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After returning to Tennessee, he was elected magistrate for
Lawrence County, a rough frontier district. Again, his farm failed;
but the woodsy region was thick with game and Crockett was
accurate with a long rifle. He killed deer, wolves, panthers, alliga-
tors and, in one winter alone, 105 bear. Soon tales of Crockett’s
hunting prowess spread throughout the region.
In 1821 Crockett was elected to the Tennessee legisla-
ture, the first of many victories. When opponents snickered
at his handmade trousers, homespun expressions, and
inaccurate spelling, Crockett joined in, underscoring his
commonness—and thereby endearing himself to voters.
Once, accused of telling lies about an opponent, Crockett
conceded that he had. But therein lay the difference, he
explained, for he truthfully admitted his lies while his
opponent did not. The crowd roared. In 1826 Crockett was
elected to the House of Representatives.
Newspapermen delighted in the spectacle of the rough
frontiersman in the nation’s capital. They reported that at a
White House dinner Crockett drank from the finger bowls
and accused a waiter of trying to steal his food.
In Congress, Crockett’s key issue—indeed, the only one
he pursued with much passion—was cheap land for frontier
farmers.“The rich require but little legislation,” he said.“WeD
avy Crockett, the myth, is known better than the man,
who was born David Crockett in 1786 in a cabin in
hardscrabble east Tennessee. John Crockett, his father,
borrowed money to buy cheap frontier land and seldom
repaid his creditors. When a passing Dutchman said he
needed help to drive his cattle to market in Virginia, John
proposed he take on David as a “bound boy” to help out.
David was twelve.
After delivering the cattle to Virginia, the driver declared
that David’s term of service was not over. The boy pretended
to accept the arrangement, but after several weeks he
sneaked away in a snowstorm; two months later he was back
home in Tennessee.
The next fall his father enrolled David at a small country
school. But after beating up another boy, he played hooky,
fearing the wrath of the schoolmaster. When his father
learned of his son’s truancy, he came after the boy with a
hickory stick. David hightailed it into the woods.
He was gone for over two years, wandering through
Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. He moved
from town to town “to see what sort of place it was, and what
sort of folks lived there.” He mostly did odd jobs on farms for
twenty-five cents a day. When he showed up back home two
years later, his father, near bankruptcy, bartered David’s labor
to settle the debts with various creditors.
Soon young Crockett’s thoughts turned to girls, few of
whom had much interest in such an uncouth boy. Crockett
could not even write his name. So he broke free from his
father and made his own deal with a local schoolteacher, bar-
tering his labor for board and instruction. The arrangement
lasted for six months, Crockett’s only formal schooling.
Shortly afterward he attended a “stomp down”—a
community-wide harvest festival with games, music, and
dancing—where he met Polly Finley,“a very pretty” Irish girl.
But proper courtship required that the man possess a horse.
How else could he visit his date and manage a farm? For six
months David worked in exchange for a horse. Then he rode
out to Polly’s house. Within a few months they were married.
Polly’s parents gave the couple two cows. Crockett rented a
nearby farm.
But Crockett proved to be a poor farmer. Time and again
he fell into debt, lost his farm, and moved to cheaper land
farther west.“I found that I was better at increasing my family
than my fortune,” he observed: He and his wife had three
children. In 1813 they took possession of land deep in Creek
territory, near the Alabama border.
The timing was poor. By then, the War of 1812 had
spread to the frontier, as Tecumseh, the Indian leader, incited
Indian uprisings throughout the West. In Alabama, Creeks
attacked and overran Fort Mims, killing hundreds of soldiers
and settlers. In response Crockett enlisted in the Tennessee
militia. He served under Andrew Jackson, participating in the
slaughter of score Indians at Tallusahatchee and Horseshoe
Bend, Alabama.“We shot them like dogs,” Crockett noted.
AMERICAN LIVES
Davy Crockett
This 1839 engraving of Davy Crockett was based on an earlier painting.