“When I’s Old ‘Nough to Set on de Hoss, Dey Larned Me to Ride, Tendin’ Hosses”: Enslaved Cowboys in Texas from 1840–65

The cattle drive and the cowboy are integral to the myth and memory of the American West, masculinity and individualism. For over a century the image associated with the cowboy is a white man. However, one-quarter of the 35,000 cowboys that participated in cattle drives between 1866 and 1895 were Black. Less understood or appreciated is the fact that many of these cowboys learned their craft while enslaved. Historians Bruce Glasrud, Sarah Massey and Michael Searles have explored the experiences of Black cowboys in Texas and beyond. Yet, most scholars of Black cowboys have ignored the impact and experiences of enslaved cowboys in antebellum Texas. This paper brings to light an understudied aspect of enslaved labor, the cowboy. Enslaved men in antebellum Texas worked on plantations and ranches tending cattle, training horses, participating in cattle “round-ups” and short cattle drives. These enslaved men, and some women, began laboring on plantations and ranches, as cowboys, as early as the 1840s. Through an examination of personal accounts, business records, newspapers, and legal documents, I explore how Black cowboys performed labor, forged community, and resisted enslavement. This study contributes to scholarship on slavery studies and Texas history. It highlights how the labor of enslaved cowboys was integral to the expansion of slavery in Texas and the evolution of the American cattle industry. My research opens a window into a seldom examined history, Black cowboys in Texas, during the nineteenth century.