Mary-Lorraine Booth
Senior Thesis | 2024
Cowboys, Reality, Reputation, and Replica
Mary-Lorraine Booth
Senior thesis
Boston University Academy March 4, 2024
When you hear the word “cowboy”, what thoughts or images come to mind? Maybe you imagine a young man riding on horseback into a picturesque sunset, or a strong man taming a wild stallion or bull, lasso in hand. Perhaps he’s wearing a widebrimmed hat and boots. Does this cowboy look like you? In America, the cowboy has become a prominent symbol for American culture and history, and his image represents the core of many of the nation’s values. Despite the frequent use of cowboys in American culture, there is history behind the profession that has been obscured in favor of the more simplified idea of the cowboy that most Americans are familiar with. But where did the nation’s commonly held conception of a cowboy come from and who determined what this symbol would mean? America claims to idealize hard, honest work and individual freedom and liberty, so It’s no surprise that cowboys would become heavily entwined with American culture, as their job could easily fit the previous description. Their image has been used nearly everywhere, from
film and books, to advertisements for a wide range of products, and of course, sports teams. Towns with any connection to cowboy culture like Tombstone, Arizona draw in hundreds of tourists who want a taste of that cowboy/wild west world. It’s not uncommon to see politicians sport a cowboy hat on the campaign trail as a nod to their American-ness, and relatability to working class people.1 The versatility of cowboys as a symbol is incredible, and this popculture characterization of them is unlikely to go away anytime soon. However, this simplified image erases a long and complex history surrounding the lives and livelihoods of cowboys in America. This is damaging to the way that American history is preserved, and leaves the country disconnected to its past. Though there is no problem with fictional accounts of Cowboys, there are nuances from the histories of real cowboys that could ground fictional narratives when put into conversation with each other. 1 “The Downfall of the American Cowboy” - Jstor Daily.”https://daily.jstor.org/the-downfall-of-the-american-cowboy/.
Furthermore, like the country as a whole, this history of Cowboys is far more complex than any two hour movie or mini-series could ever show. Widely acknowledging this history is an important step to deconstructing systems that allow us to forget history, positive or otherwise, and may even make for better entertainment.
Archetypically, a cowboy may be considered a courageous, skilled horseman, gunslinger, and seeker of danger. He exists alongside nature and prefers vast, open landscapes over a cramped city. His truest habitat is the expansive midwestern plains, which he roams upon his trusty horse. A cowboy is almost never without his horse, his greatest companion. Regardless of how much money a cowboy makes, he takes pride in his work and enjoys the simple life it provides. As much as he is independent and self-reliant, he has a strong sense of obligation to his job. He uses tools unique to his profession alone, like the cattle-whip, boot spurs and lariat, and he does his job with admirable pride. In terms of clothes, one can easily recognize a cowboy by his distinctive wide brimmed hat,
heeled boots, and bandana. No good or “accurate” cowboy costume would be complete without them. This image characterization of a cowboy is incredibly flat and extensively romanticized.2 Yet this same image, or something like it, was how many people are first introduced to cowboys. Cowboys as a mascot, are a product of decades of sensationalism that have warped the cowboy into a fantastical parody of what they once were.3 Though this has allowed the general history of the profession to last longer, perhaps even forever, it is at the complete detriment to the real lives and stories behind the title of “cowboy”. Cowboy novels and films provided a space for people to escape and insert or project themselves into the “wild west”, and as their modified reputation grew, cowboys became a figment of a collective fiction rather than a historical fact. Even still, people
2 “Cowboys Need Not Apply.” The Massachusetts Review 23, no. 3 (1982): 515–21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25089333.
3 “The Real Cowboy.” Prairie Schooner 6, no. 1 (1932): 30–38. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40622281.
looked up to this archetype as a hero, inspiration and a beacon of hope even during times of war.4 If cowboys are so important to the fabric of American culture, why has their image been altered? Wouldn’t it be more meaningful to America's public memory to understand the nuance and depth of cowboys? Can cowboys accurately be used to represent America more wholly? In order to find an answer, let us take a look at cowboys in the eyes of Hollywood and the American consumer, Historians, and real-life cowboys themselves. ✮✮✮
The “Western” has cemented itself into American literary and film canon, with thousands of movies and countless television shows. The genre was influential, and movies (and later television shows) centered around cowboys or the wild west were rarely out
4 “Cowboys in Life and Legend.” Cowboys in Life and Legend for NCCAT Seminar, June 2005. https://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/cowboys/CBintro.htm.
of fashion for a large majority of the 20th century.5 The magnitude of visual media being made about cowboys was so great during the 1920’s and 1940’s through the 60’s that it replaced forgotten pieces of American memory around cowboys until what remained was mostly cinematic. Western films, and particularly “Bwesterns”, are the most serious offender in creating our fictionalized view of the west. Developing from the “trashy” ten cent western novels of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, Bwesterns were known for their hero-driven plots, action packed scenes, and explicit moral messages.6 Each B-western, like many films in the larger genre, come equipped with a standard binary of themes like Good vs. Evil or Civilization vs. Frontier, with set gender roles of wild men and passive women.7 These strict gender roles were crucial to affixing the west as a playground for men, especially white men, to exercise their masculinity. The target
5 “The cowboy encyclopedia. W W Norton & Co Inc, 1996.”
6 “The cowboy encyclopedia.”
7 Interview on Western Film. Personal, October 27, 2023.
audience, and the group that allowed westerns to retain such high viewership were in fact young men.8 B-westerns, or “Budget” Westerns generally drew from a single pool of actors, and were known for frequently repeating/recycling plots. It wasn't uncommon for movies to be colloquially referred to by the actors that starred in them rather than their actual titles (there were also a great deal of similarly titled movies).9 Actors became type-cast into specific characters or storylines, and it would be completely fair to say that this heavy association of a singular type of person with the west, namely white male actors, in hundreds of films between 1930 and 1960 allowed for a great narrowing of the nationally recognized face of cowboys.10 Westerns, almost by definition, look towards the American west with rose colored
8 “The cowboy encyclopedia.”
9 “The Invention of the Western Film: A Cultural History of the Genre’s First Half-Century”, by Scott Simmon. Film Quarterly 58, no. 1 (2004): 68–70. https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2004.58.1.68.
10 “The Invention of the Western Film: A Cultural History of the Genre’s First Half-Century”
glasses, and could be considered by many as an example of American escapism. For an audience living in eastern cities, the “wild west” seemed to be a place where a romantic, idealized, and censored past lived on, kind of like a renaissance fair. Myths, tall tales, and fictional stories are certainly culturally important, but there isn’t a fair reason for such a large amount of cowboycentered media to be overly inflated or mythologies when their history is not all lost. The golden age of cowboys was during the late 1800’s, and there are many historical sources, primary and otherwise, that talk about the lives of cowboys in the past. Furthermore, outside of historical scholars, there are still cowboys, and descendants of cowboys that keep their practices alive. In consulting some of these sources we can figure out who cowboys really were, what they did and how their lives contrasted to their cinematic and fictional counterparts.
Historically, the height, or “golden age” of cowboys is marked by academics as a 30 year period from around the late 1800’s until the turn of the century, where the profession took a sharp decline, and cowboys were no longer needed in the same capacity. The job required cowboys to accompany herds during grazing, or delivered to other ranches. Twice a year, there would be a big round-up in which herds of 1,500 to 3,000 cattle would be picked out, branded, and prepared to be sold. The first round up, in the spring, would be for preparation, and the second round up in the fall would be for transportation, often to northern states.11
Though it’s known that cowboys were working-class, it goes widely unrecognized how much work they did in comparison to the payment that they received. The profession appealed to young folks in need of food and shelter, which the job did provide, but this might have been to offset the low pay, which ranged from $20-
11 “Cowboys in Life and Legend.”
40 a month (between $600 and $1500 today).12 Due to the nature of the job, being a cowboy was accessible to a wider variety of people, as long as they had the proper skills, and knew how to use the right tools.
Much of their work couldn’t be done without horses, who helped cowboys keep up with the large herds they looked after. In a sense, horses were a cowboy’s second legs, and you’d find them on horseback more than you’d ever find them with both feet on the ground. The average cowboy “uniform” is about the same as one might come across in any “generic” image search of a cowboy.
Wide brimmed hats served as protection from the weather, with different styles or shapes to combat weather conditions of different regions. If a cowboy worked in a particularly cool, hot, windy, or sandy area there might be modifications to his outfit to accommodate for that.13 Handkerchiefs served as additional facial
12 “Cowboys in Life and Legend.”
13 “The Real Cowboy.”
covering, and the boots are a must, with a two inch heel and thin soles to feel the position of a saddle’s stirrup. Gloves were worn to protect wrists, and maybe most importantly, chaps or “skeleton trousers” protected a cowboy’s legs if they were thrown off their horse.14 Guns, either a Colt 44 or 45, were never recklessly used by a good cowboy. Guns were used only in emergency situations… or during competitions in free time. Being on the herding trail for weeks at a time built up a lot of pent-up energy that had nothing to do but be spent in whatever cattle town a job ended in. So skill-based competitions, like marksmanship practice, was a way to keep one’s skills sharp, and provided an opportunity for cowboys to make a name for themselves. This tradition of skill competition, predates American cowboys, originating with the Mexican vaquero (cowboy), and lives on in the present day as rodeo.15
14 “The Real Cowboy.”
15 “The cowboy encyclopedia.”
The position of “cowboy”, with its lack of overall benefits, appealed to those with a sense of adventure, a feeling of independence, or a preference for the outdoors. It was a job that asked few questions, as long as you could work just as hard and as well as the other cowboys. Like those in other labor-intensive jobs around the country, cowboys were often overworked and underpaid, and participated in a strike in 1883 against five of the large ranches that employed them.16 The strike was successful in creating disruptions, slowdowns, intimidating ranch owners, and sparked strikes in other professions across the country. Through this strike, cowboys clearly demonstrated how important their work was. At the time, cattle products like leather and meat were in high demand, and a steady supply of those products had to be maintained. Ranchers bought large plots of land and needed skilled employees, cowboys/ cowhands to take care of the land and 16 The Great Cowboy Strike: Bullets, Ballots & Class conflicts in the American West. London: Verso, 2017.
livestock. Cowboys were in charge of herding and transporting cattle live across the country, because there weren’t really any easier ways to transport cattle from state to state. In this way, cowboys were the true backbone of the cattle industry as they were the ones responsible for getting cattle where they needed to be.17
Though they had proven themselves to be essential workers both on ranches and on the range, the landscape of the cowboy’s jobs would change in ways that would mark the end of the golden age of cowboys. By the 1890’s railroad lines had expanded to cover more of the western regions, and meat preserving techniques and technologies had improved, creating less of a need for cattle to be herded live across the country. Along with this, the number of cattle around the country was dwindling, and less hands were needed to manage them.18 Both of these factors, combined with the
17 “Cowboys in Life and Legend.”
18 “The Cowboy: America’s Contribution to the World’s Mythology.” Western Folklore 11, no. 2 (1952): 77–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/1496835
reduction of on-ranch responsibilities decreased the need for cowboys. By the early 1900’s, the position was already out of general practice, and journalists were describing cowboys as a “thing of the past” that would live on in American memory. As the 20th century progressed, agricultural life became more and more mechanized, and mechanical skills were quickly valued over the skills cowboys possessed.19 Ranches became larger and more corporatized and the land in the midwest became less spacious, but cowboys persisted in films, stories, and on television as protagonists. However, it was not this change that first enabled cowboys to become a subject of people’s imaginations. For eastern Americans in particular, cowboys were always in the spotlight, even before they existed almost solely on our movie screens. Cowboys seemed almost exotic performing tasks in a job that could only be possible somewhere far from large eastern cities. It
19 “Cowboys Need Not Apply.” The Massachusetts Review 23, no. 3 (1982): 515–21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25089333.
is completely reasonable to attribute the exaggeration of cowboy living to those eastern outsiders looking west at something they didn’t exactly understand (or want to understand). Because of this, it was not uncommon for eastern journalists in the 19th century to travel west to take stock of the quality of life to write pieces on cowboy life. Though many pieces on cowboys were generous and positive, some journalists detested the ways that they had seen cowboys carry themselves- particularly in their free time. These writers characterized cowboys as raucous troublemakers who had nothing better to do than “shoot up” or “trample” towns on horseback with their guns blazing.20 Though the south and midwest during the golden age of cowboys is referred to commonly as the “Wild west”, it wasn’t so wild or lawless as those unhappy journalists might have expressed. There were laws and law enforcement inside of individual towns, and not much relying on a 20 “Cowboys in Life and Legend.”
moral vigilante to come and save the day.21 The main crimes being committed were theft, robbery and murder, with little variety, and many conflicts were settled personally. In particular, horse theft was considered to be one of the worst types of theft. The people committing these crimes were commonly referred to as “bad men” or outlaws. A very important distinction to make within the world of the wild west is the difference between cowboys and “bad men” or outlaws. While some cowboys did become outlaws, or certain outfits (cowboy crews) had reputations of being of a particularly bad stock, it was not very common for the two types to overlap, as they so often were blurred in my own imagination. In the end, it was the generous narratives of cowboys and “western” America that prevailed, and became fixed in literary and cinematic fiction. Pulp fiction writers picked up on the intrigue that cowboys had sparked and wrote all sorts of dramatic, romantic, and actionpacked stories that are responsible for creating the cowboy people
21 The Real Cowboy.”
have come to know and admire. Though much of the responsibility for mythologizing cowboys has come from onlookers, there has been some exaggeration and romanticization of cowboy life by those that were in the business themselves. Without many first person autobiographical narratives from cowboys in the field, it becomes difficult to differentiate cowboy fact from cowboy fiction.
To further investigate the differences between historical cowboys and their fictional counterparts, I turn to Nat Love for his first-person account of life as a cowboy. While there are many cowboys who have had stories and movies written about them, Nat Love was one of the few cowboys who were able to write and publish their own story. In addition to the already rare state of true cowboy autobiographies, I was particularly surprised to find an autobiography of a black cowboy, and chose that one for the focus
of this project. Nat Love’s autobiography was published in 1907 with the long but informative title: “The Life and Adventures of Nat Love, Better Known in the Cattle Country as “Deadwood Dick” by Himself; A True History of Slavery Days, Life on the Great Cattle Ranges and on the Plains of the ‘Wild and Woolly West’, Based on Facts, and Personal Experiences of the Author”.
This aptly titled autobiography is a 162 page summation of the entirety of his own life, triumphs and failures, deaths and romances, and most importantly, adventure. Furthermore, Love’s likeness was used in 2021 for the main character of the movie “The Harder They Fall”, directed by Jeymes Samuel.
Nat Love (fig. 1) begins his autobiography with his birth in June of 1854 around the Nashville area in Tennessee. Like some other Black cowboys of his time, he was born into slavery, and began his young adult life after the conclusion of the Civil War.22
Despite the difficulties and complexities of his childhood, Love
22 “The Life and Adventures of Nat Love”, Chapter 3
chose to share the generally positive and hilariously outrageous tales from his childhood, attributing the lessons he learned from his adventures to the cowboy skills he’d become known for. Love claims that accidentally getting “dead drunk” with his siblings off his mom’s homemade alcohol allowed him to stomach hard liquor as an adult, and playing rough games with other boys his age made him tougher. Shortly after his family’s emancipation, his father passed away. Not long after that his sister and her husband died from illness. These changing family circumstances gave Nat Love an opportunity to act as the patriarch of his household and learn how to provide for himself and others. In addition to his weekly job, which is described in little detail, Love mentions helping boys at a farm near his house “break in”23 horses in exchange for a cut of their wages. This helped him earn extra money for his household, but more importantly developed Love’s almost unnatural skills in animal handling. As the autobiography 23 Or “tame”
progresses into its 6th chapter, Nat Love shares how he felt trapped in his role as the substitute patriarch for his family, which consisted of his mother, his younger brother, and his two young nieces. With some good luck, Love won a horse through a raffle and sold it back for fifty dollars. When the horse was raffled off for a second time, Nat Love happened to win it once more, selling it back for an additional fifty dollars. After discussing with his mother, he split his earnings between himself and his family (worth around $3,500 in total today), and made his way west toward Kansas.
Upon arrival in Kansas, Nat Love ran into a group of mostly Black cowboys known as the “Duval Outfit”, who took a liking to him and recruited him to be part of their outfit. From that point on, Love chronicles all the different types of errands, cattle drives, and horse riding that occurred during his career. Nat Love’s stories feature a cast of characters with a variety of “western” nicknames that like Bronko Jim, Arizona Bob, and Stormy Jim,
that sound like something right from a western dime-novel. It is not long after his arrival in Kansas that Nat love is given his first nickname, “Red River Dick”, from the members of the Duval outfit. As mentioned in his descriptive title, Nat Love also claims to have won another nickname: “Deadwood Dick”. For some fans of western literature, that nickname might ring a bell. Many western adventure novels were inspired by real-life cowboys, and Deadwood Dick also happens to be the protagonist from a dime novel series written by Edward Lytton Wheeler, published from 1877 to 1897.24 Many men including Nat Love claimed to be the original inspiration for this character named after the town Deadwood in South Dakota. In his autobiography, Love explains how he won the title by making the best time in a skills contest that involved roping, saddling and mounting wild mustangs. Love reports to have mounted his mustang in “exactly nine minutes from the crack of the gun”, while the other competitors completed the
24 “The Cowboy Encyclopedia.”
tasks at least three minutes slower. This middle of the autobiography continues in a similar manner with Nat Love describing his varied adventures in cowboying until at last the job loses its appeal and turns sour. Just before he quit being a cowboy he meets his “first love”, and goes to great lengths just to catch her attention. Nat Love even goes so far as to try and lasso a moving train in hopes that she’d notice him. The two eventually become a couple, but Nat Love’s “sweetheart” becomes sick and dies soon after they get together.. The death of his “sweetheart”, along with the decreasing need for cowboys led Nat Love to quit being a cowboy, and settle down in Denver. After marrying “the second love of his life”, he tried looking for adventure, and a job, in the train industry, which was quickly gaining a lot of steam. He took up a job as a pullman porter, and briefly quit after frustration with some unsavory customers. After adjusting to the shift in environment, Nat Love gave the job another shot and ended up working on trains for a number of years.
Overall, Nat Love’s story reads like an adventure story or a tall tale that you might hear from an elder. Some details and stories feel unrealistically perilous or completely nonsensical, just like the dime-novels of the time. Other parts of the story feel incredibly real, particularly the parts where Love describes his childhood and non-professional life. Regardless of how truthfully Nat Love presents his life story, he was one of the few cowboys that had agency over his own narrative and was able to decide for himself what part of his story got told, exaggerated or not.
Maybe Nat Love wasn’t the real “Deadwood Dick'' and didn’t possess the incredible strength or skill that he claims to have had; perhaps he wasn’t thrust into as many dangerous predicaments as he said. Yet Love was able to tell his story in a way that was infused with a unique type of authenticity, making his stories feel more real. Throughout the autobiography he name-drops famous historical figures like Jessie and Frank James, Billy the Kid, and Yellowstone Kelly, adding a level of credibility and surrealism to
his story. Furthermore, mentioning prominent events of his time period like the Great Buffalo massacre and the battle of Little BigHorn (also referenced as Custer’s Last Stand) connect him more to the happenings of the late 1800’s. The story of Nat Love’s life, out of slavery, roaming the vast landscapes of the midwest, to working and traveling by train is fascinating, and his anecdotes about the cowboy life help separate the real aspects of the cowboy lifestyle from the fictional and sensationalized ones.
Love’s story confirms a lot about the cowboy’s working conditions, and paints a good picture of what it was like to be a cowboy working on southern ranches.25 He details much of what there is to tell about traveling north with the cattle herds, and all the difficulties that come with that job. Nat Love’s autobiography agrees with all of the historical accounts of a cowboy’s life and work, but the personality and intrigue that Love presents his own
25 The specification of Southern ranches in states like Texas or Arizona are important here, as ranching culture was not the same in every part of the United states.
history with is reminiscent of a novel, and why his story is so important. Additionally the biography provides a look into the much overshadowed experiences of Black men making their way west in a post Civil War era. Love’s work not only straddles the realms of textbook and novel, but he’s made a story infused with the one thing a writer from the east coast couldn't fabricate- real life experience.
The very last chapter of Nat Love’s autobiography is a profoundly personal final reflection on his entire life as a 54 year old writing his autobiography. As someone who lived a life that was so often on the edge of death, he had a good attitude towards the conclusion of his life as a cowboy. He fondly recalls his many adventures and the people he was (or wasn’t) glad to have crossed paths with. He remarks on the passing of time, and the differences between his life back on the ranches, and how much the world has changed since then. He talks about the passings of cowboys that would be memorialized forever in history, either for their heroism
or lack of such traits. It is this final that gives a glimpse into the most important preconception of cowboys- their morals and values. Love paints cowboys as “men of action”, whether those actions be entirely good or bad, he addresses their humanity and how a true cowboy will work his best and hardest, even if he might come off a bit unpolished to city goers. Even some of the worst folks that Love had known and met had been able to perform some of the most courageous and valiant acts. If I’d come out of reading this autobiography having only learned one lesson from Nat Love, it would be that cowboys, like anyone else, were undeniably human. It’s not that cowboys were not or could not have been like the figures who stand tall in fictional stories, but that they were people through and through, capable of anything that they put their minds to.
Lastly, this autobiography is illustrated, and features little drawings of different stories from his life, my personal favorite being the time where he walked his horse into a bar to order drinks
for himself and the horse, though the truth of the story is a little suspect (fig. 2). The book also features a few photographs of Nat Love himself. While the most famous picture of Nat Love, dressed in his full cowboy outfit is included in the book, the photo that is worthy of the most attention is the image of Nat Love standing in front of a train with his coworkers and old friends, both from his life as a cowboy and as a train porter (fig.3). Photos persist after the image is taken, much like the stories of cowboys historical and fictional alike. The photos of Nat Love and his friends encapsulate the history of cowboys in a single picture; hard working Americans who lived full lives of adventures great and small.
After reading Nat Love’s autobiography, I was eager to watch Jeymes Samuel’s The Harder They Fall to see how Nat Love was interpreted as a film hero, and how that may compare to the semi-historical westerns of the 20th century. Unfortunately, The Harder They Fall is not a biographical film about Nat Love,
despite there being some good source material available about his life. Despite this, the film still provided some insight to what the western film genre chooses to include or exclude fictional history into fictional narratives. Right from the start, the film is explicitly transparent about the way it presents the stories of people who were once very much alive and real. Some earlier westerns that were based in-part off of real historical figures had been less transparent about the folklore they’re contributing to.26 The Harder They Fall opens with a black screen white text reading “while the events of this story are fictional… These. People. Existed.”27 Using the likenesses of real people like Nat Love, Stagecoach Mary, and “Lawman” Bass Reeves (also the subject of a new show on Paramount+) generates a kind of excitement that can’t come from completely fictional subjects, and
26 “The Invention of the Western Film: A Cultural History of the Genre’s First Half-Century” 27 The Harder They Fall. Overbrook Entertainment, 2021.
the hint of “realness” might inspire viewers to do further research on the real people that inspired the film characters.
In terms of film conventions, The Harder They Fall falls well within the western movie formula. Many of the classic western themes and tropes appear, from quickdraw shoot-outs, train hijacking, bank robbery, and of course, a classic revenge plot. The feel and setting is just the same as any other western, with the vast plains and desert landscapes, as well as small towns and their characteristic saloons. But there are some parts of the genre’s form that Jeymes Samuel has flipped. First and foremost, the film is one of the few, if not the only, western style movies that features an all-Black main cast. A glaring issue with the commonly held image of a cowboy is that he is white. When there have been Black characters in westerns, they have had difficulty holding their own. In the early part of the 20th century there was a push to create westerns starring Black people. This movement was led by Herb Jefferies, a singer and performer in the 1930’s who starred as the
“bronze cowboy” in films, and later was featured in a TBS documentary talking about the unheard stories of the west.28
Despite Jeffries’ efforts, there were ultimately not many westerns featuring Black actors. Jeffries’ own contribution to the genre is also debated, as he advocated for the representation of Black people in films and played black characters, but was not Black himself.29 In the seventies, Black westerns did make a comeback, but not to a very large extent. Of the few Black westerns that were produced at this time, some may have done a great deal more harm than good. These films are often referred to as blaxploitation movies, which were part of a larger type of movies distinguished by their intense violence and a poor portrayal of Black people despite them being protagonists.30 It is also in this way that The Harder They Fall is an important step in reshaping black narratives
28 “The Cowboy Encyclopedia.”
29 These claims are conflicting as Jeffries himself apparently claimed to be Black, though other sources I consulted stated that he had Irish and Sicilian heritage.
30 “The Cowboy Encyclopedia.”
to be free of racism and stereotyping in a genre that is overwhelmingly dominated by white actors/characters. The Harder They Fall incorporates real history into its storytelling in the same way that Nat love incorporates rich storytelling into his autobiography. Both works cleverly combine fiction and history in an engaging way; and combining history with other engaging artforms are a great step in encouraging to seek out history that hasn’t yet been completely obscured.
With everything taken into account, it is impossible to deny the impact that cowboys, historical or otherwise, have made on the country. Real-life Cowboys took on a great deal of work on ranches and out on the great western expenses to keep live cattle safe while roaming, and made sure they got to their proper destinations untouched. They did a lot of dangerous work for less than acceptable pay, primarily for the opportunity it provided for freedom of all kinds. They demonstrated their worth not only in
their day-to-day workloads but also through successful strikes that highlighted the importance of what they did for the country.
Cowboys inspired journalists, writers, and city-goers with their incredibly unique work, thus securing themselves a permanent spot in American fiction. Their lives have been spun into tales larger than life, and their images have been projected countless times onto movie screens across the globe. Though our adventurous, romantic, or heroic cowboys of fiction are a classic, they do not accurately express the wide range of cowboys living during the “golden age”. Though heavily mythologized, the true history around cowboys is not yet lost. By re-consulting the lives and histories of real cowboys, and addressing some of the commonly overlooked aspects of western life we can increase the accessibility of cowboys for American audiences.
In a perfect and historically accurate film, all aspects of western life would be well explained and portrayed to prevent the formation of more historical misconceptions. Then again, these
perfect-world movies would be as fun as the westerns that draw their inspiration from tall tales and folklore. People like a good story, and creative liberties should be allowed in films that discuss historical topics. The important thing is that the choices to take certain creative liberties should be made clear. While the exaggeration of cowboy livelihood is responsible for keeping their memories alive, it can not be forgotten that these exaggerations can damage the real history that they’re attached to. If cowboys are going to stick around as a national icon, it’s crucial that cowboys of the past and present are consulted along with the articles and novels that have been written about them (yes, there are still cowboys!).
Furthermore, the American cowboy is only a fraction of the larger histories of cowboys that span across at least two centuries and many countries, and encompass a wide range of people.
Because I used Nat Love as a case study for this project, my project only focused on how black men have or haven’t been
represented in cowboy history and fiction. The range of identities that cowboys encompassed was wider than just race or ethnicity. The identities of cowboys intersected with many racial, gender, class, sexuality, and age categories, and there is so much more to learn about cowboys and the western world in that short period at the end of the 1800’s. This research project is just one small step to inspire conversation around the history of cowboys and understanding how history is remembered and represented in American culture. There's and abundance of available information about the lives of cowboys in past by historians, cultural/heritage organizations,31 and from real cowboys and their families. With the help of movies like The Harder They Fall, history can feel more accessible, engaging, relevant, and real, while confronting past stereotypes of who or what cowboys could be. Most importantly, people will feel more encouraged to seek out historical sources like
31 “The Cowboy Encyclopedia.”
Nat Love’s and prevent them from being exaggerated, understated, or most importantly, lost.
his privately published Autobiography, 1907.
Fig 1. Nat Love with Lariat and Saddle. Picture from
Fig 2. “I order a Drink for Myself and Horse”. Illustration from Nat Love’s Autobiography, 1907.
Fig 3. “With Wm. Blood, My Old Cowboy Friend, and Other Friends at the Close of My Railroad Career”. Picture from Nat Love’s Autobiography, 1907.
Bibliography
Blazing saddles. United States: Warner Bros., 1974.
Booth, Mary-Lorraine, and Charlotte Howell. Interview on Western Film. Personal, October 27, 2023.
Campbell, Joseph. “The Historical Development of Mythology.” Daedalus 88, no. 2 (1959): 232–54. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20026493.
Decker, Peter R. “Cowboys Need Not Apply.” The Massachusetts Review 23, no. 3 (1982): 515–21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25089333.
Fishwick, Marshall W. “The Cowboy: America’s Contribution to the World’s Mythology.” Western Folklore 11, no. 2 (1952): 77–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/1496835.
The Harder They Fall. United States: Overbrook Entertainment, 2021.
Lambert, Neal E. “Freedom and the American Cowboy.” Brigham Young University Studies 8, no. 1 (1967): 61–71. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43041744.
Lause, Mark A. The Great Cowboy Strike: Bullets, Ballots & Class conflicts in the American West. London: Verso, 2017.
Love, Nat. “The Life and Adventures of Nat Love Better Known in the Cattle Country as ‘Deadwood Dick’ by Himself; a True History of Slavery Days, Life on the Great Cattle Ranges and on the Plains of the ‘Wild and Woolly’ West, Based on Facts, and Personal Experiences of the Author: Electronic Edition.” Nat Love, 1854-1921. life and adventures of nat love, better known in the cattle country as “Deadwood Dick,” by himself; a true history of slavery days, life on the Great Cattle Ranges and on the plains of the “Wild and Woolly” west, based on facts, and personal experiences of the author. Accessed March 4, 2024. https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/natlove/natlove.html.
Maland, Chuck. Review of The Invention of the Western Film: A Cultural History of the Genre’s First Half-Century, by Scott Simmon. Film Quarterly 58, no. 1 (2004): 68–70. https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2004.58.1.68.
Mohammed, Farah. “The Downfall of the American CowboyJstor Daily.” Jstor Daily, July 10, 2019. https://daily.jstor.org/the-downfall-of-the-americancowboy/.
Moore, Jacqueline M. “‘Them’s Fighting Words’: Violence, Masculinity, and the Texas Cowboy in the Late Nineteenth Century.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 13, no. 1 (2014): 28–55. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43903497.
Slatta, Richard W. “Cowboys in Life and Legend.” Cowboys in Life and Legend for NCCAT Seminar, June 2005. https://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/cowboys/CBintro.htm. Reprinted in part from "The Cowboy Encyclopedia".
Slatta, Richard W. The cowboy encyclopedia. New York, New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc Norton, 1996.
Sturgis, Robert. “The Real Cowboy.” Prairie Schooner 6, no. 1 (1932): 30–38. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40622281.