After the Reconstruction of the South after the American Civil War, freedmen were still denied land ownership and other rights in many states, and about 20,000 Exodusters headed west to Kansas between 1879 and 1884, with smaller migrations to other Western states.
Many trained under Mexican vaqueros, cattle-raising Native Americans, or their former masters. They then worked as ranch hands for wages equal to their White counterparts and offering more opportunities than existed for freemen in the South.
Black men, typically formerly enslaved, children of enslaved persons, or working in plantations and farms would have been exposed to kitchen work and stables as well. As early as 1770, regulations in Louisiana required two enslaved men to manage 100 head of cattle. White ranchers could even win competitions based on the cow-handling skills of the enslaved Black men in their possession.
In Antebellum Texas, white ranchers referred to white workers as "cow hands," with Black people in the same position referred to with the pejorative "cow boy." Prior to the abolition of slavery, the cattle trade was considered to offer a high degree of relative freedom to the enslaved, who would be issued guns, often left unaccompanied on horseback for long stretches, and trusted to return.
Free Black cattle drivers drove cattle from Kansas to areas including Atlanta, the Dakotas, and Canada, as well as New Mexico, Arizona, California and Oregon. Some formerly enslaved persons remained with their former masters as employees. As these areas became more settled and established more practical transportation networks, the era of migrant cattle ranching came to an end.
There were Black women cowboys, though their numbers are unknown, as income was provided to a common household rather than to individual women. Women were unlikely to inherit a homestead or continue to work in ranching, as freemen and White ranchers were unlikely to work for a Black woman.
A few Black women cowboys are known by name, including Henrietta Williams Foster, a "legendary" cowhand. Sylvia Bishop was a respected horse trainer, and Johanna July tamed horses and raised cattle. There were also other Black women in notable roles in the American West, including “Stagecoach” Mary Fields, a star route postwoman, and Jane Manning James, who had a farm with her husband.
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Venable, Cecelia (2016). Havin a Good Time: Women Cowhands and Johana July, a black Seminole vaquera. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 59–66.
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