Section 4: Where did Black Cowboys Work? The Great Cattle Trails

Two trails, the Chisholm Trail and the Western Trail carried millions of cattle and horses to Abilene and then to Dodge City, Kansas to be sold. Black Cowboys herded the animals almost 800 miles and then rode back to Texas. The Black Cowboys were often the first to make the dangerous river crossings.

All the cattle trails from Texas headed to markets where railroads sent the cattle to large cities, mainly Chicago, Illinois or in the case of the Opelousas Trail to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Sedalia trail went to Missouri and followed an older emigrant road. The Goodnight-Loving Trail followed the old Butterfield Stage route that was closed into west Texas and then to New Mexico.

Trail map with legend.

Jack Born 1829

… without assistance [Jack] finds it quite impossible to pen and brand your cattle on the Peninsula and the stock is consequently becoming more wild and unmanageable daily.

Letter from Jack to Samuel Maverick, as dictated to John Graham, 1849.

One of the earliest known Texas cowboys is known only by the name Jack. Jack worked on Samuel and Mary Maverick’s Tiltona ranch on Matagorda Peninsula and was left to manage a cattle herd. Jack’s letter was dictated to a neighbor alerting Maverick that the herd was unbranded and uncontrollable, a warning echoed by other neighbors. If cattle were unbranded, under Texas law they could be claimed by anyone who branded them. Local residents began calling the unbranded cattle and motherless calves “mavericks.”

Jack was born enslaved and brought to Texas from Alabama by Maverick in December 1837. He was eight years old and arrived with six other enslaved people, including his mother, Jinny.

Caption: Jinny, Jack’s mother, was brought to Texas from South Carolina and lived to be 106 years old.

Creditline: Courtesy Mary Maverick McMillan Fisher

Caption: The town of Matagorda was home to a thousand people and had hotels, churches, theaters, and three schools by 1844.

Creditline: Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Caption: Branding a large number of cattle was a job for more than one person. In this image, three men brand cattle using a pen and chute system.

Creditline: Courtesy of Lewis Fisher