Nat Love, aka Deadwood Dick

Topics on the Page

Exodusters and Westward Expansion

African American Cowboys

Multicultural Origins of Cowboy Culture

Black Cowboys in the Movies

• Black Audience Westerns

Exodusters 

It is estimated that in the 1870s, approximately 40,000 to 60,000 African Americans left the South and migrated westward. By the end of the migration in 1880, Kansas alone was home to approximately 41,000 African Americans.

Benjamin "Pap" Singleton and Singleton's Colony

African American Cowboys

The Lesser Known History of African American Cowboys, Smithsonian (February 2017)

• One in Four cowboys was Black

Click HERE for a video on Black Cowboys: The Overlooked Heroes of the West!

Bass Reeves, First African American US Deputy Marshall

Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal. Vaundia Micheax Nelson (Carolrhoda Books, 2013)

Bill Pickett, African American Rodeo Star with his two brothers, 1890s

Black Cowboys Sheds Light on Overlooked African Americans Who Went West

• Interview with songwriter Dom Flemons

Mary Fields (Stagecoach Mary):  First African American Woman to Carry the Mail

Danny Glover Played Joshua Deets in the mini-series, Lonesome Dove

Multicultural Origins of Cowboy Culture

A great deal of iconic American Cowboy culture actually came from Spanish and Mexican roots. The following are a few examples of "cowboy" terms that have direct Spanish origin:

• Lariat: From la reata (the rope)
• Lasso: From lazo (rope)
• Ranch: From rancho (land for raising cattle)
• Rodeo: From rodear (circling the herd)

In addition, many of the trappings of the American cowboy, like spurs, saddles and the ubiquitous hat were originally used by Mexican vaqueros, the predecessor to the cowboy.

• Smithsonian Education offers lesson plans for all ages to introduce students to the Spanish and Mexican roots of the American Cowboy.

Charles Goodnight

• Click here to learn about Teddy Blue Abbot, author of We Pointed Them North, an account of his life working the range.

• Another famous cowboy was Charles Goodnight. Goodnight and his partner, Oliver Loving, drove cattle north from Texas to Fort Sumner, New Mexico in 1866. This route became the basis for the Goodnight-Loving trail. 

 To see a silent film that Charles Goodnight made in 1916 to depict what he felt the West had been like, click here . 

• Click here to read commentary on Goodnight's film from the PBS documentary The West by Ken Burns.

Black Cowboys in the Movies

Westerns, the popular movies about cowboys and the Wild West, are an important part of the cultural history of America.  It is rare to see an African American star in one of these movies. 

Black Audience Westerns

• Movies created for African American theaters in segregated America

• Remembering "Bronze Buckaroo" Herb Jeffries, the First Star of Black Western Musicals
• He essentially passed for Black as he was of mostly European heritage 
• Made films between 1937 and 1939
• He also sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra 

  Memories of the Movies in Segregated America

Here are some brief summaries of more recent westerns that feature black characters, from Blazing Saddles to Django Unchained. Looking into this idea I came upon this BBC article that lists these movies.  These movies might not be ideal for high school audiences, see below.

Blazing Saddles, 1974, Cleavon Little as Sheriff Bart, R

In the hilarious satirical comedy Blazing Saddles, Hedley Lamarr, an evil millionaire, seeks to run a railroad through the tiny town of Rock Ridge.  The people of the town aren’t having it, so Lamar sends a black man to serve as their sheriff, sure it will scare them away. It doesn’t work and the Sheriff leads the town to victory.  The film ends with some chaotic breaking of the fourth wall. Hedley Lamarr’s name is a parody of the actress Hedy Lamarr, who sued Warner Bros for $100,000.

The movie pokes fun at the racism inherent in whitewashed cowboy flicks, but it does so in a way that would prove offensive to many.  Racial slurs are frequent throughout the film, as are misogynist remarks and overly simplified characters. The film is groundbreaking for featuring a black lead in this type of movie, and for having him be the hero of the story.

Source: I’ve seen it.

Silverado, 1985, Danny Glover as Mal Johnson, PG-13

Danny Glover plays a supporting role in this movie, which is a standard western.  The heroes meetup on their way to Silverado, reunite with family members there, right injustice, and ride off into the sunset.  In the arc of black cowboys in film, this movie normalizes any given character being black.

Source: Wikipedia

Unforgiven, 1992, Morgan Freeman as Ned Logan, R

In this film, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play two retired gunslingers.  They work for a bounty set for avenging the murder of a prostitute. They succeed in killing their targets, but Freeman’s character is captured, tortured and killed.  In epic Clint Eastwood fashion Clint avenges his friend's death and then returns to his family farm.

This is another epic, violence filled western which serves to normalize strong black cowboy characters.  It is very violent and features mature themes, and viewers should exercise caution.

Source:

Wikipedia

Django Unchained, 2012, Jamie Foxx as Django, R

Django Unchained is the story of a freed slave, Django, saving his wife from Candyland plantation with the help of Dr. King Schultz, a German bounty hunter.  It is directed by the masterful though controversial Quentin Tarantino. The beginning of the movie sees the two act as bounty hunters, killing various outlaws.  The last part introduces us to the villains Monsieur Candy and his head house slave, Stephen. Schultz is killed in the process, but Django epicly kills all the whites at the plantation along with vile Stephen, and escapes with his wife Broomhilda.  Lots of use of the n-word, lots of gratuitous violence, lots of feats of bravery.

Django Unchained is a particularly controversial representation of a black cowboy in film.  Some view it as an alternative history celebrating a black man’s victory over the white oppressor.  Others, as detailed in this New Yorker article, take issue with many aspects of the film. For one, the ubiquitous use of the n-word, mentioned above, seems to be a bit above and beyond even what might be expected of the time.  This is particularly questioned because of the word’s use in Tarantino’s other films. The author’s main criticism, though, is that other than Django and Broomhilda the black characters in the movie are mostly passive. In reality, slaves were in constantly rebelling against and sabotaging the efforts of their white oppressors.  Painting Django as the exception implies that enslaved African Americans did not play a critical role in working towards the downfall of slavery.