Crockett, Davy (redirected from Davy Crockett)

Crockett, Davy (David Crockett) (krŏk`ĭt), 1786–1836, American frontiersman, b. Limestone, near Greeneville, Tenn. After serving (1813–14) under Andrew Jackson against the Creek in the War of 1812, he settled in Giles co., Tenn., and in 1821 was elected to the state legislature. In 1823, Crockett, having moved to the extreme western part of the state, was reelected from his new constituency. When it was jokingly suggested that he should run for Congress, he took the proposal seriously and served three terms in the House (1827–31, 1833–35). His dress, language, racy backwoods humor, and naive yet shrewd comments on city life and national affairs made him a popular figure in Washington. Crockett became a political opponent of Jackson, and the Whigs took him up so assiduously that he became the showpiece of conservatism. Resenting his defeat for reelection in 1835, Crockett left Tennessee for Texas, where he heroically lost his life in the defense of the Alamo. A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett (1834), An Account of Col. Crockett's Tour to the North and Down East (1834), and Col. Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas (posthumous, 1836), supposedly written by Crockett himself in his own idiom, do not match, either in content or style, those letters definitely known to be his.

Bibliography

See his Narrative, facsimile edition edited by J. A. Shackford and S. J. Folmsbee (1973); study by J. A. Shackford (1956); W. C. Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo (1998).

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Crockett, Davy

 orig. David Crockett

(born Aug. 17, 1786, eastern Tennessee, U.S.—died March 6, 1836, San Antonio, Texas) U.S. frontiersman and politician. He made a name for himself in the Creek War (1813–15). In 1821 he was elected to the Tennessee legislature, winning popularity through campaign speeches filled with yarns and homespun metaphors. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1827, 1829, and 1833. During his first congressional term, Crockett broke with Andrew Jackson and the new Democratic Party over Crockett's desire for preferential treatment of squatters occupying land in western Tennessee. The Whigs early courted and publicized Crockett in the hope of creating a popular “coonskin” politician to offset Jackson. In 1834 Crockett was conducted on a triumphal speech-making tour of Whig strongholds in the East. From the many stories about him in books and newspapers, there grew the legend of an eccentric but shrewd “b'ar hunter” and Indian fighter. In 1835 he went to Texas to join the war against Mexico and was killed at the Alamo.