The cow-boy (of the English cow , cow and servant boy , boy) is a farm hand dealing with the bovine Bétail in the West of the the United States. This profession derives from that of vaquero , in vogue with the New Mexico at the 16th century and 17th century, but is distinguished from this simple work of farm laborer. Indeed, at the 19th century the breedings of the West fed the worldwide, the cow-boy thus had the role of leading the animals through the south of the Grandes Plains, in the absence of Railroads. This Transhumance, which ceased in the neighborhoods of 1890, gave of the cow-boy an oneiric image of free man , recluse, and Nomade, in certain points far away from reality. At the end of the 19th century and the 20th century, of very many Romance and Film S took for hero of the courageous cow-boys, riding highly skilled and marksmen loan to declad vis-a-vis the Indian to save the widow and the orphan. Thus the cow-boy transformed himself into a mythical character, incarnating the American values, and joining in the middle of the identity of the country the Uncle Sam.
Origins of the trade of cow-boy
The Spanish time (16th century/1821)
At the 16th century, the Spanish Conquistador S explore the areas located at the north of the News-Spain and colonize them as from the 17th century. During forwardings of exploration of American South-west called “New Mexico then”, in particular during the forwarding of Francisco de Coronado in 1540, from the Bovin S escape and turn over to the wild life. Spanish horses also turn over to freedom: they are the mustang S. When the Spaniards settle with the New Mexico, with the Texas then in California, they introduce the breeding animals up to now unknown of the Amerindian (Mouton S, Bœuf S, horses). The missions franciscain be Spanish practice a extensive breeding, with the assistance of the Amerindians.
The great landowners put the herds of bovines under the monitoring of vaqueros , of the farm laborers ridden on horses. They gather the animals during the rodear and carry a costume adapted to their activity: a Sombrero to protect them from the sun, a Bandana not to breathe dust, leggings and spur S to ride a horse and a Lasso in order to capture the animals.
The Mexican period (1821 - 1848)
With the end of the Spanish domination and the departure of the owners of the ranchos , the herds found themselves in a wild state: a livestock available thus exists then in the West. In 1820, when the first colonists arrive, the area of current Texas counts nearly 3,5 million animals available, the longhorns, especially located at the South where the Pâturage S are many and sometimes permanent.
In 1832, the Mexico orders the dissolution of the missions and the division of their grounds, which more often go to the colonists than to the Amerindian S. the sale of these vast territories, called ranchos , which were hitherto uninhabited, interests of new colonists. These possessions are especially used for the cattle breeding by the rancheros , their leaders, who are helped by the Amerindian converts of the missions. An elite is formed among these rancheros and quickly takes importance within the Mexican province.
Americans try first once to benefit from these animals, but for that one needs men able to manage the cattle: if they are still called the vaqueros , the English name “cow-boy”, appeared on the Atlantic coast of the country at the end of the 18th century, is diffused little by little in North America. They start to carry out the animals bound for the centers of consumption of the Missouri or the New-Orleans. With the independence of Texas in 1836, the “ rancheros ” become “ Ranch S ”; it is necessary to find outlets with this meat: one opens new tracks, which lead the animals to the port of the New-Orleans in Louisiana. However, the herds transmit a very serious and contagious disease, the Texas Fever (“Fever of Texas”) which contaminates in 1852 - 1853 the cattle of the farmers. Consequently, the latter make very to be opposed to the passage herds on their grounds, often rifle with the hand.
The cow-boy and the conquest of the West (1848-1890)
See also: Conquest of the West, Western American
The period which passes of the Mexican demolished with the closing of the Border mark the apogee of the lifestyle of the cow-boys. At the time of the Gold rush, of many men arrive to California then in all the American West. This surge causes an increase in the demand for meat, but after an attempt successful to lead the animals to Denver, the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) carries the breeding in the storm.
Whereas the cow-boys texans, then the rancheros are mobilized, terrible the Sècheresse of 1862 - 1863 ten-per-cent tax the herds delivered to themselves. At the beginning, the southern army is nourished of this cattle, but the blockade of the the Mississippi to the autumn 1863 cut the last outlet of the stockbreeders who must sell off their animals in Mexico against the supply. At the end of the war, Texas is ruined, but well quickly the herd reconstitutes itself: in 1865 - 1866, 5 million animals are again available.
To the beginning of the Years 1860, the increasing Immigration and the Urbanisation of the United States lead to the development of the market of the bovine meat, especially on the east coast. Moreover, the dietary habits change, and the ox consumption replaces little by little that of pig, considered as a dish of the poor. The doctors of the time encourage the population to eat ox. Lastly, it is necessary to be able to nourish the soldiers and the Amerindians of the West. The cattle of the East is not enough any more to supply the great centers where the meat could find outlets, and large the Abattoir S of the East (Cincinnati, Chicago) needs raw materials. However Texas can answer this request: only, the routing of the animals remains problematic. Attempts were carried out in the Fifties towards Chicago, Saint Louis and even New York, but the results were disappointing. In the case of the one of them, towards California, the animals arrived besides never at destination.
A merchant of cattle of the Illinois of the name of Joseph Mc Coy, realizes and seeks there a terminal point between the stockbreeders and the purchasers whom one can join without too many dangers: he chooses Abilene in the Kansas, terminus railway of the Kansas Pacific Railroad . He signs a contract with the company, then he then develops around the city all the infrastructures necessary for the sale and the loading of the animals on train which will lead them towards the East: in 1867, the first coaches charged with oxen leave for Chicago. However, it remains to bring the animals of their point of origin to this station, that is to say a course of almost 1000 kilometers towards North: it is there the beginning of the adventure which made famous the cow-boys, great transhumance.
Manpower and social status
The legend often tends to forget certain features however major of reality: so in the imaginary collective, the cow-boy is the American “pure stock”, WASP perfect, free man and right, the truth is often quite different.
One forgot much that behind freedom that one always inevitably associates to the cow-boy, this one has a statute not very enviable subordinate, with incomes of most ridiculous (1 $ per day). The arrival of the Capitalisme in the West brought to a regrouping of the grounds which belong more and more to great landowners: to put itself at their service is then one of the rare trades suggested in the area and the owners can find labor even with such a weak wages. The young people are fascinated by the life of their groins; this attraction is fed by the more or less proven accounts of the adventures of the cow-boys. In fact, the cow-boys set up a group scorned and exploited by the owners of ranches. Little paid and without possibility of credit, they can only seldom become owners in their turn and lives in a certain precariousness apart from the periods of Transhumance.
All that contributes to a low attractivity of the trade, and all the White do not agree to take such risks for an employment which is summarized with being a simple farm laborer with the dangerous activities. Then, and contrary to all the generally accepted ideas hawked by the myth, they are very often Blacks (1/3 of manpower) released of the Esclavage, Mexicans or Métis who compose a good part of the 35 000 with 40 000 cow-boys who borrow the track of the cattle ( Cattle Trail ) between 1865 and 1890.
At all events, there were few cow-boys: never more 40 000 for a population of 60 million Americans, which makes all the more astonishing the immense notoriety acquired by this social group finally very minority.
Equipment and techniques
One knows the typical equipment of the cow-boy, but there still this one did not invent anything: the techniques used show an indisputable filiation with the practices of the Mexican ranchos, which was largely forgotten by the legend, preferring to make of the cow-boy a man “pure American”. If the vaqueros were nothing more than Sédentaire S with the service of the animals to nourish them and look after them, they gave to the American ranch techniques and tools which were taken again and adapted for transhumance. The vaqueros in particular set up the marking of the animals at red iron.
They were to capture the wild cattle, and they invented for that slip knot a cord carried at the end of a pole, the “lazo”, which becomes later the Lasso that one knows. Length from 9 to 18 meters, it is made of cord or of Cuir and its handling requires a good experiment: on a horse with the gallop, it is necessary to make some turn the loop to throw it on the neck of the animal, then to roll up the other end around the pommel of the saddle.
On the level of the equipment one finds essential the wide Chapeau who is a direct heir to the Mexican Sombrero. The Stetson is one of the most appreciated models, its indeformable felt and its broad edges protecting well from the sun or the rain. It can even act of feeding trough or Cravache. The scarf (Bandana) to protect itself from dust as the spur S to direct the horse are also borrowed from the vaqueros . With that are added the boots and there of the wholesale leggings leather, will chaparreras them still of Mexican origin. The panoply is supplemented of solid pants, a cover and one waxed, sometimes of a Revolver lent by the employer (very few cow-boys have the means of treating to a personal weapon). But especially, the principal tool of the cow-boy, it is his horse. An old saying of the West doesn't he say that a man with foot is all except a man? It is on its mounting that one catches the animals to mark them and that one directs them in the meadow . He almost always belongs to the owner because with nearly 300 $ the unit, a cow-boy cannot treat to such a luxury. Another very important element, the saddle often represents the only richness of the cow-boy who saved months lasting to be able to choose it carefully: it spends most clearly its time above.
Daily life of the cow-boy
We know the life of the cow-boys by various sources and testimonys: that of Charles Siringo, has Texas Cow-boy, gold fifteen Years one the Hurridane Deck off has Spanish Poney published in 1885.
Transhumance
Before leaving: to gather the herd
The drive lasts between five and thirteen weeks according to the borrowed road and the unforeseen ones: of San Antonio in Abilene, it took on average 90 days, of Texas to the Wyoming nearly six months.
Before taking along the animals towards their last destination, they are gathered, sorted then marked and the Veau X castrated in spring. The not marked animals are called “mavericks”. The cow-boy then uses his lasso to catch the animals according to the techniques inherited the vaqueros . This stage, the round-up , lasts several weeks, because it is necessary to gather several thousands of animals on a very wide territory (up to 4000 to 5000 miles square
The voyage
Once the round-up finished, it is the departure. It often takes a few days so that the animals start, time that they are accustomed to their leaders. It will be necessary to advance a moving and unforeseeable mass made up of approximately 3 000 animals, which stretches themselves on kilometers of length and often a few hundred meters broad, the whole not too quickly not to tire them, but not too slowly in order to avoid their dispersion either. The distance covered varies from 20 to 40 kilometers per day. The way is guided by the water points where one can stop to make feed the herd. There exist two principal tracks: the Old Chisholm Trail (“road of the rivers”) and the Western Trail , more in the west, which passes by Dodge City.The team consists of ten cow-boys directed by a chief, the boss (“chief of track”). This last is responsible for the herd, and it must contain the overflows of mood of its men that the painfulness and the monotony of work make very often aggressive. He knows the track, the points of water and the passages to Gué. To that are added the cook and the Indian guide who open the road with a little in advance.
The track does not miss dangers, but the greatest risks are not always those which one expects. The Indian risk exploited so much by the cinema exists, but it is by far less frequent and less serious than the problems involved in the herd itself. Often, the gift of an animal as Péage for the crossing of a reserve alleviates many quarrels.
The robbers of cattle or the farmers irascible pose sometimes problem, but in fact, the great danger which fears the cow-boy occurs when the night fall. Consequently, an attention of every moment becomes necessary in order to avoid a drama. Indeed, the least rattling, the least howl of Coyote or a Orage (very violent one in the Large Plains) can make fear with the herd: it is then the great fear of the cow-boys, the herd sinks right in front of him: it is the stampede . It is better then not to be on its way, and “to pass from one hell to the other” according to the expression of time. One then tries to calm the herd by a vast circular motion. At the time of a storm close to Dodge City, a trail boss explains why it took one week to find the animals. Another, E.C. Abbott, tells that in 1882, “there was a storm which killed fourteen heads of cattle, six or seven horses and two men”. Sometimes, it is the Incendie of the meadow which can be transformed into drama, or the Foudre which strikes the riders their mounting. The crossing of the rivers or the rivers also takes the form of a challenge: sometimes, it is necessary nearly three days before the herd does not want to engage there, when it does not make half-turn spontaneously. In the major rivers, the cow-boys swim in front of their horses, follow-ups of the herd, but one moment of inattention can do everything to rock: many of animals but also those of the men were the drownings who accompanied them. Sometimes, contrary, water misses cruelly. If one adds to that the puncture mortal of the hydrophobic sconse or the attacks of the wolf S, one realizes without difficulty that the largest enemy of the cow-boy, it is far from being the Indian: it is nature.
Beyond all these adventures which make of this trade a real adventure, there is however the routine, the days to follow the herd in dust, or under torrential rains, with for only horizon the meadow as far as the eye can see. During the day, two “pointers”, often the cow-boys most tested, carry out the herd and find the way: they should avoid the other herds, the cities and any thing which could harm the good projection of the animals. On the sides, the flank-guards and with the back the drag-riders are charged to bring back the stray ones, places considered as rather degrading. The evening, one looks after the horses, one cuts wood then one takes his turn of duty before taking a few hours of sleep. And the following day arrives one day different but however so similar to the preceding one. The distractions are non-existent: indeed, the herd takes care to avoid the urban centres and the alcohol is prohibited. Sometimes, in the event of alarm, the cow-boys can remain in saddle of the days lasting: thus Charles Goodnight quotes his own example, where it had to remain with horse three days without stopping to preserve the safety of the herd.
The chuck coach takes along the provisions: the road is long and on the 1000 km, it comprises only one grocer. One eats Cookie S, bacon, Café, Fruit S dried, with sometimes improving the ordinary one of the Gibier or an ox of the herd which one had to cut down. With a so monotonous food, the cook is not very well placed in the heart of the cow-boys who in their accounts give him a not very enviable place. This image remained until in the Western S where he is often the prototype of the “poor guy”.
The arrival downtown
Lastly, it is the arrival downtown, in these “ cow-towns ” (or “ cattle towns ”) with the so bad reputation that are Abilene, Dodge City, Ellsworth or Newton. These cities were used as a basis for the decorations of the westerns Hollywood iens of the beginning of the 20th century. For the inhabitants, the arrival of the herds led by the cow-boys is at the same time an aubaine and a source of problems. The cow-boys have bad reputation, but the latter spend the near total of their wages in the local stores, which makes live part of the local population. Lastly, these localities base their economic prosperity on the trade of the herds.Indeed, once their empochés pledges, the cow-boy benefit from the facilities offered on the spot: hot baths, Barber, bootmaker, Hatter and Tailor. The Saloon makes it possible to put a term at the weeks of forced abstinence, and the drinking bouts often degenerate into brawl. The dance halls, gaming rooms, or the “houses of girls” are also very popular near the new arrivals.
These cities have very bad reputation: a journalist of passage to Kansas City in 1870 - 1880 reports that “after fallen the night, the civilized ground knows few spectacles of as unslung and shameless vice as a dance hall in the cities of the border” . This one is partly justified: the éméchés men cause frequent brawls but the Homicide S remain finally rather rare. In Dodge City, between 1867 and 1890, one counts 55 homicides, of which a score by the police force itself. In all the towns of cattle, the port of the firearms is in theory prohibited. Moreover, the districts of the play and Prostitution are clearly separated from the districts where live the “honest Protesting S”. The mining cities of the West are finally much more violent than the cities of the cattle.
After a few days spent in these “Sodome S of the West”, the cow-boy generally finds himself without money: he must find work while waiting for next transhumance. Most of the time, it is made engage by an owner of ranch which sponges its debts thanks to an advance on the next wages.
Out-season
Some decide to give up this very difficult life and join the groups of outlaw, but finally the cow-boys were not more numerous to reconvert themselves into the Bandit ism than of other groups of population. Only one thing is sure: almost none could earn money enough to be put on its account: to the thin wages the precariousness of this employment is added which makes that any credit is refused.
Some do not find employment between November and March, and they must then get busy with odd jobs: to kill the wolves which grind to disencumber the stockbreeders and to sell their skins, to repair the fences, to milk the cows of them, to manufacture Suif starting from the ox grease…
For those which find work, recruitment takes place in spring or the autumn. In majority, they must then dedicate the majority of their time to the care of the cattle, namely to find water points, to supervise it or shelter it in the event of weather hard blow. Others deal with the tasks with the ranch, and must draw up the horses, maintain the buildings or cut wood. The employees pile up in the bunkhouse , where hygiene and the intimacy are quasi-non-existent. The material and clothing of the occupants pile up in the single part. To occupy itself, the cow-boys play charts, listen to stories and songs, play of the Banjo or the Harmonica. Sometimes when one of them is well-read man it makes a collective reading of the cheap novels while waiting for next the drive . One is far from the vibrating adventures told in the newspapers of the East.
End of great transhumances
In 1870, the US government opens grounds with new emigrants in Texas, the New Mexico, in the Arizona and the Oklahoma. The breeding in open-arranges moves then towards North, in the Wyoming, the Eastern Dakota and the Montana. However, the cohabitation with the newcomers is difficult, even impossible, which causes wars of the cattle ( cattle wars ). The farmers gather in Syndicat S as of 1874 and earlier enclose their exploitations with barbed Wire invented one year. In spite of the recruiting of henchmen to cut these fences, the barbed wires do not cease gaining ground. Indeed, it is an inexpensive means to prevent the herds from passing; its production passes from 5 tons in 1874 to 40 000 tons in 1880.The Railroad was the second great cause of the decline of great transhumances. The railway lines lengthened, and they now directly connect the Midwest to Texas. Consequently, no need for the herd to traverse 1000 km to join the station: it is now the train which comes to him. The train is also means of transport which bring many colonists who invade the meadow and do not see very an good eye these great displacements… One shows also the diffusion of the ovine breeding to degrade the grounds, at the end of the XIXe century. The painter Frederic Remington who abundantly painted the scenes of the West summarized that well: according to him, “the arrival of the barbed wire and railroad killed the cow-boy”.
The climatic and social factors also cause a change of the trade. The winter 1886 - 1887 is very hard: the livestock is decimated (1 000 000 of animals perish), scene immortalized in the table of Charles Russel, young cow-boy who was pilot, the last of the 5000 . Moreover, in 1882, 1883 and 1884 of the Grève S of cow-boys take place in order to claim higher wages.
All this contributes to a fall of profitability, even with the uselessness of such a system. It is necessary for him to adapt: it is the end of the open-arranges . The animals are now neat in a space certainly always immense, but now delimited. Into the years 1890, transhumance falls in disuse, making useless the “riders of the plain”, in any case in this form. Those are sédentarisent, and become again of simple stable boys reduced to the maintenance of the herd, following the example vaqueros , their predecessors. It is also necessary to cultivate the ground to obtain Fourrage: the proud rider becomes peasant. The track is finished and nostalgia starts.
The emergence of the myth of the cow-boy
See also: List of famous cow-boys
The invention of the press to vapor allows the publication of fast pullings, and in particular the birth of the dimes novels (that one could translate by “novels of quat' under”) where one finds “serials” which play a great part in the mythification of the cow-boy.
At the end of the 19th century, the American public wearies adventures of typically European cape and sword. In 1860, Ned Buntline (of its true name Edward Judson) renews the kind. Whereas the civil war makes rage, it furrows the west and meets William F. Cody, a young conceited scout “like a pretty woman”. In the New York Weekly , it starts to tell the adventures of that which one calls from now on Buffalo Bill by incorporating in it the most incredible stories which circulate in the saloons of the West and while making more them “crusty”. The public is allured and tears off this sheet, and everyone seeks to copy it. The kind gives rise to a heap of documents of this type, with prolific authors such as Prentiss Ingraham or Edward L. Wheeler.
The Americans then find in the cow-boy an national identity: the cow-boy symbolizes the skilful, courageous, undertaking and individualistic man. He represents in that the values founders of the United States, but especially he is free in a meadow which extends as far as the eye can see, vision of an unceasingly pushed back border and an unlimited space which does not exist any more. The popularity of the cow-boy, mirror of the American collective ambition increases, and the idea then occurs to put it in scene. First of all through the Rodeo S, these judicious contests of skill in horse to reproduce the round-up . They appear about 1880 and several cities dispute paternity of it. These events are pretexts for the cow-boy to make the demonstration of its capacity as well as possible use its mounting while catching using the lasso of bouvillons released in a Arène. At the end of the 19th century, the rodeo spectacle becomes very popular, which was not contradicted until today.
In 1872, Buntline launches the cow-boy on the boards thanks to a play, the Scouts off the Prairie with in the role of Texas Jack a young person Virginia N, John Omahundro. Success is immediate, initially in Chicago then in all the big cities. It is the first “star” cow-boy, who will precede some by many others…
In 1873, Buffalo Bill feels the opportunity which it could have while benefitting from its growing popularity: it launches the Wild West Show in 1883. During three hours, under a capital of circus, the spectators attend all the scenes which symbolize the West: the attack of the convoy of pioneers, of a Diligence, the intervention of the cavalry and the final massacre of the Indians. According to testimonys of the time, it was very impressive without having the dangers of a true visit in the West.
In 1886 in New York, the show attracts a million spectators. In 1893, 50 shows occur through the United States and in 1888-1889 it is exported with a European round. Moreover, Buffalo Bill contributes to the notoriety of its spectacle by recruiting true alive legends such Annie Oakley (which could said one to cut a chart to be played into two of a ball) and the chief Indien Sitting Bull.
The phenomenon still develops with the publication of the stories of William A. Rogers in the Harper' S Weekly , the Frank Leslie' S and the Police Gazette . In 1885, Charlie Siringo, former cow-boy, publishes his memories, then Owen Wister leaves its novel The Virginian in 1902, work which is sold with 50.000 specimens in two months, signs popularity of the kind.
Paintings of artists like Charles Russell or Frederic Remington cut also a nice success, by their will to seek a national inspiration, to break with the European topics.
Lastly, they are the stammerings of the cinema with as of 1903 the first Western: The Great Train Robbery . These first films worry little about historical reality, but the natural decorations of Arizona give a relief ever reached to the adventures of the cow-boys. The first silent films having arrived whereas great transhumances had just disappeared, they are primarily the reflection of an imaginary collective.
Many westerns were turned since (nearly 1700) with unequal successes, but some remained famous, such as Rio Bravo (1959) or the Captive one of the desert (1956), however close to a half century later!
In the film the Secrecy of Brokeback Mountain (2005), Ang Lee films the passion of two cow-boys in the mountains of the Wyoming and causes the controversy.
The cow-boy today
The “traditional” cow-boy remains indissociable imagery of the Conquête of the West: it is undoubtedly for that which the image which one can have is more the product of an imaginary collective than the mirror of reality. Indeed, to the adventurous cow-boy, courageous, to defender of the weak and the oppressed, one can oppose the routine life and nevertheless risky of a simple boy cowherd to the service of great landowners. If the adventure were not non-existent, it was largely exaggerated in the multiple accounts of the life of these characters. Thanks to a massive mediatization (development of the cinema, great pullings, etc) and especially with the values which it represents, it could become the symbol which one knows today.
Nowadays still, the cow-boy fascine, and of many Americans continue to be identified with these characters, with same initially their leaders (George W Bush in his ranch, or Ronald Reagan and his sentence of the August 12th 1987 “I always said that there was nothing better for a man to be sitted on a horse. ”). It is to say to which point the character was based the American identity.
Of course, there exists always a personnel to keep the herds in the ranches, which preserves the horse, clothing and unquestionable additional resulting from the original cow-boy. However, the current cow-boys are sedentary employees who in common have finally only few things with the men who surveyed the track on thousands of kilometers. It should be noted that one also calls cowboys the participants of the rodeos, which are sometimes of true professional sportsmen.
See too
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