African American Cowboys by L. A.Keller

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I'd never considered the ethnicity of cowboys in the American west. The old movies and television shows from the 50's and 60's always portrayed cowboys as either white or Hispanic. Of course, Hollywood is not known for an always accurate rendering of history.

I found an interesting February 13, 2017 article on Smithsonian.com by Katie Nodjimbadem about an early cowboy named Nate Love, who was known as Deadwood Dick.  According to Nate's 1907 autobiography, he was a freed slave who traveled west and lived the real cowboy life - drinking, gambling and moving cattle along with some of history's famous and infamous cowboys.  You can find Nat's book on Amazon - The Life and Adventures of Nat Love. It's a brief accounting of his life.

The article goes on to mention that many whites traveled west with slaves, which is another fact I never knew.  According to the 1860 census, 30% of the population of Texas were slaves. After the civil war, former slave owners had to hire workers and many were African Americans.  Segregation in the south east is well known but imagine being a cowboy who finally makes it into town after a long cattle drive and isn't able to purchase a meal or sleep in a real bed.

Research turned up a few notable cowboys, Bill Pickett, Nat Love, Bose Ikard, and John Ware.  Bill Pickett was a cowboy, rodeo performer and actor born in 1870.  Bose Ikard was born a slave in 1847 and was known as a pioneer in cattle drives, especially Goodnight - Loving Trail. John Ware was born in 1845 into slavery and was known for bringing some of the first cattle to Alberta, Canada.

I'm embarrassed by my lack of knowledge on this topic and vow to read Black Cowboys of the Old West, True Sensational and Little-Known Stories from History by Tricia Martineau Wagner. I find it disappointing that literature has left out a significant group who contributed greatly to our world. I hope this post encourages you to dig deeper into our roots to find those who have been ignored.


The image included above appeared in Nat Love's privately published autobiography.

Smithsonian Article

Happy Trails,

Leslie


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