The stereotypical cowboy image is a young adult male, usually white. This is because of the portrayal of cowboys in popular media — however, one in four cowboys were Black.
The Wild West territories were unsettled lands in the west that white Americans moved into, taking their slaves with them. During the Civil War, many white slave owners took up arms and left their slaves to tend to their farms alone. Thus, Black Americans developed the skills of cattle farming and tending to herds of livestock. After the abolishment of slavery, the previous slave owners had no workers to tend to their herds and were forced to hire the now very skilled Black American workers. By hiring them, Black Americans successfully took over the ‘cowboy’ jobs in large numbers.
However, due to discrimination, Black cowboys were kept out of popular media and were taken over by the image of a white male with a fun hat. They are severely underrepresented in modern depictions of the Wild West and cowboys, and are rarely mentioned in the history books. Despite being generally looked over, Black cowboys contributed an extremely large amount to the mythicized Wild West as well as the cowboy way of life. They stimulated the economy and did jobs that were extremely needed, and important, in America’s early economy. Without Black cowboys, the Wild West as we know it would’ve been severely altered and the economy would’ve taken a huge hit — especially agriculturally.
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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lesser-known-history-african-american-cowboys-180962144/
