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Cattle Drive Heroes and Trail Bosses

Pete Staples: A Formerly Enslaved Texan on the First Cattle Drives to Kansas

Few details survive on Staples himself, but his name marks the Black cowboys who worked the first drives north from Texas.

Who was Pete Staples?

Pete Staples is a name that appears in the history of Black cowboys, usually in one sentence. BlackPast's survey of Black cowboys lists him among the notable post-Civil War Black cowboys and describes him as a former Texas slave who joined the first cattle drives to Kansas.

That sentence is the documented core of this profile. The sources reviewed here do not give his birth or death dates, family, employers or ranches, and this page does not guess. What they do offer is a clear picture of the trade he worked in.

Enslaved cowboys in antebellum Texas

BlackPast reports that the cattle industry, and the enslaved Africans who worked it, migrated across the South and reached Texas by the 1850s. With one third of the state's population enslaved, African Americans were the majority of cowboys in Texas in the early 1850s. Enslaved cowboys caught and tended wild cattle in the Gulf Coast brush country, often working with vaqueros who had come north from Mexico.

Even before the war, Black cowboys trailed herds south to Mexico and east to New Orleans, which BlackPast describes as anticipating the post-war drives to Kansas. A Texan who had been enslaved and worked cattle was therefore starting from skills he already had.

The first drives to Kansas

A second BlackPast article explains that post-war drives from Texas to railroad depots in Missouri, Kansas and Colorado were a necessary part of the economy, because beef demand was high in the growing cities and the cattle were concentrated in Texas.

One of the first major drives came in 1868, when trail boss William G. Butler took a herd from South Texas to Abilene, Kansas, with a crew of fourteen that included two African American drovers, Levi and William Perryman. Crews varied. In 1874 R. F. Galbreath led a crew of four whites and three Black men to Kansas, and Jim Ellison took an all-Black crew up the trail the same year.

Why It Mattered

Staples's value to this site is as a marker. He stands for hundreds of workers whose names were seldom recorded, but who did much of the actual driving, roping and herd care.

The University of Texas estimates that of about 35,000 cowboys on Texas ranches and trails, between five and nine thousand were Black. They filled every job except trail boss, though some drives had all-Black crews led by a white boss.

  • Black drovers brought skills learned in slavery and carried them into paid work after 1865.
  • On many drives Black and white hands faced the same dangers and received equal pay.
  • Kansas had a reputation for racial toleration, and hotel, saloon and card-table mixing is documented in Dodge City.
  • Tension was real: in 1878 a drover named Poll Allen directed Black cowboys to eat and sleep apart from the crew.
  • Black cowboys remained present in smaller numbers: by 1890 Texas had 473, about 3 percent of its cowboys.

Other documented Black trail drivers

Staples is listed alongside Bose Ikard, who worked the Goodnight-Loving Trail from Texas to Denver, and Jim Perry, who worked on the 3 million-acre XIT Ranch. BlackPast also names Daniel Webster 80 John Wallace as Texas's most successful Black rancher, and Al Jones, a Black Texan who bossed a 2,000-steer herd in 1885.

Readers who want the fullest account can turn to Sara R. Massey's edited book Black Cowboys of Texas (Texas A&M University Press, 2000), listed on a University of Texas page on Texas Black cowboys. Its chapters include a trail driver on the Chisholm Trail, Ben Kinchlow.

What we still do not know

A fair profile has to say what is missing. Without verified dates, a hometown or a trail boss's name, we cannot place Staples on a specific herd or year. The published phrase, first cattle drives to Kansas, points to the late 1860s, but the sources reviewed do not say.

If better records surface, such as pension files, census entries, newspaper mentions or family papers, they would let historians fill in a real biography. In the meantime, browse the ranching pages at farm.FM or read a farm.FM story about Black cowboys.

Timeline

  1. 1850sEnslaved Black cowboys are a majority of Texas cowboys, per BlackPast
  2. Late 1860sStaples, a former slave, joins the first cattle drives to Kansas
  3. 1868William Butler's Abilene drive includes two Black drovers
  4. 1874Galbreath and Ellison drives include Black crews
  5. 1878Poll Allen drive shows racial tension on the trail
  6. 1885Al Jones bosses a 2,000-steer herd for Lytle and Stevens
  7. 1890Texas counts 473 Black cowboys, about 3 percent of the total

Frequently asked questions

Who was Pete Staples?

BlackPast describes Pete Staples as a former Texas slave who joined the first cattle drives to Kansas after the Civil War. Few other details appear in the sources reviewed.

How many cowboys on Texas trails were Black?

A University of Texas page estimates that between five and nine thousand of about 35,000 cowboys on Texas ranches and trails were Black, doing every job but trail boss.

Were Black cowboys paid equally on trail drives?

BlackPast reports that Black and white men on trail drives faced common dangers and received equal pay, though racial tension also arose on some drives.

Which other Black cowboys are well documented?

Bose Ikard of the Goodnight-Loving Trail, Jim Perry of the XIT Ranch and rancher Daniel Webster 80 John Wallace are named alongside Staples by BlackPast.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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