During the last half of the nineteenth century, several thousand African Americans moved to the American western frontier. Before the Civil War, some went west as slaves of gold miners to California and of Mormons to Utah. Later, free black men joined the U.S. Army and served in frontier outposts while others were hired on as cowboys on western ranches and cattle trails. Once Reconstruction ended in the South, discrimination and segregation caused more African Americans to seek better opportunities elsewhere where prejudice was less evident.
African Americans on the Western Frontier is designed to remedy the historic neglect of the significant contribution made by African Americans to the settlement and development of the West. The fifteen authors in this volume highlight many of the contributions African American men and women made to the western frontier -- as miners, homesteaders, town builders, entrepreneurs, and as ordinary, civic-minded citizens. The African American western experience during the frontier era (1850-1912) is a story that is rich and diverse. It will interest both students of history and members of the general public.
