III.

Reputation

Crockett’s heroic death at The Alamo established him as a national hero. On the strength of this fame, his son John Wesley Crockett went to Congress in 1839 and 1841, where he succeeded in securing passage of the Tennessee Vacant Land Bill for which his father had fought so desperately.

During Crockett’s political career members of the Whig Party, making skillful use of his renowned backwoods humor and eccentricities, brought out a number of books attributed to him. These included A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, of the State of Tennessee (1834) and Sketches & Eccentricities of Colonel David Crockett of West Tennessee (1833). It is improbable that Crockett was the sole author, but it seems likely that he aided in their writing. Popular pamphlets, known as Crockett Almanacs, were issued by several publishers in various cities between 1835 and 1856. In addition to the usual contents of such publications, the almanacs contained tall tales based on oral legends about Crockett and other frontier heroes, including Daniel Boone and Kit Carson. These almanacs did much to establish Crockett as a figure in American legend and folklore.