The saga of the Old West is filled with tales of adventure with pioneers roving the plains seeking the unknown in the vast territorial lands west of the Mississippi River. Among those pioneers were identifiable contingents of African Americans who also roamed the western plains and helped to establish what we know of as the Old West. History books do trace and document the development of the United States and its territorial expansion Westward, but very little covers the inclusive part of African Americans as early pioneer dwellers of the Old West. Records are now surfacing taken from facts printed in primary resources, books, state and county documents, including verbal ancestral accounts of the many places, and faces of the early black settlers living in towns all across the Old West. How and why these African Americans took off on this new Westward migration into unknown American territories encompasses the spirit of a people seeking a less hostile environment and a peaceful place for themselves and their families.

Unraveling this account of history is as exciting as it is revealing. The African Americans and the Old West covered a vital piece of American history at a time when our government's major quest was to fulfill its Manifest Destiny. For African Americans, the Old West represented a new home, a new beginning, and a new opportunity to enjoy freedom, which they so desperately wanted on American soil. African Americans and the Old West covers many high points, but it also identifies many hardships.

These black pioneers had to face economic, political and social challenges unfamiliar to themselves as settlers of the Old West. The Old West is a quixotic and inclusive history of a diversified group trying to coexist while dealing with a set of complex issues. The Native Americans, the outlaws, the migrants, the cowboys, the missionaries, and African Americans all had their reasons for roaming the plains of the Old West. As the Old West grew so did the African American communities and townships. This Exhibit will take you on a journey as the history of the African Americans' place in the Old West unfolds.

A Look at the American Old West

The Early
Territorial
Claims

The Louisiana Purchase of 1803  -  The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806)  -  The War of 1812  -  The Spanish Possessions / Spanish Texas and Oregon Country  -  The Mexican American War  -  A Foundation Established for Permanent Settlements in the Old West  -  African Americans as Settlers of the Old West  -  James Beckwourth  -  The California Gold Rush

The American Civil War (1861-1865)  -  The Reconstruction (1865-1877)

Slavery in the Territories

The Lure of
the Old West

All Black Towns in the Old West  -  Langston, Oklahoma  -  Oklahoma Territory and the Native and African American Settlers  -  The Buffalo Soldiers and the Oklahoma Territory  -  Tulsa, Oklahoma  -  The Expansion of Oklahoma  -  Kansas

Nat Love (called "Deadwood Dick")  -  Bill Pickett : A Western Bulldogger  -  Bose Ikard

The Cowboys

The Law in the Old West

Bass Reeves  -  The Outlaws of the Old West  -  Ned Huddleston (also known as "Isom Dart")

Mary Ellen Pleasant  -  Mary Fields (known as "Stagecoach Mary")  -  Biddy Mason  -  Clara Brown

Women of the
Old West

Keeping the
Memory Alive

Remembering the Rodeo Tradition  -  The Making of a Museum  -  Conclusion  -  For Further Reading  -  Acknowledgements

The Old West of America involved the expansion of seventeen future states, which entered the Union as listed chronologically by earliest entry date:

African Americans were also part of this offer and a chance to be part of the westward territorial movement. Many African Americans saw this as their opportunity to escape the harsh racist views of the South with the intent of establishing a new economic base in the West.

On this vast piece of real estate we now call America were many other claimants of this land. Besides the original Native American inhabitants' land, we had the territorial conquests of France's Louisiana Territory, Spain's Mexican Territory which included Florida and its coastline off the tip of Alabama and Mississippi on the Gulf of Mexico. In the far North of America was the British's possession in Canada, which also took, in part of what later became the states of Oregon and Washington.

At stake was, who was going to inhabit these mostly unorganized land spreads and what kind of governance was going to be set up as people went forth and settled on to these expansive territories.

Therefore, as American history evolved, so did the Territorial Issues involving the future states of the United States escalate into national issues as they related to both the asserted rights of the government and the people in establishing rightful land claims.

President Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) had promised to keep America out of debt, but he desperately wanted the French out of its close proximity to the American colonies, therefore he offered to buy the Louisiana Territory for 13 million dollars. The French needed the money and agreed, but the Port of New Orleans was excluded from this purchase. Jefferson needed this passage port for future shipments down to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico; therefore he consummated the ultimate deal and paid 15 million dollars for the land called the Louisiana Purchase, which included the Port City of New Orleans. The future landmass of the United States now was approximately 2/3 completed in this Westward expansion.

One of the most important exploratory land expeditions took place in May of 1804. President Thomas Jefferson wanted to know how much and how expansive was the territorial land mass moving westward and ending at the entrance to the Pacific Ocean.

Behind this exploration was the future plan of the United States government's Manifest Destiny which was to secure these areas for the United States' boundaries from ocean (Atlantic) to ocean (Pacific). To survey this huge landmass, Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) and William Clark (1770-1838) were chosen by Jefferson to explore this westward frontier.

The British during this period still wanted to exert its power in North America. They often seized American ships trading with France and other European ports. The British also sold arms to the Native Americans, who resented American expansionism Westward. The culmination of the War of 1812 proved to the British that America would challenge any of their future encroachments. They even signed a treaty called the Peace Treaty of Ghent, signed December 24, 1814.

In the far North, the Oregon Country was still in flux as to its exact boundary; therefore the Spanish Government signed the Adams-Ohnis Treaty of 1819. This treaty created the exact South West boundary of Oregon and marked the dividing line of the Spanish territory below it.

Oregon Country was now clearly marked, but the British and the United States had claim to this territory (from 1818-1846). The British by end of 1846 created the 49th Parallel, which clearly marked the boundary of the Oregon Territory. All British possessions were now in the area above the state of Washington in what we know of as Canada today.

The Oregon Territory was officially organized by 1845. Oregon was accepted into the Union as a state in 1859.

During the U.S. Presidency of James K. Polk (1845-1848), the issue of taking the Independent Republic of Texas into the Union of the new States within the United States brought on a volitable debate. The Mexican Government was dissatisfied with the Texas borders and their divisional boundary with their Mexican Territory.

The Mexicans retaliated with several border clashes which were not going to end peacefully; therefore the U.S. exerted its might and declared war with Mexico on May 13, 1846. After several campaigns the Mexican Government agreed to sign the American-Mexican Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo on February 2, 1848. Out of this important treaty came the newly created territory, which later became the States of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California.

With the French, Spanish, and British now expunged from the major land areas of the United States, the Frontier West was now fully opened to settlers. By the year of 1848, the land boundaries from New England to California were now officially the territories and states of the United States of America.

The next twelve years opened the expansion of the West to explorers, fur trappers, missionaries, and settlers seeking free and inexpensive land. They had to deal with angry Native American raids, also hunger, diseases, droughts, drastic temperature changes - blazing hot days and very cold nights - but their determination was to move Westward.

Moving Westward was hard for all settlers. The first wave of emigrants traveled Westward via the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. From 1850 to end of 1869, the first Transcontinental Railroad was completed, joining the Central Pacific Railroad with the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory Point in the state of Utah.

Jerry Shores and his family in 1887 Nebraska

The excitement and newness of the West attracted all kinds of Americans seeking land and a way to improve their economic conditions. African Americans also went westward as workers, both as slave laborers and free men and women laborers.

The slave laborers were used as cattlemen and to clear the land and to use the logs to build cabins. They even had to raise useful crops as food for themselves and their masters. Many of the slaves knew how to hunt and negotiate with the Native Americans when hostile encounters occurred. This proved helpful as they moved westward. Many black slaves crossed over into Indian territories and were admitted into Native American tribes. Some black slaves even married and sired children and lived in Native American villages. These groups became known as Black Indians. African American slave laborers were also instrumental in saving the lives of their masters during surprise attacks by angry Native Americans. On many occasions the slaves helped their masters to escape danger. Many slave laborers were granted their freedom for their helpful and lifesaving endeavors.

James Beckwourth was born into slavery in Virginia. At age 19 he became a blacksmith while living in Missouri. At age 24 he ran off to New Orleans and became a scout on an expedition for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Beckwourth was known as a daredevil and knew how to bargain with the Native Americans. He was known for his fighting and hunting skills. Beckwourth married a Native American Crow tribe woman and was later asked to be their Chief.

Beckwourth traveled to Florida as a scout for the U.S. Army during the Seminole War. The Native Americans gave him many tribal names such as Medicine Calf, Bloody Arm, and Bull's Robe. Beckwourth's mind and body caused him to take on many different jobs including the operation of a trading post, a hotel, and as a trapper of furs and a prospector of gold during the "gold rush" years. Many stories and sometimes myths about this wandering early pioneer of the West have surfaced, but to most westerners the life and adventures of James "Jim" Beckwourth are all real. In 1850, James Beckwourth found a passageway through the Sierra Nevada mountain range near Reno Nevada which helped future settlers to reach California. That pass is called Beckwourth Pass.

California was a major catalyst for the huge migration of people heading West. In 1848, gold was discovered in California. Therefore people headed West by the hundreds looking to get rich. It was estimated that over 300,000 people headed westward to California. California was unique for its influx of people from the Northeast and the Deep South. Many slaveholders brought their slaves into California to do the heavy labor of digging for gold. Some slaves such as Alvin Coffey and Daniel Rogers got their freedom by working as bondsmen during the Gold Rush days in California.

Free blacks were also among the "Forty-Niners" looking for instant wealth from California's gold. By 1850, thousands of blacks worked the mines of California, and some became very rich. It is said, "California of the 1850's was America's wealthiest Negro Community."

The development of the Old West cannot be fully understood without the inclusion of slavery as an important issue before the Nation. Slavery was very much alive as the Old West was taking root. This pre-Civil War Period was crucial to the development of the States, which were being carved out in the Old West.

Soon after Abraham Lincoln won the Election of 1860, secession took place with South Carolina being the first to break away from the Union. Thus America became a divided country with the formulation of the Confederate States of America. Mr. Lincoln had previously stated that "A house divided against itself cannot stand" and "I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free."

In the West only California (received statehood: Sept. 9, 1850), Oregon (received statehood: February 14,1859), and Kansas (received statehood: January 1, 1861) were part of the Union of States when the American Civil War started. The Independent Republic of Texas did receive statehood on December 29, 1845.

When the American Civil War ended on April 9,1865 over 360,000 Union troops had died, and over 260,000 Confederate troops had also died. African Americans also served as troops in the American Civil War; they were called the United States Colored Troops. One of their most famous battles was at Fort Wagner, on Charleston Harbor in South Carolina with the 54th All Black Infantry Regiment. Over 186,000 African Americans served in the Civil War and 38,000 died as Soldiers for Liberty.

The South was left in shambles after the American Civil War. The Reconstruction was a short, but a special time for African Americans. The 13th Amendment was passed which abolished slavery throughout the United States and its territories in 1865. In 1868, the 14th Amendment was passed which granted citizenship to African Americans. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was added which made it illegal to deny the right to vote based upon one's race (this applied only to male citizens). The United States Congress also established the Freedmen's Bureau.

The Agency's full name was the Bureau of Refugees, Freemen and Abandoned Lands. It was a temporary agency, which was to help and assist the four million newly freed African American slaves. The Bureau was supposed to provide protection for former slaves and to help them establish a life with work and a place to live until they could adjust to this new found freedom. The Bureau's tribunals were courts of justice and were there to see that fair treatment was also done by former white confederates and slave masters. Educating the former slaves proved to be the most successful part of the Bureau's program. Schools were set up in most states for African Americans.

When Reconstruction officially ended in 1877, many African Americans were forced to return to their previous life on the plantation. They were no longer slaves, but they were badly treated and received poor wages. Approximately 3/4 of African Americans living in the South after the Reconstruction were farmers and farm laborers. Many dealt with cash crops; some were owners of farms; and others were tenant farmers. Strict payments for credit due on a harvested crop and share cropping under rules of Southern Laws made it difficult for these African American farm people to survive.

These repressive conditions lead many African Americans to migrate westward, hoping for a better life where social justice and independence could be manifested. Thousand upon thousand African Americans laborers and middle class people sought out greater opportunities in the West.

The U. S. Homestead Act of 1862 made the Westward move more attractive. The Act opened grants of 160 acres of public land on the great plains to those who would farm the land for five years. The Homesteaders left in droves from the states of Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia seeking a new life on western soil.

Being able to own land was good, but escaping the violence that was so prevalent in the South was supreme happiness for most African Americans moving westward.

African American men worked as cattle drivers, cooks, miners, railroad workers, and fur traders. Others became farmers. Some went west as U.S. soldiers as revealed by the Buffalo Soldiers. When work was scarce, African American men worked as unskilled laborers, and service workers. Others became western deputy marshals/law men and cowboys.

African American women of the West were also a part of this inclusive history. Research has shown that they worked all sorts of jobs as women of the West. They were employed as domestics, farm workers, seamstresses, innkeepers, cooks, laundresses, school teachers, general store operators, church and sunday school teachers, and nurses.

Many African American women went Westward also as "mail order brides" and started families as homemakers to men who had previously moved Westward across the Great Plains as gold prospectors, cattlemen, and railroad workers.

The early African American settlers were, in most cases, dependent upon their own creative abilities. They had to raise their own food, make their own furniture, and create makeshift farm tools. They lived in crude log houses or sod houses on the open Western plains. They later worked hard to create vibrant communities with a general store, a mill, church, soap factory, a hotel and, yes, a bank.

Oklahoma became a premier haven for African Americans moving Westward from 1865-1920. By 1890, Oklahoma could claim over 137,000 African American residents living in all black towns across Oklahoma.

By 1920, over fifty towns had been settled by African Americans seeking to escape the hardships and racial injustice so prevalent while living in the South after the Civil War (1861-1865). These early settlers discovered they could open businesses, govern their own communities, vote, and own homes while living in peace and harmony.

Recent research has now brought to light several prominent early-established Black Towns, in Oklahoma. They included Langston, Oklahoma.

When President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation "stating that the public lands in the Oklahoma District were opened to settlers at noon on April 22,1889," Edwin P. McCabe, an African American who served as the state auditor in Kansas for four years and as the state auditor in Oklahoma for ten years, decided to seize the moment of opportunity by purchasing 320 acres of land whereby the town of Langston, Oklahoma was established in 1890.

When more than 60,000 Native Americans were removed from their homes during the 1830s by U.S. Federal troops from the southeastern states of the United States - they were forced Westward to Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. This was called the "Trail of Tears." Many of these Native American tribes had previously embraced and either helped or kept numerous African Americans as slaves. African Americans and Native Americans created a mixed cultural blend depending upon the specific tribal group.

Many Native Americans welcomed African Americans into their villages. Even as slaves many African Americans became part of a family group, and many intermarried with Native Americans - thus many later became classified as Black Indians. Therefore Black Oklahoma evolved in many areas as biracial communities within Indian nations. This is a unique history, which developed in many of the western communities where the two groups came together.

This famous group of all Black regiments earned their respect as U.S. Military men during the Civil War (1861-1865). They served the U.S. Army as the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry. For their heroism during the Civil War, twenty-two African Americans earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. The name Buffalo Soldiers came later when these troops served as scouts in the West. The Native Americans coined the name Buffalo Solders because of their mostly tightly curled hair, which was said to resemble the roaming buffalo of the Great Plains. They also saw these soldiers as being proud, brave, and strong and respected them just as they had respected their indigenous buffalo.

Corporal Isaiah Mays,
wearing the Medal of Honor
he received in 1890

Danny Glover starred
in the 1997 TV movie,
Buffalo Soldiers

The Buffalo Soldiers acted as a protective force to keep "Boomers" off lands not assigned to them. Oklahoma was being designated as part Indian Territory, but the boomers kept coming. The 9th Cavalry of the Buffalo Soldiers kept the unassigned land clear since it had been set aside as places for reestablishing new homelands for Native Americans. The Buffalo Soldiers also acted as protectors of other settlers as their wagon trains moved westward. They acted as a peacemaking force keeping angry Native Americans at reason when they were thinking of War during 1880 to 1889. The Buffalo Soldiers also protected the mail routes and Railroad surveyors during this period. These soldiers were stationed at Fort Reno in El Reno, Oklahoma.

The Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma was a thriving and upwardly mobile Black community from 1900 until 1921. Greenwood was known as the "Black Wall Street" of America. An African American developer named O.W. Gurley started a community which grew to 35 blocks of homes, businesses, and churches in this all black district.

This all ended when, on May 30, 1921, a young black was accused of assaulting a young white woman. The accused was acquitted, but Tulsa, on May 31, 1921, became the place for one of America's worst race riots. Before Martial law could restore order, thousand of homes, businesses, and churches were destroyed and burned to the ground by out-of-control whites from the downtown district of Tulsa. Many died on this day of infamy in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The unique development of many all black towns grew after the Civil War (1861-1865). Oklahoma was a favorite among these new settlements.

The Federal Government during the Land Run of 1889 opened the Indian Territory to non-Indian settlers. Leading the list in Oklahoma was Boley, Oklahoma, which by 1905, had grown to over 5,000 African American residents. Booker T. Washington called Boley the "most enterprising of the Negro Towns in the United States." Today, thirteen of the original Oklahoma towns still exist in this year of 2001. They are:

Summit
Lima
Redbird
Grayson
Brooksville
Bernon
Taft

Remains of the old City Hall in Summit

Historical marker in Rentiesville

Rentiesville
Clearview
Tatums
Langston
Tullahassee
Boley

High on the list of desirable places to live for African Americans as the West expanded was Kansas. Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809-1882), a former slave from Tennessee, started "a movement" which steered 15,000 to 20,000 African Americans westward to Kansas from 1877-1879. His slogan was "Ho for Kansas!" Thus he spearheaded a Westward movement which was later named, the Exodus of 1879. Singleton's operation of the Edgefield Real Estate and Homestead Association was his business in Nashville, Tennessee for those seeking to move Westward and onward to Kansas.

Nicondemus, Kansas became a popular place for new African American settlers.

Remember Edward P. McCabe who was responsible for establishing Langston, Oklahoma? He also convinced many African Americans to live in Nicodemus, Kansas. His lure was an attractive offer of a "$5 fee to get any vacant lot in Nicodemus" which was established in 1877 on 160 acres of land. Nicodemus was a thriving town, but by 1888, the railroad changed its travel route, and people left Nicodemus and moved to the state of Nebraska and other developing area homesteads.

Nicodemus, Kansas is one example of what happened to many old all black western towns when the populations moved to other areas seeking new opportunities for their growing families. Suddenly these booming towns were left empty as ghost towns.

For years very little was ever written concerning the history as it related to cowboys of African decent. Stories about real black cowboys as adventurous, free-spirited cowpunchers of the American Old West have now surfaced as a fascinating piece of American history.

This history has identified the existence of the American roving black cowboy between 1870-1885.

The black cowboy was part of a mixed group of cowhands that included both white and Mexican cowboys who worked the open plains by keeping large herds of cattle together. They had to be skilled at riding horseback for long distances. After the American Civil War (1861-1865) many ex-slaves who understood the harsh work of outdoor living and the dexterity of riding horses headed into Texas where they worked as Cowboys. The Black Cowboys were said to make up approximately 25% of the Western cowhands during the late 1800's. The Cowboys had to gather the cattle, brand them, breed them, rope them, and later take them to stockyards for cattle market buyers.

Nat Love was born in Davidson County, Tennessee in 1854. After the American Civil War (1861-1865), Love moved to Dodge City, Kansas. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 granted him his right to freedom before going westward at age 15. The first job that appealed to Nat Love was herding cattle as a cowboy. Love's first test was given to him by Bronco Jim who had Love to ride Good Eye, a horse known for bucking and throwing a man off the saddle. Love stayed on Good Eye and was hired, at $30 a month, as a cowboy. Nat Love was often seen with his saddle, cowboy chaps, and rifle in many Old West pictures.

Bill Pickett was born near Taylor, Texas in 1870. He was later called the "Greatest Cowboy" of his day. Bill Pickett was one of five boys among the Picketts' thirteen children. Bill left school in the 5th grade to become a ranch hand, and soon he began to ride horses and watch the long horn steers of his native Texas. It was known among cattlemen that, with the help of a trained bulldog, a stray steer could be caught. The bulldog would rescue the steer by using its strong grip on that steer with its teeth perched into the steer's sensitive nerve tender in the upper nose and lip.

Bass Reeves, was one of two hundred U.S. marshals appointed to arrest and to keep peace and order in the Old West starting in 1870's. Bass Reeves was among a group of African Americans appointed as marshals and sheriffs in the early days of the old west by U.S. Government. Bass Reeves was born as a slave in Lamar County, Texas in July 1838. Reeves grew up as field hand of Col. George Reeves of Grayson County, Texas. As a young man Bass Reeves was strong and over six feet tall. Reeves learned to use and draw quickly a Colt revolver. He also learned to use the rifle and other firearms which later served him well as a U.S. Marshal.

The West was made of all kinds of people, and among them were bandits, thieves, criminals, and renegades. Their criminal acts could cover cattle and horse thievery, train and stagecoach robberies, and cold-blooded violent rapes and murders.

Ned Huddleston vacillated back and forth with the law. Huddleston was born a slave in the year of 1849 in the state of Arkansas. Ned Huddleston had many talents, and he experimented with them in many ways. He was sixteen when he escaped slavery and went on to Texas. He then migrated to Mexico and became a stunt rider and part time clown. Huddleston later discovered that money could be made by working with Mexican bandits who showed him how to steal horses and direct them across the Rio Grande into Texas for specific buyers who used them in their cattle businesses.

African American women of the West were also a part of this inclusive history. Research has shown that they worked all sorts of jobs as women of the West. They were employed as domestics, farm workers, seamstresses, innkeepers, cooks, laundresses, school teachers, general store operators, church and sunday school teachers, and nurses. Many African American women went Westward also as "mail order brides" and started families as homemakers to men who had previously moved Westward across the Great Plains as gold prospectors, cattlemen, and railroad workers.

Mary Ellen Pleasant was an influential African American woman from California. Mary Pleasant lived as a free woman of color in the East. Sketchy records of the life of Mary Pleasant are still unfolding. She left the East and spent most of her life in San Francisco, California. As a free woman of color she despised the idea of bondage and slavery. Mary Pleasant worked to rescue slaves and unassumingly provided a place for runaways. It is said that she helped John Brown, the abolitionist, with supplies during his raid on Harpers Ferry. Mary Pleasant is best known for her seeking to address the Court of California, which forbade Negroes the right to testify in trials involving whites.

Mary Fields was born as a slave in Hickman County, Tennessee in year of 1832. Mary's life started to unfold after her family died and during her days of freedom right after the Civil War (1861-1865). When she grew into adulthood, Mary Fields was described as a big woman of six feet tall. She was noted as being tough. Mary knew how to ride a horse and shoot a rifle and six-shooter. In her late twenties, Mary Fields worked for Mother Amadeus of the Catholic Ursuline Convent in Toledo, Ohio.

Biddy Mason, a black African American slave, did the unbelievable in her travels Westward to California. Her job was to see that the livestock kept up with the wagon caravan for her master. It is said that Biddy Mason walked behind her master's 300-wagon caravan from Mississippi to the Southern part of California. Her master sensed that Biddy Mason and her three daughters might seek their freedom on California soil, therefore he planned to take them back south. A streak of luck came to Biddy Mason and her daughters when the California Sheriff asked Ms. Mason's master to appear in court and prove his ownership of the Mason family.

Clara was born into slavery on a plantation in Gallatin, Tennessee in the year of 1803. When she was age three, Clara and her mother were sold to a Virginia planter where she stayed until age thirty. While living in Virginia, Clara married, at age eighteen, a fellow slave named Richard, and together they sired four children: a son, Richard Jr. and three daughters: Margaret, Palina Ann, and Eliza Jane. At age thirty-five, Clara was sold again at an auction to a third owner named George Brown. Clara was sent off to George Brown's plantation in Kentucky and given his surname, Brown.

The role of the cowboy in the Old West was closely connected to his daily life and duty as a cattle rancher. His knowledge and skills of riding his horse and keeping a steady eye on his livestock was paramount to his being a wise and effective cowpuncher. Connected to his life as a cowboy in the Old West was the free time to show off his learned skill as a craftsman in an arena called the Rodeo. The rodeo is said to come from the Spanish word meaning "roundup."

The roundup was a means of separating one cowboy's herd of cattle from the other herds during the open range days when they could easily get mixed as hundreds of cattle were moved across the plains. Therefore branding cattle became synonymous to identification of each cowpuncher's livestock.

It all happened by accident, for Paul Stewart had no idea he was destined to become the founder, collector, and curator of a museum dealing with African Americans as cowboys of the Old West.

Paul Stewart grew up in Clinton, Iowa in a town with few African American families in the 1930's. He often played cowboys and Indians with his white playmates. He was told to play the role of the Indian, for his friends explained to him that "there were no black cowboys."

This was a belief Paul Stewart held onto until 1963. Stewart was visiting a relative in Denver, Colorado when, suddenly, he saw a black man fully dressed as an authentic cowboy - boots, 10 gallon hat, spurs, and chaps. Stewart had to be convinced by his relative that this man was a "real cowboy" and not just a costume bearer. He owned a ranch and lived as his parents and grandparents had as cowboys in the West.

Paul Stewart was a barber by trade therefore he did what he dreamed of - to move to Denver and open a barber shop. In his Denver barber shop, Paul Stewart asked questions of his customers about African Americans as cowboys.

Whenever most people hear the words, the Old West, they immediately think of adventure and movies depicting the lives of cowboys and cattlemen roaming the vast dusty plains on horseback. The song of "Home on the Range" and the vision of the U.S. Cavalry keeping the Native Americans at a distance from the frontierspeople as they moved westward could also be added to a long list of perceptions about the early American old west. Part of this image might be true, but the broader issues pertaining to the development of the old west are much more complex.

This site was created with the hope of furthering the true knowledge of what the real American Old West and its people were like. Today's available books and research documents have opened up new vistas of understanding and some of the myths and images about the old west have been dispelled. The settling of the old west is profoundly connected to American history and the U.S. territorial Manifest Destiny. The western saga is multidimensional and can help broaden a person's scope and understanding of what truly happened as the American old west evolved.

The vastness and newness of the Old West attracted all kinds of frontierspeople. The land was plentiful and cheap, but hardships, challenges, and risks were very great. The motivation of these pioneers centered around locating a better place to live by developing a strong economic base for their growing families. The migration westward was spontaneous and exciting for the many free-thinking frontierspeople.

From the beginning, African Americans were part of this westward U.S. migration. They too were looking for a better place to raise a family, especially on territorial soil which allowed more freedom along with the absence of racial strife. Identifying the names and places where African Americans migrated and settled on their journey westward has made this site come alive. History books and other printed materials have been slow in creating an interest dealing with this extraordinary subject. Hopefully this site, along with the For Further Reading bibliography section, will stir the interest of inquisitive minds to reading about those Americans of African descent who indeed played a part in the development of the American OLD WEST.

African Americans and the Old West was created as a library exhibit and was completed, assembled, and displayed during Black History Month, February 2001. When the showing dates ended, the exhibit was taken down, and thus the accessible information and visual images displayed were stored away.

This electronic display of the same exhibit has taken African Americans and the Old West to another level. Thanks to Mr. Robert Delaney, our staff librarian and web designer, this exhibit will reach a host of other viewers in universities, schools, and homes in communities across the the country. Robert, in using Shakespeare's quote, "There's Magic in the Web...," on his website, has said it all.

Thanks again, Robert, for helping me to share my research and this exhibit with others in this world community.

Melvin Sylvester

All photos are from the Associated Press Photo Archive except where otherwise noted.

Black frontiers: a history of African American heroes in the old west / Lillian Schlissel. New York : Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Black people who made the old west / William Loren Katz. Trenton, NJ : Africa World Press, 1992.

Black pioneers: images of the black experience on the North American frontier/ John W. Ravage. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1997.

Black women of the old west / William Loren Katz. New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1995.

Perseverance: African Americans: voices of triumph / the editors of Time-Life Books. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1993.