For many Texans kid, including James E. Crisp, Sam Houston might become their childhood idol. The victory that Sam Houston bring for Texas at the Battle of San Jacinto secured the Texas’ independence from Mexico. James E. Crisp, on his book Sleuthing the Alamo is investigating Sam Houston’s speech that he made to the soldiers at the small South Texas settlement called Refugio. Crisp was not investigating Sam Houston’s speech suddenly. Instead, Crisp found out that the content of his speech is the total opposite of what he did in the real life. So, on Sleuthing the Alamo, Crisp was trying to save Sam Houston’s reputation by proving that Sam Houston’s speech was incorrect through further research and investigation. By the time Crisp finished his investigation, he made two discoveries about the speech.
Houston’s speech is famous through the history because it is showing his racial prejudices against Tejanos (Texas Mexicans). Crisp said, “The words of the speech were harsh. They accused the …show more content…
First, “A thorough comparison of Ehrenberg’s memoir with the voluminous surviving writings of Sam Houston reveals that the vocabulary, the metaphors, and most importantly, the beliefs and the idea of the infamous speech are those if the German private, and not of the Texan general” (56). Second, the editor of Churchill’s translation, Henry Smith, is the one who responsible for all of the deletions-the text that Smith considered as “unreliable” and “unhistorical”. Also, “the book’s Dallas publisher, William Tardy, eliminated or rewrote many more passages that he considered unsuitable for children, in an effort to assure that the book would be adopted by the Texas public schools during the 1936 centennial celebration of Texan independence” (58). Those discoveries are already written as an article titled “Sam Houston’s Speechwriters: The Grad Student, the Teenager, the Editors, and the Historians” by James E. Crisp on
Houston’s speech is famous through the history because it is showing his racial prejudices against Tejanos (Texas Mexicans). Crisp said, “The words of the speech were harsh. They accused the …show more content…
First, “A thorough comparison of Ehrenberg’s memoir with the voluminous surviving writings of Sam Houston reveals that the vocabulary, the metaphors, and most importantly, the beliefs and the idea of the infamous speech are those if the German private, and not of the Texan general” (56). Second, the editor of Churchill’s translation, Henry Smith, is the one who responsible for all of the deletions-the text that Smith considered as “unreliable” and “unhistorical”. Also, “the book’s Dallas publisher, William Tardy, eliminated or rewrote many more passages that he considered unsuitable for children, in an effort to assure that the book would be adopted by the Texas public schools during the 1936 centennial celebration of Texan independence” (58). Those discoveries are already written as an article titled “Sam Houston’s Speechwriters: The Grad Student, the Teenager, the Editors, and the Historians” by James E. Crisp on