Section 2: Who Were Black Cowboys? Children

Mainly, we just played the same games kids do in the country and waited to be cowboys… Some of us didn’t get to play much as children. It was work from sun up to sundown. 

Cowhands and ranchers interviewed by Louise O’Connor, Cryin’ For Daylight: Ranching Culture in the Texas Coastal Bend, 2007

Children worked alongside their parents and family members on ranches and farms. Some children, enslaved and free, worked all day. 

Many cowboys remember learning to ride horses when they were children, as young as three years old. Until the 20th century, few cowboys received a formal education, instead they learned their skills by watching older cowhands.

Find the cowboys in this exhibit that learned to ride as children. 

Follows 4 images of children. 

Caption (1): Richard Harris brushing horses on the Murphy Ranch at 16 years old, 1920s.

Creditline: Louise S. O’Connor, Courtesy The Wittliff Collections, Texas State University. 

Caption (2): Clifton and Earl Cook with Whitey, the cow, on the T.M. O’Connor Greta Ranch, 1961. 

Creditline: Louise S. O’Connor, Courtesy The Wittliff Collections, Texas State University. 

Caption (3): African American children help hold down a cow as it is being branded in the Los Angeles, California area, 1917. 

Creditline: Shades of L.A. Photo Collection, Los Angeles Public Library

Caption (4): A child helps brand cattle on horseback as a woman and other children watch in a pen in the Los Angeles, California area, 1917.

Creditline: Shades of L.A. Photo Collection, Los Angeles Public Library