Section 5: Black Cowboys - enslaved and free - used their skills to become Black Ranchers and shaped the legacies of Black ranching families

Ranching and Farming Shaping the Legacies

When I first started farmin’ I taken up some state land, about 80 acres, down on Black Creek, in Medina County. I stayed there ten or twelve years… I raised some corn, sugar cane and watermelons. I commenced with horses, but ‘long ‘way down the line I used oxen some, too. Monroe Brackins to the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938.


Black cowboys – enslaved and free – used their skills to become Black ranchers and shaped the legacies of Black ranching families. Formerly-enslaved Black cowboys continued to work in ranching
and farming after Emancipation. They developed skills and networks to become ranch owners. Even after Emancipation, Black ranchers’ legacies were under constant threat from the Klu Klux Klan and use of the judicial system to steal their property. During Reconstruction and into the early twentieth century there were over 70 Black-owned ranches in one Freedman’s colony in Guadalupe County. Today there is only one.

 

Prev Next
Black Cowboys: An American Story
HOME
  1. Black Cowboys: An American Story Entry Object & Panel Section 1
    LISTEN
  2. Section 2: Who Were Black Cowboys? Men & Women
    LISTEN
  3. Section 2: Who Were Black Cowboys? Children
    LISTEN
  4. Section 2: Who Were Black Cowboys? Enslaved
    LISTEN
  5. Section 2: Who Were Black Cowboys? Black Ranchers
    LISTEN
  6. Section 2: Who Were Black Cowboys? Recovering Black Cowboys Stories
    LISTEN
  7. Section 2: Who Were Black Cowboys? African Origins.
    LISTEN
  8. Section 3: Hector Bazy, Black Cowboy
    LISTEN
  9. Section 4: Black Cowboys Were Integral to the Texas Economy
    LISTEN
  10. Section 4: Tower Bios of Famous Black Cowboys
    LISTEN
  11. Section 4: Where did Black Cowboys Work? The Great Cattle Trails
    LISTEN
  12. Section 4: Essential Cowboy Skills Cooks & Other Jobs
    LISTEN
  13. Section 4: Wall Bio Hector Bazy
    LISTEN
  14. Section 4: Wall Bio Nat Love
    LISTEN
  15. Section 4: Impact of the Cattle Industry
    LISTEN
  16. Section 4: Monroe Brackins & Jim Perry Bios
    LISTEN
  17. Section 5: Black Cowboys - enslaved and free - used their skills to become Black Ranchers and shaped the legacies of Black ranching families
  18. Section 5: Tower Bios of Prominent Black Ranchers & Farmers
    LISTEN