you need a job?
Hopefully not in slave arbitrage
I do as a matter of fact
Whelp, that’s disgusting. I thought it might be the assholes who snatched free black people from northern states and sold them in the South. Which is its own atrocity.
But this is new to me.
The more I learn about these people, the happier I am that they died in El Alamo.
Jesus Christ
Trading Places
As in Lafitte’s like the bar in New Orleans?
Yeah, Lafitte was a famous pirate. He would capture slave ships and sell the slaves through third parties like Bowie using this loophole.
Reporting my answer from further down the thread.
The short of it was that, at the time, while owning slaves was legal, bringing new slaves into the US was illegal (as of 1808). But, once a slave was trafficked into the US, even though it was done illegally, they still remained slaves. To add to that, there was a bounty for turning in illegally imported slaves (I think it was roughly half of the slave’s value, measured by their weight).
Bowie met a French pirate who looped him in on a scheme. The French pirate would bring (usually sick) slaves that wouldn’t sell well on an open market. Bowie and his brother(s) would then “find” the slaves and turn them over to the US government to collect the bounty. The illegally imported slaves were then made legal slaves, who were then put up for auction by the federal government. Bowie would then use his bounty to buy the sick slaves at a discounted profit.
Essentially, Bowie found a way to legally import slaves for himself and have the government pay him to do it It’s comically the textbook definition of laundering, and a reflection on the man that he somehow made an evil institution somehow worse.
Infinite money glitch IRL
Makes sense these were the men that made modern Texas
That sounds more like a fire ant mound. Come up for air soon.
He washes their shirts.
He didn't want the colors to run.
Cool secondary rabbit hole. Texas succeeded from Mexican because Mexico made slavery illegal and they, Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, et. al. wanted to keep their slaves.
Also the reason for the Oklahoma panhandle.
And I was raised to believe those men were "heroes" of the Texas revolution in my state mandated Texas history propaganda classes in public school.
I assumed he ran a laundry using slaves!
Sometimes, terms are obscure because they're horrible in a context that is, in itself, also horrible. It's better to know than to not know things, but knowing this will probably make you wish you didn't.
Let us know what you find out.
In a nutshell, it was illegal to import slaves in Americain the 1800s. Jim Bowie would buy the slaves from a pirate and have a patsy hold the slaves.
There is a reward for turning in people who try to sell illegal slaves, the bowies would turn the Patsy into the authorities and collect the reward. They would then use the reward money to buy the slaves back and then sell the slaves legally.
Yeah he was a horrible person.
Tell me what you find cuz I’m afraid of a rabbit hole myself.
So first of all. Googles AI thing is shit. It was total bullshit. Slave laundering is more of a modern term associated with the trafficking of illegals and whatnot. Like people pay to get into the US from san salvador or whatever and make payments. Did shit like this happen back then? I am sure it did but it seems to be a modern term. That's my 15 minute dive interpretation.
No, he absolutely laundered slaves. The short of it was that, at the time, while owning slaves was legal, bringing new slaves into the US was illegal (as of 1808). But, once a slave was trafficked into the US, even though it was done illegally, they still remained slaves. To add to that, there was a bounty for turning in illegally imported slaves (I think it was roughly half of the slave’s value, measured by their weight).
Bowie met a French pirate who looped him in on a scheme. The French pirate would bring (usually sick) slaves that wouldn’t sell well on an open market. Bowie and his brother(s) would then “find” the slaves and turn them over to the US government to collect the bounty. The illegally imported slaves were then made legal slaves, who were then put up for auction by the federal government. Bowie would then use his bounty to buy the sick slaves at a discounted profit.
It’s comically the textbook definition of laundering, and a reflection on the man that he somehow made an evil institution somehow worse.
Same
And it's pronounced boo-eee. Like Bowie Maryland.
I came to say, people back then were doin' a lot worse than givin' free baths!
Is there a Behind the Bastards episode on him? I feel like I remember his sandbar fight being heavily featured by Robert at some point.
Weirdly enough I just listened to it earlier this week. I was laughing through the sandbar fight
There's a dollop episode about the sandbar fight.
Is that the same sandbar fight Judge Roy Bean had a part in? I remember going to his museum in Texas and while my mother loved it, all I could think of is that he was the biggest prick of all time.
Man I haven't listened to that pod in years I might need to check it out again
Fantastic podcast but I can only handle so much of it at a time before the shittiness of people affects my mood
Fortunately, it's about time for their Christmas episode, where they feature someone awesome.
...ok so it's not just me. The Walkin Tall dude was pretty good. And obviously the L Ron stuff and the Rice Krispies guy who never masturbated. But some are just so dark I'm like "dude I need a break"...
There's an early dollop about this, more so about the sandbar fight iirc
Are you saying the inventor of the "huge knife, for killing people" was not a stand up guy?
It was actually his brother that made the first knives. Just FYI. It’s a common misconception.
Was the real inventor a good guy?
No same kinda dude as his brother
Thank you for that clarification /u/MikeOxHuge
It's not just for killing people. They make outstanding bushwhacking and pioneering knives. They are hefty enough for battoning, and hacking brambles to clear a trail, but not so big as to be unwieldy to carry like a machete. They're a good all-around size. The fact that a big knife is good in a knife fight is unimportant for people buying them today.
I thought he was a singer
No, that was his son.
Haha--this is Boo-wee, not Beau-oui.
Exactly the type of guy who deserved to shit himself to death in his bed at the Alamo.
Jim and his brother were both massive pieces of shit. Neither of them are worth remembering, much less celebrating.
Many Texas heroes are giant piles of steaming pig shit lionized in Texas mythology. My state has spent a tremendous amount of effort being on the wrong side of history as much as it possibly can.
I remember visiting the Texas State Capital and taking a picture of a plaque well removed from the normal tour guide route.. specifically stating that Texas succeeded over the right to own slaves. Framed. Hanging in the Capitol building. I was never more ashamed of the history of my home.
Hey now, Texas didn't just secede to own slaves. They seceded to own slaves Twice!
> a plaque.. specifically stating that Texas succeeded over the right to own slaves. Framed. Hanging in the Capitol building.
Better than whitewashing the ugly history.
I mean, you know "Remember the Alamo" and all that bullshit about their massive stand off against Gen. Santa Anna that Texas is so proud of?
Yeah, Texas was fighting for the right to own slaves. Literally one of the things they're most proud of is they were fighting to subjugate black people and fucking lost. Seriously, fuck Texas.
Also about 50% (150 out of 300) of the Alamo’s defenders were tejanos and enslaved blacks that were granted amnesty by Santa Anna before the siege began, so the Texan apologists can’t even claim that every man fell in the battle; just every slaver
He gave amnesty to the Tejano civilians and African slaves because they were non-combatants. The Texas Revolution was a Tejano Revolution hijacked by white settlers. Santa Anna was in no way inclined to give amnesty to Tejano revolutionaries as they were actively rebelling against him. And in fact he would later mass murder hundreds of surrendering Tejanos in the Goliad massacre only two weeks later.
Before the siege began, Santa Anna offered terms of surrender that would allow all non-officers, white or tejano, to keep their lives (though in hindsight, with what we know happened to surrendering troops later, this is an offer that may have not been honored). The officers (obviously) refused those terms. Once the siege began, Santa Anna made it clear there would be no prisoners taken.
I'm all for shitting on slavers, but Tejanos had valid reasons for wanting independence from a tyrant, and they died all the same.
Where did you get that number? The only numbers I can find online state that there were only 187 defenders of the Alamo. Of those 187, only 11 were Hispanic and only 2 were black. The survivors were non-combatants except for two men. The one, Brigido Guerrero, only survived because of pretending to be a prisoner of the Texans. The other was a slave of William Travis named Joe. Joe was spared only because of his status as a slave.
It's almost like Texas has a history that is manufactured to validate the lawless and selfish behavior of a few exploitive people.
Three Roads to the Alamo by William C. Davis expands on this. It is a parallel biography of Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett and William Travis. Of the three Crockett (who supported among other things free elementary education over governmental support for the elites in colleges and universities) comes off much better. Travis abandoned his wife and child and kept a diary of his sexual encounters.
John C Reilly should play him in a film.
I’d go more Danny McBride
Not like Oliver Winchester, who made his wealth through selling Winchester rifles.
Or John Glock, who made his fortune in a similar fashion.
Just think of how many lives could've been saved if James Gunn had just thought twice...
If I had a time machine I'd shoot James Gunn twice.
His name was Gaston Glock actually.
TIL: In 1999 Gaston Glock caught his financial advisor embezzling who then hired a French mercenary to kill Glock but he, despite being 70 years old, beat the assassin up in a fistfight.
Also, I always assumed the Glock 17 was called that because it held 17 rounds but it's that it was his 17th patent, which I guess makes his first patent, a curtain rod, the Glock 1.
As a fan boy I am aware.
Hiram Maxim says hello
Or Garry Chess, same thing
Or Johnny Shotgun
John Nuclear Bomb, need I say more
Barry COVID did pretty well a couple years ago
Selling curtain rails?
Alfred Nobel greatly regretted inventing dynamite, so much that he donated much of his money to the prizes named after him and other things.
Jim wasn't the one who created the knife, his brother Rezin created the bowie knife for him. I'm sure he's guilty of just as much though
Yes, but he popularized it through his many frontier exploits, and the famous Sandbar fight.
Wait until you hear about how the founding fathers made their money.
Not just the founding fathers. Majority of folks who are rich now got their money via nefarious means. If it’s inherited wealth it’s likely extra awful.
Remember kids, texas rebelled against Mexico because Mexico outlawed slavery. The texas revolution was a direct result. So all those Alamo movies are about protecting slavery and its practices. Fuck the Alamo.
Plus they were ordered to abandon the Alamo because it no strategic value, so of course they stayed anyway and got killed
This is why Sam Houston sent no reinforcements to San Antonio. There was no way the old mission could provide a strategic advantage over the invading Mexican army.
The funniest shit is they were so drunk and done in that supposedly they just snuck in at night and killed them all.
Inb4 abandoning it 💀
Forget the Alamo. Good book. Goes on to discuss current extreme right politics in current school books to white wash history.
And it continues to provide content for the book’s sequel. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/17/alamo-trust-president-kate-rogers-lawsuit-dan-patrick-dawn-buckingham/
Mexico was happy enough to turn a blind eye to slavery so long as they got a slice of the pie through taxation. The government was no group of saints either.
Slavery was absolutely a factor, but not the main one. The bigger issue was Santa Ana’s attempts at centralization and his rejection of federalism, which led to uprisings throughout the Mexican states. Texas was just a smaller part of a larger conflict within Mexican society
Santa Anna was a dictator. He committed multiple atrocities
Also "Don't mess with Texas." was an anti-litter campaign.
And then they rebelled again, to keep slavery in the 1860s.
Fuck Texas.
They're 1-for-2 in rebelling to keep slaves. The best record in the league.
Probably needed to invent a solid knife to defend himself in that line of work 🤷♂️
His brother was the man behind the knife.
Behind the Bastards did a great episode(s) on him. He made money selling land that wasn't his and was a colossal arsehole. He also died shitting himself to death at the Alamo.
“I’ve never done good things…” 🎶
He was great on Bullseye though. .super, smashin
His name is pronounced Boo-ee
I was saying boo urns
He was kind of a piece of shit really
That knoif is a racist knoif?
He died at the Alamo, a place filled with guys willing to die to keep their slaves
Look, I really don’t have high expectations if a man was from the South between 1604-1950, but man am I sometimes still disappointed.
This just in: The Texas Republic were a bunch of slavers and unscrupulous assholes trying to steal a Safe Space from Mexico. Also, water is wet.
A good rule of thumb is that anyone Texans valorize is probably a big piece of shit.
Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, Bowie, even George W. Bush.
The folks at the Alamo were defending their right to own slaves. Mexico had abolished slavery, the white American Texans (Texians) were trying to keep doing it.
I'll bet he stabbed a couple people too
He probably had a lot of people who wanted him dead. No wonder he was making his own knives
He wasn’t even the one who invented the knife! It was his brother. He just made it famous because of his legendary status at the battle of the Alamo.
Also, just a tidbit. There were zero accounts of him being surrounded by dead Mexican soldiers with empty revolvers. All accounts lead to him already being dead when Mexican troops overran the compound.
[deleted]
The knife business was not profitable.
And passed it all down to his son David Bowie.
Fun fact, David Bowie was born Davy Jones. But the monkeys got famous before he did, so he changed his last name to be different.
And if you don’t know the monkeys, they basically invented mtv in the 60s. They had a show where they made wild music videos and held them together with a little silly dialog. Well worth digging up and watching!
I mean, this guy sounds like a real jerk!
Its also likely he did not make the knife. There are some who say his brother RezIn Pleasant Bowie did. As he was listed as an inventor..He was also as nasty a piece of work as his brother
I wonder if he tested his Bowie knife on some slaves.
Yeah, of course.
Check out Behind the Bastards podcast. Great episodes on Bowie.
Thanks, will do. I love reading about these old bastarda
Shame, I liked his music..
Was also a notorious coward. I’m a little hazy on the history and welcome correction, but I think it was his brother(s?) who commissioned a giant knife for him because he was a dick and needed to protect himself all the time. The Bowie knife was more fatal than most gun wounds and I believe there were steps taken to ban it, even in wild Texas. My recollection is he was basically a shitty worm of a guy hiding behind an enormous knife
So he was an unskilled coward but everyone let him be an asshole because he carried a big knife? Somehow, I doubt the effectiveness of that strategy.
My Texan friend made fun of me for mispronouncing his name. Apparently it’s “Boo-y.” Which I guess they should know, seeing he was from there. But all my life I said “Boe-y” (like David Bowie).
…while carrying a Bowie knife.
You need to know how to handle a knife in those lines of business
Sounds like the kind of guy that would have need of a healthy supply of Bowie Knives
When I was a kid I thought the Bowie knife was named after David Bowie
Also I had a toy Bowie knife so I got the impression that all Bowie knives were rubber
Fun fact David Bowie used the bowie knife as his stage name, because it cuts both ways
Ziggy Stardust was born in Houston.
“Slave laundering????”
Makes sense, after all he was probably forgery Bowie knives constantly in his forge.
A guy famous for making a big ass useless knife made his money by being a dickhead??
Bowie Knife
Leave him alone! Haven’t the Bowie’s been through enough?!?!?
1796-1836 ya think
REDDIT posts about Texas history; hilarity ensues
Okay...🤷♂️
They spent $65K in a year! In 1819!
Yep real piece of shit. I think behind the bastards did a series on him. Worth listening to for sure.
Opelousas, Louisiana, has a lot of stuff about Jim Bowie, but I bet this part may not be included.
As was the style at the time.
forgery of knives? That tracks.
Jim Bowie, TV show, part of the "cowboy" era of TV shows. 1956/58
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxJ0_DW9mCc&t=6s
Very few of the super wealthy come by it honestly...even and especially currently.
Stop at "slave laundering" and reread the title in Norm MacDonald's voice.
Yeah, slavery imports were actually illegal before the Civil War. But southerners still had no problem running their fields for decades. There's only one way that happens.
Oh no, this is terrible
I recommend the book “ The Iron Mistress”, it covers Jim Bowie and Sam Houston.
wtf is slave laundering, like, did you have a stroke?
I thought he made his wealth singing while walking up/down stairs to puppets.