Joe Travis

Joe Travis (c. 1815 – unknown) was an enslaved man who was one of the only survivors of the Battle of the Alamo. Joe was sold four times in his life, with his most well-known owner being William B. Travis, Brown escaped enslavement in 1833 and is considered the first African American to publish a novel, titled Clotel, in 1853. Travis’ paternal grandfather was said to be Daniel Boone, famous pioneer and folk hero of the United States.

Life as William's B. Travis' Slave

Soon after Isaac Mansfield died, he was sold to William Barrett Travis, who was a lawyer and soldier in the United States military. Joe was then moved to Texas to live on Travis' plantation. By the time Travis owned Joe, he had also purchased a five-year-old boy named Jared, and also rented a slave named Peter. He also possibly owned a slave girl named Matilda, and eventually bought a slave couple named John and Kiz, who he would later sell together to John Rice Jones for $805, (~$ in ) on May 29, 1835. Travis routinely bought or hired slaves, and sent them to work at friends properties, in order to make lease money.

Joe eventually became Travis' personal body servant and would prepare his clothes in the morning, saddle his mule, and drive Travis into town in his carriage. After that, he was released.

After the Alamo Joe decided that he needed to leave San Antonio quickly, so he left the city and caught up with Susanna Dickinson, who was sent to Gonzales, Texas to tell Sam Houston about the mission. When Houston heard of what happened at the battle and that Santa Anna approaching, he had Gonzales burned to the ground, and everyone in the town left to head east.

Joe was treated as a war hero since he was the only known male to survive the battle. He went to Washington-on-the-Brazos to tell Charles Travis, William B. Travis' son, what happened at the mission. Despite his new fame as a war hero, Joe was then taken back to Travis' estate and put back into slavery, by his new master John Rice Jones.

One year after the battle of the Alamo, Joe escaped on two stolen horses, and made his way to a plantation owned by William B. Travis' brother, Nicholas Travis, outside of Sparta, Alabama. He was able to share with the rest of Travis' family about the battle. Joe is assumed to have stayed on their farm for at least 15 years. He was also possibly renamed "Ben" in the 1850s because Nicholas Travis' wife, Elizabeth, gave birth to a child named Joseph Mark Travis. Ben was the name of Joe's oldest brother who died when he was a child.

Joe was last seen in San Antonio in 1877, and not much is known about his life past then.

Legacy

Joe was named a hero for his actions at the Battle of the Alamo, but was never rewarded a military pension for his service by the nation of Texas. Joe, The Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend, a book written by Ron J. Jackson and Lee Spencer White, was published in 2015 and shared a lot about the life of Joe and his contributions to the Alamo mission.

Joe's first-person account of the events of the Alamo is a significant testimony, as most other individuals partaking, died.