The Black Cowboy

Unique to the United States, the Old West wields a powerful influence on the American imagination that can still be seen in numerous aspects of the nation’s culture, such as clothing lines and movies. Unfortunately, as is the case with most other periods, historic acknowledgement of African Americans’ contributions to the West is still not complete. Only recently, within the last few decades, have American scholars and the film industry earnestly begun to correct this period in regards to African Americans. In 2005, the Idaho Black History Museum (IBHM) in Boise assembled a display that incorporated the black cowboy into it.

The West has always held the promise of opportunity for countless Americans. While many African Americans struggled to find the equality promised to them after the Civil War, in the West black cowboys appeared to have created some small measure of it on the range. Despite this, their absence from early historical volumes has shown that tolerance on the range did not translate into just treatment in society for them or their families.

For various southern African Americans, their journey westward usually began as slaves. In 1825, when the Mexican government enticed Americans westward through land grants, various slave owners moved in the hopes of becoming wealthy. These American immigrants into Mexico brought with them their wives, children, and property, including slaves. In the vast North American west, African Americans found new opportunities to put their skills to work. Many of these skills, which included herding cattle in Ghana and Gambia, had been passed down generation to generation through oral histories. Plantation owners, now ranchers in the West, employed their slaves’ skills in managing their plan...

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