Real American Cowboys

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Real American Cowboys
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Who were the cowboys?

• The word cowboy refers to the men who drove herds
  of cattle from ranchland in Texas over hundreds
  of miles of rough and dangerous terrain to the
  stockyards in the North, a trip taking two to
  three months.
• A typical crew consisted of one trail chief,
  eight cowboys, a wrangler to take care of the
  horses, and a cook.
• www.africanaonline.com

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Who were cowboys?

• Frontier regions lack the extensive documentation
  typical of cities.
• According to the highest estimate, the trail
  drives north from Texas (1866 to 1895) employed
  about 63 white, 25 black, and 12 Mexican or
  Mexican-American cowboys.
• Most black and Hispanic cowboys faced social and
  economic discrimination in the West as they did
  elsewhere in the country.
• Richard Slatta of the Lazy S Ranch

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Black Cowboys

• African-Americans came to cattle country most
  often as slaves.
• By the start of the Civil War in 1861, Texas had
  over 180,000 black inhabitants and close to four
  million head of cattle.
• www.africanaonline.com

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Black Cowboys

• Although black cowboys seldom became trail chiefs
  or owned their own stockalthough some didthey
  encountered less discrimination along the cattle
  trail than in most other occupations at the time.
  
• While riding herd, black and white cowboys
  depended upon each other. They lived, ate, and
  slept together.
• "There, a man's work was to be done, and a man's
  life to be lived, and when death was to be met,
  he met it like a man. - Nat Love aka Deadwood
  Dick
• www.africanaonline.com

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Caballeros

• Caballeros were Spanish-born Americans that moved
  north of the Rio Grande to settle new lands
  throughout the Southwest 200 years before the
  Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
• Cabellero means gentleman, and it was one of the
  highest, noblest positions a man could have.
• National Geographic Online

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Vaqueros

• Lower class, independent settlers were called
  vaqueros, and they were the original cowboys.
• They were very proud, skilled cattle drivers
  whose traditions and heritage continues to today.
  
• National Geographic Online

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Vaqueros

• One out of every three cowboys in the late 1800s
  was the Mexican vaquero.
• Kendall Nelson, Gathering Remnants A Tribute to
  the Working Cowboy

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Is this different from cowboy movies and country
music?