African-Americans in the Old West

A groundbreaking history of African Americans' role in the development of the American West.

The American West is mistakenly known as a region with few African Americans and virtually no black history. In Search of the Racial Frontier challenges that view in a rich, complex chronicle of western African Americans that begins in 1528 with the Spanish explorer Esteban's arrival in Texas, followed by hundreds of Spanish-speaking blacks.

In 1848 English-speaking blacks arrived -- as slaves -- creating the nucleus of post-Civil War communities. Thousands of African Americans thereafter migrated to the high plains while others drove cattle up the Chisholm Trail or served on remote army outposts. Mormon slave Bridget "Biddy" Mason reached Utah in 1847, gained freedom in California, and in 1872 founded Los Angeles's first black church. The West's black civil rights movement began in San Francisco during the Civil War when women challenged the city's streetcar segregation.

This richly peopled story carries forward to the twentieth century when World War II migration increased black populations in western cities tenfold and intensified the region's civil rights movement during the 1960s, paving the way for black success in Western politics and a surging interest in multiculturalism.

Thousands of black cowpunchers drove cattle up the Chisholm Trail after the Civil War, but only Nat Love wrote about his experiences. Born to slaves in Davidson County, Tennessee, the newly freed Love struck out for Kansas after the war. He was fifteen and already endowed with a reckless and romantic readiness. In wide-open Dodge City he joined up with an outfit from the Texas Panhandle to begin a career riding the range and fighting Indians, outlaws, and the elements. Years later he would say, "I had an unusually adventurous life". That was rare understatement. More characteristic was Love's claim: "I carry the marks of fourteen bullet wounds on different parts of my body, most any one of which would be sufficient to kill an ordinary man, but I am not even crippled". In 1876 a virtuoso rodeo performance in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, won him the moniker of Deadwood Dick. He became known as DD all over the West, entering into dime novels as a mysteriously dark and heroic presence. This vivid autobiography includes encounters with Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid, a soon-after view of the Custer battlefield, and a successful courtship. Love left the range in 1890, the year of the official closing of the frontier. Then, as a Pullman train conductor he traveled his old trails, and those good times bring his story to a satisfying end.

Mike Wright exposes the hidden events of the growth and development of the Wild West. His unique approach to research has brought to life a wealth of bizarre and curious facts.

Ever since the Alamo, the military has been a vivid part of the Texas experience. The Battle of San Jacinto, exploits of the Texas Rangers, the Indian-fighting Cavalry of the Texas High Plains, and the World War II campaign of the 36th Infantry Division up the spine of Italy all have formed part of the state's history and image. Other aspects of the military experience are less well known but have also contributed to Lone Star history: the role of Hispanics in the Texas Revolution, the contributions of African-American soldiers on the frontier, the activities of army wives in the late nineteenth century. In this first scholarly collection to focus on Texas' military heritage, prominent authors reevaluate famous personalities, reassess noted battles and units, call for new historical points to be considered, and bring fresh perspectives to such matters as the interplay of fiction, film, and historical understanding. Edited, and with an introduction by, Joseph G. Dawson III, The Texas Military Experience offers the best overview of the subject available. The engaging writing styles of the various authors will make this book valuable to the reading public interested in popular aspects of the Texas military tradition, and the solid research will make it indispensable to scholars of military and Texas history.