HISTORY MAKERS
African-American Cultural & Genealogical Society Of Illinois, Inc. Museum
BLACK COWBOYS
The American West was settled by a large portion of freed slaves. In the 1870s and 1880s, as many as 25 percent of the 35,000 cowboys in the Old West were black cowboys.
Freed slaves headed west to find their fortunes among cattle ranches and rows of crops. As slaves, blacks were in charge of crops and took care of cows for their white owners, and the availability of land presented a new opportunity for many to escape the South.
Some of the best known cowboys were:
Bass Reeves, Bill Pickett, Nat Love and Bob Lemmons
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