The Black Bean Affair

Description

In 1843, Texan prisoners of war reached into a clay jar and pulled out their fate — one bean at a time. Seventeen men drew black, and what they did next reveals something about human character that history rarely forgets. This is the story of the Black Bean Affair, and a question about what you hold onto when everything else is out of your hands.

Show Notes

In March 1843, survivors of the failed Mier Expedition sat in a Mexican courtyard at Salado, Tamaulipas, and drew beans from a clay jar. On orders from Santa Anna — punishment for a prisoner escape attempt — one in ten men would be executed. Of 176 beans, 17 were black. The men who drew them were shot. Years later, their remains were returned to Texas and interred on a bluff above the Colorado River at La Grange, at the site now known as Monument Hill — a quiet, peaceful place that carries a weight most visitors feel the moment they arrive.

Key Takeaways:

• You cannot always control what life hands you, but you can control how you carry it.
• Character is not revealed in comfort — it shows up in the moment the outcome is already decided.
• The men of the Black Bean Affair left behind no extra years, only an example of how to spend the ones they had.

Texan Edge Question: "If you can't control the bean, how do you control your backbone?"

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Transcript

A Courtyard In 1843

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Imagine standing in a dusty Mexican courtyard in 1843. You're a Texan prisoner of war captured during the failed Meyer expedition into Mexico. You're filthy, exhausted, half-starved, and now an officer is carrying out a clay jar filled with beans. I'm Tweet Scott and welcome to today's Texan Edge. Inside that jar are 176 beans. Most are white. 17 are black. Every man here will reach in and pull one out. If you draw white, you go back to your cell. If you draw black, you're led away to be shot. This is not a campfire story. This really happened. After Texan prisoners tried to escape from their Mexican captors earlier that year, Santa Ana ordered that one in ten would be executed as an example. So on a day in March at a place called Saledo in Tamulipas, the men drew their beans, and seventeen of them drew the black ones. Now, some men broke down when they saw what fate had handed them. Some prayed. Some cursed, and some, if the accounts are right, straightened their backs, handed their personal effects over to friends, and walked to their deaths in the calm that shook even the guards. Years later, the remains of those men, those black bean victims, were brought back to Texas and buried on a bluff above the Colorado River at LaGrange, a place now known as Monument Hill. If you go there today, it's peaceful. Trees, breeze, a view over the river valley. You'd never guess the terror that those men faced when they closed their fingers around a little black bean. Now you and I will probably never face a moment quite like that, but every one of us knows something about living under a cloud that we didn't choose. Could be a diagnosis, a layoff, or a divorce that you didn't want. The feeling that some unseen hand is reaching into a jar with your name on it, and you can't control what comes out. The question is, what do you do with that? We live in a culture that tells us the goal is to control everything, optimize, manage, guarantee. But those Texans at the Black Bean Affair didn't have that luxury. They could not control the bean that they drew. All they could do was control how they stood once it was in their hand. That's the Texan edge that I hear in this story. It's not a love of danger or a casual attitude towards death. It's a stubborn belief that even when the outcome is rigged, your character is still yours to choose. Today, you may feel like your life is one big jar of beans that you didn't get to count, or you may not be able to change the circumstances of this minute. But you can decide on how you're going to live inside of them, how you speak, how you treat people, how you carry yourself. Those men on the monument didn't get more years, but they did get to choose to decide how they spent their last hours, and that decision echoes all the way to us. You and I still have time. So here's your question on this April 29th. If you can't control the bean, well, how do you control your backbone? Thank you for being a part of our journey back in time today, and I am convinced that there's still so much to learn about Texas and ourselves. We'll be back again tomorrow with another edition of the Texan Edge. I'm Tweed Scott.