The Old West - 1 in 4 cowboys were Black in the 1800s.
White men referred to themselves as cattlemen, whereas Black men (and Black women) solely were called cowboys, which was a derogatory word. Hence “boy” instead of “man,” and other negative things they grouped with it for the formerly enslaved in the United States.
A cattleman is a person who owns cattle while a cowboy is a person who herds and tends to the damn cattle. The epitome of a hard worker…which is why that shit was bulldozed and scooped up for their initial signature imagery in Hollywood.
Then Black Americans just vibing out, unknowingly made yet another new style of music later referred to as country music, which blended Negro spirituals, the blues and jazz paired with the banjo, and white men decided to merge the two as their own: cowboys + country music. That’s another topic.
Our cowboy/cowboy tradition is solidified in Black American culture all across the country where we exist, regardless if we’re finally heavily depicted as such in pop culture or not. That ain’t never letting up.
Some in the photoset ranging from the late-1800s to the early 1900s: Bill Pickett, Stagecoach Mary, Jesse Stahl, Bass Reeves, Nat Love, Isom Dart, James Beckwourth
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