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David Crockett
Davy Crockett, byname of
David Crockett, (born August 17, 1786, eastern Tennessee, U.S.—died March 6, 1836, San Antonio, Texas), American frontiersman and politician who became a legendary figure.
His father, having little means, hired him out to more prosperous backwoods farmers, and Davy’s schooling amounted to 100 days of tutoring with a neighbour. Successive moves west to middle Tennessee brought him close to the area of the Creek War, in which he made a name for himself from 1813 to 1815. In 1821 he was elected to the Tennessee legislature, winning popularity through campaign speeches filled with yarns and homespun metaphors. In the legislature an opposing speaker referred to Crockett as the “gentleman from the cane,” an allusion to the dense canebrakes of western Tennessee, where Davy hunted bears and raccoons during the winter. This image of the rough backwoods legislator caught the popular imagination during Crockett’s lifetime and continued to do so after his death.