The life of a cowboy was hardly glamorous. Poorly fed, underpaid, 
overworked, deprived of sleep, and prone to boredom and loneliness, 
cowboys choked in the dust, were cold at night, and suffered broken 
bones in falls and spills from horses. African American cowboys, 
however, also had to survive discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice.

    From scattered courthouse records, writings, and interviews with a 
few of the African American cowhands who were part of the history of 
Texas, Sara R. Massey and a host of writers have retrieved the little 
known stories of some of these cowboys. Among the stories in Black 
Cowboys of Texas, are those of Peter Martin, a freight hauler who 
assisted in a rebellion against the Mexican government; Bose Ikard, 
who went on the cattle drive that opened the Goodnight–Loving Trail; 
and Johanna July, a Black Seminole woman who trained horses for 
U.S. soldiers.

_________________________________________________________

SARA R. MASSEY, a former curriculum specialist at the Institute of 
Texan Cultures, University of Texas at San Antonio, now lives in 
Austwell, Texas.


Number Eighty-six: Centennial Series of the Association of Former 
Students, Texas A&M University


What people are saying about this book

"Sarah Massey's volume is so well done that one need be neither 
black nor Texan to enjoy the book. Black Cowboys of Texas has 
the merit of expanding the horizons of two kinds of history, that of 
the cowboy as well as that of the African American."—The 
Bloomsbury Review

"Black Cowboys of Texas will be a worthy addition to personal 
and public libraries. . . . an important step towards uncovering 
that often ignored part of the cowboy past. If there can be a 
single thesis in a book written by so many authors about so 
many people, it is that African Americans played a significant 
role in the cowboy experience, and their place in that experience 
should be better known and appreciated."—The Journal of 
Southern History
	
"This is one of those rare books that truly push the boundaries 
of the extant primary source material. . . . chapters successfully 
weave the scant information available about individuals into 
short, engaging profiles. . . . The collection's main strength—its 
structure and thoughtful content—enables readers to differentiate 
between the larger dynamics of cowboys' lives and the 
idiosyncratic details and personal circumstances which make for 
much enjoyable reading. Overall, the collection presents a more 
complete picture of cowboy life than any single biography of any 
of its subjects could render."—Great Plains Quarterly