In this episode we read the tale of Britt Johnson from "Indian Depredations in Texas." Support our channel by shopping at our merch store: unworthy-histo... Also visit our website: unworthyhistory.com
My 5xg grandfather was a Texas Ranger and was killed in an Indian skirmish on the Brazos River in Young County August 5, 1841. He was the only one in his company that was killed that day. His brother and nephew buried him there at the river. His grave is lost to history, but the state posted a memorial to him at the Fort Belknap Cemetery a mile or so where he was killed.
I learned about Britt Johnson by reading a Texas roadside historic marker near Graham/Newcastle. What fantastic bravery and frontier spirit. The details of his death should be legendary.
That is one of the most awesome stories from the wild west that i have heard . And of course we will never hear of it from anywhere else. . These days most people like to pretend that American Indians were always gentle , peace loving and fault free
Or maybe they had been killing and stealing from each other long before any one came to this country....as that's what their own storys and history represents
@@asgloki can’t blame them for taking on European invaders but many tribe’s had been attacking and killing each other long before Europeans showed up . Like any other civilization there were takers and givers , good and bad .
I admire Warriors,,,,i could care less what Color they are,,,,,,Black, Red, Brown or White, i admire Buffalo Hump as much as i admire Jack Hays, I admire Robert Gillespie as much as i admire Roman Nose, i just Love Brave Warriors doing what they think is Right, and doing it with No Fear,,,,,,,God said, No Greater Love than to Give your Life to save another,,,,,i think God is Proud of Britt Johnson,,,,and all Warriors who gave life trying to save others
They were gentle at times but rarely the Comanches. Their tribe has a fairly unique history if one takes the time to learn it. Most people don't read anything today so are woefully ignorant. Europeans could be as heartless as any group and this story is just one of hundreds about two people groups with a great cultural gulf between them didn't take time to adapt to one another until one was devastated. Thankfully Edward Curtis and others captured some of native culture history, sounds, stories, pictures, dances and the rest before they were finally extinguished.
Britt J. …What an incredible man that had brains, braun and great courage .. yes a movie about him would be awesome ! Thank you for honouring his life in your presentation .
Dan C go visit Ft. Belknap. The young man who is the manager of the fort is doing his Doctorate on Britt Johnson. He is a wealth of all the history in the area especially Britt Johnson. A ton of other great stories there too as well as a nice museum at the fort.
Great story to be remember about a man who helped shape Texas and America. I have likewise read Indian Depredations in Texas several times and many other accounts of life with Comanches as a captive. All very sad but fascinating tales. I also decided to visit the Texas plains and Palo Duro canyon just to visualize the country. Interestingly while in a museum in Mexico City I found a diorama map that indicated Comanches had raided just north of the City. Thanks for sharing.
I GREW UP TO ADULTHOOD IN NORTH EAST PENNSYLVANIA NOW A MISSISSIPPIAN IT IS RICH TO OVERFLOWING WITH THIS TYPE OF HISTORY FROM REVOLUTIONARY AND MUCH EARLIER HEARING OUR HISTORY OF TEXAS IS INSORMOUNTABLE AND RICH IN FIRE HOT CONTENT I ENJOY YOUR CHANNEL THANK YOU
A great man who deserves much more recognition. Should be a movie. Would Denzil Washington be interested in playing the role of Britt? Just an idea! Thanks for this fascinating story.
It would be great to have a movie about Britt Johnson. People need to know about "Heroes of Texas". People don't realize how many Black heroes settled that country. I think the Comanche were particularly cruel the more you read about them. It's not PC to say, but there it is. Other Native Americans and Hispanic peoples from Mexico were there victims also. Unimaginable cruelty.
When I listen to all these stories, I think that Hollywood has missed the chance for 100 years to tell the story of the Indian wars as they should be told.
It’s about time somebody tells real story’s . It don’t matter what color a person is it’s what they really did . Good job to you sir for telling how to cut the mustered!
A .44 henry rimfire cartridge when fired in a rifle length barrel at close range would be close to a modern 10mm pistol round fired out of a pistol length barrel. Certainly would be an effective round against a human. .44 henry Bullet mass/type Velocity Energy 200 gr (13 g) lead 1,125 ft/s (343 m/s) 568 ft⋅lbf (770 J) 10mm pistol round out of a pistol length barrel with same wt bullet about 1050 to 1250 fps depending on what company is loading the cartridge
Would it have been a Winchester in 1871?....I thought it wasn’t available till 1873 hence its title “Winchester 73”.....maybe more than likely a Henry Rifle perhaps
@@Tommy-Atkins The winchester model 71 in 348 was produced from 1935 to about 1958. It was an improved version of the 1886 ('86) winchester. Completely different from a henry, '66, '73, or '76.
Yes very effective at close range ( eg Indians armed with the 1866 yellow boy rifles at the battle of little big horn ) but for a foe more than 150 yards away a breach loading single shot rifle was needed, like the Sharps , Remington Rolling block or Springfield trapdoors.......................... the receivers on early repeating rifles like the ( Henry , Spencer ) weren't strong at all, and could handle only handgun ammunition !
@@sheepsfoot2 The spencer ammunition was more powerful than what was used in the 44 rimfire henry. .56-56 Spencer 0.55 caliber 350 gr (23 g) 1,200 ft/s (370 m/s) 1,125 ft⋅lbf (1,525 J) For comparison the 50-70 trapdoor was: 550 gr (36 g) lead FN 1,375 ft/s Even when made out of stronger metals as in the '73 winchester, it was the lockup that was considered weak. Browning in the '86, '92, '94, and '95 had steel locking bars that secured the rear of the bolt that was suitable for higher pressure loads. The 1873 winchester at times into the 20th century sold as well as the stronger '92 that was also made in 44-40. The henry and '73 had a very smooth and rapid action that many liked even if it was weaker.
I love reading about all these stories. I am actually a great great great great grandson of Colonel Young. I have been absolutely fascinated with these stories. It blows my mind that there isn’t a video about the elm creek massacre. I visited the cemetery where the boys were buried which shares plots for my grandmothers side of the family. What a story!! Thanks for sharing.
Amazing man. Astounding story One wonders if many elements of his story were not transplanted into film without attribution. That someone so cared to erect a hand engraved marker in that lonely spot speaks of the regard others held. Thank you for this biography.
@@unworthyhistory i read a book once, I believe titled "The Real Wild West" Or something very similar... I was quite surprised that 1/4 or 25% of all cowboys were black... Only surprised, as real, and accurate history wasn't actually the most important thing to the teachers I had, or the curriculum that they readily presented. I cannot speak for others. There are many things I still need learn. It's a cool channel. Be well, God bless our great nation! ☀️😎🙏🇺🇸☀️
There is a great fictional book called "The Color of Lightening " about the life of Britt Johnson (with many true facts) by Paulette Jiles. Excellent book.
I'm a Brit who has watched many of your excellent videos. I had always looked at the Indian nation with a compassionate eye but learning of so many atrocities my mind is now split 😠
Genocide of the indigenous peoples was real and deliberate by the early 1800s. Many viewed each other as enemies - such extraordinary arrogance to think, "We are here so leave or be killed." There were peaceful Indian nations/villages which were decimated by that attitude/ behavior / attacks. And the focused destruction of the Buffalo/ bison...to get the Indians to die, submit, or acclimate on reservations! Audacious mindset...
Message me if you'd like to discuss the living connection today, I'd love to provide you with an interview. I'm the great-granddaughter of Durgan and a descendant of Britt. I work for the Kiowa Tribe as well.
Historical marker 8 miles NW of Graham on Jean cutoff It mentions Turtle Hole Rd I think Larry McMurtry used Britt as the model for Danny Glovers character in lonesome dove
A suggestion for you. During the Spanish Civil War 36-39 the American Abraham Lincoln brigade was commanded by Oliver Law a black man. The very first black man to command an American unit and no one knows this except those who were there, like my grandfather and his brother(KIA).
@Cayenne Captain Grandpa would hang out with Hemingway every summer when he lived in California. So sad I didn’t get to talk to him about that. I missed him by two years. Died on the operating table trying to fix his ulcer!
@@unworthyhistory The dead do not need to rise. They are a part of the earth now and the earth can never be conquered. For the earth endureth forever. It will outlive all systems of tyranny. Those who have entered it honorably, and no men ever entered earth more honorably than those who died in Spain. E. Hemingway 39
This is the man the John Wayne movie "The Searchers" was based on. Hollywood was not ready to have a black leading man and even now refuse to acknowledge Johnson was the inspiration.
I don't think that they'd make it now for opposite reasons. I think that it would be a great movie but the story has a lot of nuance and it wouldn't fit the narrative that they're pushing. For instance, not all native Americans were victims, and not all slave holders were nasty. I can't say whether or not that the John Wayne movie omitted Britt Johnson because he was black. It was a Hollywood scripted movie and was maybe an amalgamation of various Comanche abduction stories. I also don't agree that they won't make this movie now because of a leading black man. In fact, I'd argue that producers are falling over backwards to cast " bipoc" people. This would be a fantastic movie, imo but it won't be made correctly because the social engineers won't allow any content that challenges their victim/ perpetrator indoctrination program.
LOL. So it's the whites' fault that the Comanches raided, killed and took whites and blacks captive, and also the whites' fault that a black man who was "on Comanche land" was not given credit for carrying on a rescue mission against the poor, downtrodden Comanches?
On the Joe Rogan podcast, he had a historian on talking about the Comanches. Said they were the only tribe who were not forced onto a reservation. Instead each adult male was given 150 acres of land to settle on.
And also, many of the Black Seminole were never enslaved and were fighting those Seminole Wars all the way up to the 1830. Andrew Jackson made it clear..."It's Those Black Seminole that's causing all the trouble" Jackson also said that if there were 10 more men like John 🐎 Horse and Abraham... they could change the course of history.
Too bad it isn't true. Comanche and Kiowa had a reservation but like all the other reservations in OK/Indian territory they were divided into allotments for individual tribal members. The surplus of their reservation was given away by lottery.
He was killed on my uncles land, Earl Parker. I have tromped all over this area as a young boy. There is a Texas historical marker where you turn of the FM going to Gene north of Graham.
It would seem that Larry McMurtry has read this book & knows this story. It's a near composite of the "Lonesome Dove" characters, Deets, Gus, and Capt. Call
I would suggest the book interwoven by Sally Reynolds and the story of her family fighting with the Indians of which my grandfather who worked for the family went withAnd fought with the Reynolds’s an Mathew’s family .
Wow!! Great history! I guess this doesn’t fit the common political narratives. I live near Weatherford Tx and had never heard this. He is the epitome of courage!!
My family had a land grant out by Weatherford, I believe they called it parcel of an J. Camerou Empresario grant to one Wihelm Von Rankin formerly of the His Majesty's army about 23 percent of the Hessians who survived the war remained in America this one went to Texas.
@Camp Land, The title of this channel says it all “Unworthy history”. The idea that the telling of history by main stream media is not manipulated by political influencers is naive. “There is nothing new under the sun.”
@@CrossTimbersSon . . .Sure, it's all political these days. Blacks are being promoted like never before, and whites are being demoted and ostracized. And this Britt story is a good one on its own. . .but when compared to many, many other stories of western battles against indians (singular or militarily), this story isn't very exciting.
Why is the man in the photo wearing a "do rag?" Those are middle 20th century hair accessories. I think the photo is modern day at a Ghost Town out west or a Western Themed photo booth at a fair or something.
no the spanish and Mexicans of the southwest wore them under their sombreros also pirates and seafaires wore them. bandanas were used for more than a cowboys neckerchif, people have been wearing do rags as long as they had a piece of cloth to wrap around their head
@@miketaylor5212 In the photo with the Henry rifle on a man's shoulder the man has a modern nylon "do rag" on his head, and in the 1800s people, especially dressed like he was couldn't keep their facial hair that well groomed either. Back in those days even black men were wearing big bushy mustaches if they wore one at all.
I mean, if you understand the bigger picture which is that these empire tribes (Comanche, Cherokee, other tribes) how weird policies regarding political prisoners, including a lot of tribes down south like the Aztecs. For the Texas tribes, they have a revenge way, or a good way. This was the fate of political prisoners taken from war raids. Often they were sold into slavery, but were able to join the tribe if they did not end up with the revenge way. The revenge way is one of the most brutal things Comanches did to their prisoners. But it all had a purpose for them, these people committed crimes against these tribes, which they were probably unaware of themselves. Aztecs, were weirder, just sacrificed political prisoners on mass. Us Navajos here in the southwest raided, and yes there were tradgeties. But we did not have a sadistic political prisonership or anything like the philosophy of the some of the plains tribes.
A “weird way” is , well, a weird way of putting it. Many of these sadistic practices committed by various tribes throughout the Americas were for entertainment purposes foremost. Revenge could play a part to some extent but many of the captives were completely independent of any conflict with the capturing tribes. Ultimately, regardless of motive any group that would allow the torture of children as part of its culture has no place
The aztec triple alliance was made up 3 main city states of mexico-tenochtitlan( home of the mexicas), Texcoco and tlacopan in the valley of mexico and the rest the empire was made up of ethnically different tributary states. Its a bit more complicated
THAT pic doesn’t ‘look’ much like OLD pic at all..? Has a Winchester either “Yellow Boy” or possibly the Henry..both brass-type receiver models. Even they look brand new..
Could the picture have been retouched by some computer technique. Both the Henry and '66 could have been available in texas 1871. A 173 expended rounds would be consistent with the use of repeating rifles; perhaps the native americans also had repeaters. Blacks were always present on the frontier, but the KK K and intense racism of the 1920's and later erased a lot of such history.
@@loquat44-40 If you mean Hollywood with your KKK and 1920s, I could agree to some of it. However, Hollywood was developed and run by American born and immigrant Jews and they made the decisions about the movies. Also there were alternate smaller studios that were making westerns with black actors.
@@campland2880 When I was very young in a black neighborhood on the south side of chicago in the 1950's I recall men wearing a stocking cap normally made from a nylon stocking. I do not recall seeing handkerchiefs worn over the head. I am not sure what people on the frontier of texas wore. I just do not know what people wore 150 years ago and probably most here do not know either.
Hey have you ever run across accounts of people reloading on the prairie? I've only found a couple of instances in diaries, one making the kids scrounge for empties around settlements. Even saw a rimfire that had been reloaded 5-6 times somehow. ANY information appreciated. Thanks for the story and reference to the book.
No, but Tecumseh 's tribe captured Daniel Boone when he was young. It was said that Tecumseh, a great archer and warrior himself, was impressed with Daniel Boone's ability to run at at a high pace and reload his musket simultaneously.
@@regulusmine2336 I think Bishop meant reusing the empty cartridge cases to “reload” ammunition ie make them again using the empty case,fresh powder and a new lead bullet.....
@@regulusmine2336 yes, I've been obsessed with ANY early information from diaries, tech manuals or whatever describing the process to make rimfire cases and reloading rimfires. I've seen all the methods today to shoot rimfire guns, it's the original info that's elusive.
The Indian tribes knew who they could test and who they could not. They bowed down to The Buffalo Soldiers, because they knew they could do nothing to them even when they attempted to. There are many Recorded accounts of Buffalo Soldiers putting hostile tribes in their place like big boss.
I think it was in Summer Moon where they explained the term Buffalo Soldier differently than a term of respect. It was because the Indians thought a black mans hair reminded them of the curly hair on a buffalos neck. The Indians were afraid of the black man because they sensed a "bad medicine" from him.
Britt Johnson is featured in the book "News of the World" by Paulette Jiles, a very interesting read. I am quite certain that, had that tale you just read been written by a member of the Comanche Tribe, the estimation of who was wild and who was a "Savage" would have been a lot different. The Texas Rangers were no angels, and nor were the settlers when dealing with the Natives. There was a lot of brutality and murder done on both sides. That said, I do believe that Mr. Johnson was an heroic man.
@@campland2880 In the opinion of the white settlers, anyway. I doubt that they were much worse than their enemies. It always helps to make your enemies out as evil. That way you can more easily justify killing them. Consider the messenger.
@@clayoreilly4553 . . . Nope. Comanches were known far and wide and for several generations and peoples (from the Mexicans to the Crow, the English to the Spaniards, the Apache to the Ute). they were especially brutal and evil. No question!
Texas was never Mexican country. Mexico claimed all the land north of Mexico to the Canadian border, but they were never able to settle Texas. Only 4,500 Mexicans lived in Texas, and most of them were on the Rio Grand river, a step away from Mexico.
Large group of black American army men known as the Buffalo Soldiers, were putting the beats on hostile tribes. The Indian tribes wanted no parts of the Buffalo Soldiers. They said the Buffalo Soldiers were fast, fierce and not for no games. The group of Kiowa Indian tribes were dealt with and offed by the Buffalo Soldiers for the Elm Creek Raid and violent Savage animalistic un-aliving of Britt Johnson
moving targets are hard to hit, adrenaline sky high making even simple shots next to impossible, dust obscuring targets, using unfamiliar rifles after yours run dry
A real man will go to the ends of the earth to save his wife and children. What a hero. And I’m sure the reason we don’t tell this man’s story is because to tell it you’ll have to let people know the fact the Indians held slaves
Always remember we must repent of our sins (sin is transgression The Law Of Yahuah The Father in Heaven. The Law are The Books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy). We must repent of our sins and Have Belief On Yahusha The Messiah. HE Died and Rose three days later so that we can be forgiven of our sins! Come to HIM🙂
