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ismnotwasm

(41,921 posts)
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 11:35 AM Apr 2014

America's black cowboys fight for their place in history

Although a couple of years old, thought this worth revisiting in light of recent, disgusting racist revalations.

(CNN) -- Jason Griffin straps his right arm in bandages, preparing himself to grip the reins of a wildly bucking bronco. Tall, broad-shouldered, with a rough beard, he steps into his cowboy boots, fits a Stetson hat and heads out to meet his mount in the rodeo arena.
Griffin is a four-time world champion bareback bucking horse rider -- competing in a sport that began in the 19th century heyday of the Wild West.

With each victory -- he has also won three all-round rodeo championships -- the Texan raises awareness of a strong tradition which is rarely seen in the many novels, films and television series dedicated to the tales of the old West: The historic story of America's black cowboys

On cinema screens and paperback covers, the cowboys of old were heroic, hard-bitten and -- almost always -- white. (bold mine)

Black cowboys were sometimes expected to do ... more than their white counterpart -- in other words, some of the roughest work
In reality, the American West of the 1800s was traversed by an assortment of black, white, Mexican and Native American cattle hands. Contemporary records are rare but historians now estimate that up to one in four Texan cowboys was African American, while the number of Mexican cowboys was even greater.
John Ferguson and Gregg MacDonald's documentary film -- and multimedia project -- "The Forgotten Cowboys" follows Griffin and other contemporary black cowboys as they gain a following competing at rodeos and go about their working lives.


http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/15/world/black-cowboys/
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America's black cowboys fight for their place in history (Original Post) ismnotwasm Apr 2014 OP
And yet Cliven Bundy and his ilk (We know he's not alone) think they're experts on black people ck4829 Apr 2014 #1
Exactly ismnotwasm Apr 2014 #3
I still want to make a movie about Bass Reeves. Xyzse Apr 2014 #2
Looks like they made one a few years back ismnotwasm Apr 2014 #5
DUUUUDEEE!!! Xyzse Apr 2014 #6
Heh! ismnotwasm Apr 2014 #7
Thanks for telling me. Xyzse Apr 2014 #8
The western cowboys of old... HooptieWagon Apr 2014 #4
That they were-- the owners that is ismnotwasm Apr 2014 #9
From the cracking sound of their cattle whips. HooptieWagon Apr 2014 #10
Now that is interesting ismnotwasm Apr 2014 #11
Here: HooptieWagon Apr 2014 #12
Thank you ismnotwasm Apr 2014 #14
Ignored completely is the frontier history of black outlawery. Eleanors38 Apr 2014 #13
Florida cowboys were called cow hunters, owing to Eleanors38 Apr 2014 #15
Yes, cowhunter was the common term of the time. HooptieWagon Apr 2014 #16
I went to a 4th of July parade in tiny Micanopy 3 yrs ago... Eleanors38 Apr 2014 #17
Your pappy had it "good"... HooptieWagon Apr 2014 #18
These camps and road prisons were called "lightning camps" Eleanors38 Apr 2014 #20
More of Florida's violent past: HooptieWagon Apr 2014 #21
Fascinating stuff. Arcadia made Dodge City look like a Amish village. Eleanors38 Apr 2014 #23
Yes, Cedar Key was a major shipping port back then... HooptieWagon Apr 2014 #24
Flagler, though rich, increased his holdings via land Eleanors38 Apr 2014 #26
The Yulee Line might have been one of the shortlines purchased by the swindlers. HooptieWagon Apr 2014 #27
Thanks for the tips, Hooptie. I found this: Eleanors38 Apr 2014 #28
Buffalo Soldiers BainsBane Apr 2014 #19
Several years ago... HooptieWagon Apr 2014 #22
That's the way it's done, Hooptie. Eleanors38 Apr 2014 #30
Quincy Jones - Soul Saga (Song Of The Buffalo Soldier) pinboy3niner Apr 2014 #25
Fort Concho, a National Landmark, in San Angelo, TX Eleanors38 Apr 2014 #29

ismnotwasm

(41,921 posts)
3. Exactly
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 11:39 AM
Apr 2014

The sad thing is how unsurprising it is. Erasing Blacks and other people of color from history has been going on for a long time.

Xyzse

(8,217 posts)
2. I still want to make a movie about Bass Reeves.
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 11:39 AM
Apr 2014

I've been story boarding a story since 2006.

I realize that I am a bad writer. I did a ton of research though.

Xyzse

(8,217 posts)
6. DUUUUDEEE!!!
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 11:43 AM
Apr 2014

I will have to see that.

I still think they should use Michael Jai White as Bass Reeves.
He sported the stache in Black Dynamite.

Xyzse

(8,217 posts)
8. Thanks for telling me.
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 11:50 AM
Apr 2014

I am going to see if I can find it through Vudu or Flixster or what have you.

 

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)
4. The western cowboys of old...
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 11:41 AM
Apr 2014

were about equal demographic parts black, white, and hispanic. Hollywood made them all white. Here in Florida, the cowboys (called "Crackers&quot were mostly hispanic and native-american. The ranch-owners were white of course.

ismnotwasm

(41,921 posts)
9. That they were-- the owners that is
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 12:20 PM
Apr 2014

Interesting history about the word cracker, I wonder if there's a connection in how it evolved?

 

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)
10. From the cracking sound of their cattle whips.
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 01:35 PM
Apr 2014

Thats the Florida origin, anyway. I believe other areas may have their own regional origins of the term.

Cattle industry began in Florida, with a hardy breed left by early Spanish explorers as provisions for future expeditions. So there's a 500 year history of cattle raising here. In some ways, Florida was more "wild west" than the West was. Long history of open range, rustling, gangs and posses, violence (shoot-outs and hangings), corruption, etc. It probably reached it's peak during Reconstruction, and reached it's end about beginning of WW2 when open-range grazing was banned for being a traffic hazard. There's still a big cattle industry (#4 in nation, as I recall), but its all fenced in now and not a source of crime and violence.

 

Eleanors38

(18,318 posts)
13. Ignored completely is the frontier history of black outlawery.
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 01:53 PM
Apr 2014

I wrote a screenplay (never produced) about a black Florida outlaw who ran an integrated gang, circa 1890. Took out 2 deputies and a town marshall before being waylaid by a black kid with a shotgun. Two gang members -- one white, one black -- were lynched together in Gainesville in perhaps the only integrated lynching on record. The mob was integrated, too. The sheriff of Alachua Co. had to rely on intelligence gathered by a black private eye.

Florida is not Texas; it does not talk about family stuff, let alone memorialize it in film. Tourism, you see.

 

Eleanors38

(18,318 posts)
15. Florida cowboys were called cow hunters, owing to
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 02:02 PM
Apr 2014

the use of a quite long whip to drive cattle out of the dense scrub; they had small use for a rope. Frederick Remington drew a picture if a mounted Cracker. Our family was referred to as Cracker because it was involved in farming/livestock activities since 1859. The term was/is not considered an insult.

 

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)
16. Yes, cowhunter was the common term of the time.
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 02:11 PM
Apr 2014

Later, it and cracker were interchangeable. You are correct, it is not considered an insult here, unlike perhaps in the Deep South. You are also correct about the whips. Lassos couldn't be used in palmetto thickets and dense underbrush, the whips were used instead.

 

Eleanors38

(18,318 posts)
17. I went to a 4th of July parade in tiny Micanopy 3 yrs ago...
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 03:01 PM
Apr 2014

It was startling to some to see the Cracker contingent come by, riding horses and cracking whips. More startling to a few was the black cow hunter popping away! Kids lived it.

Jeez, these guys slept out in the open for days, even weeks at a time, often trenching a moat around themselves to catch water and excluding ticks, and using the residual mud as "high ground" upon which to sleep. My Pappy did not cow hunt, but was in the field for weeks at a time with a fellow prospector and a black wagon driver, assistant and cook. They were paid by the State of Florida to stake out potential quarry sites (lime pits) for (usually) British mining companies. Only slightly better conditions. A little cash in a severe Depression.

 

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)
18. Your pappy had it "good"...
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 03:34 PM
Apr 2014

compared to conditions in the phosphate mines and turpentine camps, which employed mostly blacks. And even they had it "good" compared to conditions in the forced labor camps. Crooked sheriffs would round up homeless or drifters (who likely had no local family to raise a stink) on trumped-up charges, then sell them as laborers to their cronies who worked them until they dropped dead. Buried where they fell, no-one the wiser.

Here's a heavily sterilized story:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20040315/NEWS/403150625?p=1&tc=pg

 

Eleanors38

(18,318 posts)
20. These camps and road prisons were called "lightning camps"
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 11:16 PM
Apr 2014

by some in Florida because death-by-lightning was often signed off on as a cause of death.

Z.N. Hurston's description of the Dixie Co. camp she stayed at is most riveting. She carried concealed there and in Polk Co. after her experiences in jook joints which sprinkled the pine forests and pits. The common practice of going about armed prompted the FL legislaure to pass gun control laws which were really aimed at controlling blacks. Don't think they worked well.
The Carrier family in Rosewood was fully armed (including a Model 1911 semi-auto .45), and polished off some of Levy Co's LEO, before they were overcome. Carrier himself operated a wood products mill, and had ownership/control of approx 1,200 acres off the Cedar Key Hwy.

You can still find rusted out turp tin cups. I came across a few in the Gum Root Swamp on the east side of Gainesville.

 

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)
21. More of Florida's violent past:
Fri Apr 25, 2014, 12:26 AM
Apr 2014
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarasota_Assassination_Society

I grew up near Sarasota, know a descendant of the gang, and descendants of one of their targets. All these names are historical families in the region. BTW, at that time (mid 1880s) Manatee Co stretched from Bradenton all the way to Arcadia. It wasn't divided up until a decade or so later.
 

Eleanors38

(18,318 posts)
23. Fascinating stuff. Arcadia made Dodge City look like a Amish village.
Fri Apr 25, 2014, 06:24 AM
Apr 2014

Peter Mathiesen, who died this spring, wrote the "Watson Trilogy," based on the life and times of Edgar J. Watson in the Ten Thousand Islands area below Ft Myers. One of the best sources for knowing about Florida's last frontier. It seems inevitable that terrorist organizations quickly become economic gangs, if they didn't start out that way.

Allegedly, a similar type gang operated in Gainesville in support of Republican operatives. Damned violent town in its own right. John Wesley Harding hung out there for a while before drifting over to Jax, then Pensacola where he was arrested by Texas agents. Harding used the Cedar Key - Galveston route some outlaws traveled when in the lam. One of the notorious S. Florida Ashley gang members fled FL to TX via Cedar Key, later to return.

 

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)
24. Yes, Cedar Key was a major shipping port back then...
Fri Apr 25, 2014, 10:53 AM
Apr 2014

as it was as far south as the railroad went, until Henry Plant ran a rail line to Tampa in early 1900s.

Interesting story about railroads in Florida I haven't seen mentioned much. Up through Civil War, the only railroads were several short lines in the northern panhandle that were in poor condition. During Reconstruction, a swindler showed up and purchased those shortlines by the sale of RR Bonds, backed only by promises of upgrades and expansion south. He had trouble selling the bonds (backed only by those promises), so he bribed several members of the Florida Legislature to push through a bond swap.... trading his RR Bonds backed by promises, for State of Florida Bonds backed by the extensive tracts of land in Central and South Florida owned by the State. State Bonds in hand, he made off to NYC where he peddled them on Wall St, then to Europe where he peddled the remainder for pennies on the dollar. Then he dissappeared, natch. Nothing happened with the RRs, the shortlines fell into disuse and no expansion. When the worthless RR Bonds the State held came due, the State was forced to sell off vast tracts of land dirt cheap in order to make good on the worthless bonds. That is how the timber companies, ranchers, etc acquired those vast land holdings.

 

Eleanors38

(18,318 posts)
26. Flagler, though rich, increased his holdings via land
Fri Apr 25, 2014, 01:00 PM
Apr 2014

acquisition. Speedway to Sunshine by Seth Bramson is an excellent history of the Flagler System, and its successor, the Florida East Coast RR. Heavily illustrated.

The Yulee line (1859, Cedar Key to Fernandina) served as a rag-tag Panama Canal to circumvent costs & delays in traveling around the peninsula. At one time it was part of the Florida Central & Peninsula, though due to frequent derailments came to be known as "Friends, Come & Push." That rail was running along part of the Cedar Key Hwy when I left for Austin and grad school. As teenagers, some of my buddies and I "bombed" cars on US 441 with water balloons from the trestle bridge. It is now a bike/ped crossing with a notable double helix guard rail to Shands Hospital at U of F. Gainesville's official seal features a steam locomotive, even though no RRs no longer come thru the city.

 

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)
27. The Yulee Line might have been one of the shortlines purchased by the swindlers.
Fri Apr 25, 2014, 02:25 PM
Apr 2014

I looked up their names... George Swepson and Milton Littlefield (ex Union General). They did the exact same swindle in NC before Florida.

Flagler built his RR down the east coast, with resort hotels along the way. Plant did the same on the west coast, building his RR to Sanford then across to Tampa. Also built many resort hotels, most notably the Tampa Hotel (now the University of Tampa), and the Bellview Biltmore in Clearwater, which has been allowed to fall into ruin (demolition by neglect). Plant City east of Tampa is named after Henry Plant, Morton Plant Hospital in Tampa is named after his son.

BTW, there's many good (and often unknown) stories about Florida's history in the 3 volumes of books written by Gene Burnette. Highly reccommended, and very entertaining.

 

Eleanors38

(18,318 posts)
28. Thanks for the tips, Hooptie. I found this:
Fri Apr 25, 2014, 08:47 PM
Apr 2014

Pioneer Commercial Photography: The Burgert Bros., by Snyder, at al. Excellent photo record of Tampa area from early 20th Cent - 1950s.

Also read Red Grass River by James Carlos Blake ("Old Gringo&quot , a fictional account of the real-life Ashley Gang, an early motor-bandit-era outfit which operated a vertically integrated booze production & rum-running biz supplying Miami and South Florida. This Cracker family robbed over 40 banks on the side, and successfully "defeated" a Chicago-based gang's efforts at takeover; the Ashley's preferred BARs over Tommy guns. Most of the gang were killed at mysterious bridge incident while in LEO custody.

'Best keep that in the family.'

BainsBane

(53,003 posts)
19. Buffalo Soldiers
Thu Apr 24, 2014, 03:39 PM
Apr 2014


African Americans have served proudly in every great American war. Over two hundred thousand African American servicemen fought bravely during the Civil War. In 1866 through an act of congress, legislation was adopted to create six all African American army units. The units were identified as the 9th and 10th cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st infantry regiments. The four infantry units were reorganized in 1868 as the 24th and the 25th infantry. Black soldiers enlisted for five years and received $13.00 a month, far more than they could have earned in civilian life.

The 10th cavalry was formed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and recruited soldiers from the northern states. Colonel Benjamin Grierson was selected to command the 10th cavalry. Colonel Edward Hatch was selected to command the 9th cavalry and he recruited soldiers from the south and set up his headquarters in Greenville, Louisiana. The troops were led by white officers. Many officers, including George Armstrong Custer, refused to command black regiments and accepted a lower rank rather than do so. The black regiments could only serve west of the Mississippi River because of the prevailing attitudes following the Civil War.

The Buffalo Soldier’s main charge was to protect settlers as they moved west and to support the westward expansion by building the infrastructure needed for new settlements to flourish.

http://www.buffalosoldiers-amwest.org/history.htm
 

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)
22. Several years ago...
Fri Apr 25, 2014, 12:32 AM
Apr 2014

at a reggae concert the band played a cover of Buffalo Soldier. A couple black kids (about 10yo) next to me were singing away. I asked them if they knew who the Buffalo Soldiers were, they shook their heads "no". So I told them. Their eyes were wide with amazement. I hope I inspired them to learn more.

 

Eleanors38

(18,318 posts)
29. Fort Concho, a National Landmark, in San Angelo, TX
Fri Apr 25, 2014, 09:03 PM
Apr 2014

was part of a string of forts estab. to push "out" Comanches. Many ex-slave Buffalo Soldiers were on the front line, highly respected by both sides of it. Visited some 42 yrs ago, well-preserved.

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