Who were the black cowboys? They were drovers, foremen, fiddlers, cowpunchers, cattle rustlers, cooks, and singers. They worked as wranglers, riders, ropers, bulldoggers, and bronc busters. They came from varied backgrounds—some grew up in slavery, while free blacks often got their start in Texas and Mexico. Most who joined the long trail drives were men, but black women also rode and worked on western ranches and farms. The first overview of the subject in more than fifty years, Black Cowboys in the American West surveys the life and work of these cattle drivers from the years before the Civil War through the turn of the twentieth century. Including both classic, previously published articles and exciting new research, this collection also features select accounts of twentieth-century rodeos, music, people, and films. Arranged in three sections—“Cowboys on the Range,” “Performing Cowboys,” and “Outriders of the Black Cowboys”—the thirteen chapters illuminate the great diversity of the black cowboy experience. Like all ranch hands and riders, African American cowboys lived hard, dangerous lives. But black drovers were expected to do the roughest, most dangerous work—and to do it without complaint. They faced discrimination out west, albeit less than in the South, which many had left in search of autonomy and freedom. As cowboys, they could escape the brutal violence visited on African Americans in many southern communities and northern cities. Black cowhands remain an integral part of life in the West, the descendants of African Americans who ventured west and helped settle and establish black communities. This long-overdue examination of nineteenth- and twentieth-century black cowboys ensures that they, and their many stories and experiences, will continue to be known and told.

Over 450 entries provide information on cowboy history, culture, and myth of both North and South America.

Rattlesnakes and ornery horses, the dreaded Texas Itch, midnight rambles in graveyards, trips to Mexico, and hard riding on the last open range: George Philip recounts all these adventures and more with wit and humour. George Phillip arrived in South Dakota from Scotland in 1899. For the next four years, he rode as a cowboy for his uncle's L-7 cattle outfit during the heyday of the last open range. But the cowboy era was a brief one, and in 1903 Philip turned in his string of horses and hung up his saddle to enter law school in Michigan. In these candid letters, Philip provides fascinating insights into the development of the West and of South Dakota. His writing details the cowboy's day-to-day work, from branding and roping to navigating across the palins by stars and buttes, as the great open ranges slowly closed up.

The rolling prairies and ranch communities of the great heartland of America's West may be a long way from New York City, but renowned photographer Anouk Masson Krantz has clocked up many thousands of miles over several years exploring and capturing in rich photographic detail the compelling worlds of the American cowboy/cowgirl, championship rodeo arenas, ranch life and farming communities of this slice of the United States. Set out in a beautiful large-format book, the pages within are filled with Krantz's magnificent duotone images of the spirit of an extraordinary group of people and their lives, and in their own words, their great love of family, tradition and work ethic, and their great pride and affinity with their animals and the rich American rodeo championship sporting culture. Earning wide acclaim for her incredible fine art work exhibited in galleries and published in the bestselling Wild Horses of Cumberland Island ISBN 9781864707427 (2017), also by IMAGES, West: The American Cowboy is another artful, intimate study of the American character and their sense of place, and is a unique collection of works brought together by this award-winning photographer and storyteller. AUTHOR: Born and raised in France, Anouk Masson Krantz moved to the United States in the late 1990s. Living in New York, she completed her high school at the Lycée Francais and earned her bachelor degree while working for a lifestyle magazine. Following college she worked at Cartier's corporate office in New York that oversees the Americas. Anouk later studied at the International Center of Photography and has developed several notable bodies of work, including Wild Horses of Cumberland Island. Her work has appeared in prominent galleries and earned accolades from the International Photography Awards and International Monochrome Awards. Her first book Wild Horses of Cumberland Island (2017) became an immediate bestseller among the photography genre. The book and her art have been praised by international publications, such as Vanity Fair, Town & Country, Time, Harper s Bazaar, Daily Mail UK, and Garden & Gun among many others. SELLING POINTS: * Exceptional fine art photography - several years in the making - of the American cowboy/cowgirl and rodeo communities, the horse and cattle ranches, and the remarkable landscape of America's Wild West, by celebrated and award-winning photographer, Anouk Masson Krantz * Intimate explorations and portrayals of a society that honours historical traditions and practices a set of values that includes honesty, integrity, loyalty, work ethic, and dedication to family * A lavish tome filled with rich and awe-inspiring photography of mysterious and inspiring elements of American culture, accompanied by the author/photographer's unique storytelling 175 b/w photographs

The word cowboy conjures up vivid images of rugged men on saddled horses—men lassoing cattle, riding bulls, or brandishing guns in a shoot-out. White men, as Hollywood remembers them. What is woefully missing from these scenes is their counterparts: the black cowboys who made up one-fourth of the wranglers and rodeo riders. This book tells their story. When the Civil War ended, black men left the Old South in large numbers to seek a living in the Old West—industrious men resolved to carve out a life for themselves on the wild, roaming plains. Some had experience working cattle from their time as slaves; others simply sought a freedom they had never known before. The lucky travelled on horseback; the rest, by foot. Over dirt roads they went from Alabama and South Carolina to present-day Texas and California up north through Kansas to Montana. The Old West was a land of opportunity for these adventurous wranglers and future rodeo champions. A long overdue testament to the courage and skill of black cowboys, Black Cowboys of the Old West finally gives these courageous men their rightful place in history. Praise for an earlier book by the same author: “Whether you are a history enthusiast or a lover of adventure stories, African American Women of the Old Westpresents the reader with fascinating accounts of ten extraordinary, generally unrecognized, African Americans. Tricia Martineau Wagner takes these remarkable women from the footnotes of history and brings them to life.” —Ed Diaz, President of the Association for African American Historical Research and Preservation