Freedom is a Horse

Every year, Black folks throughout the USA observe June 19—the day in 1865 when hundreds of previously enslaved folks in Galveston, Texas, discovered of the Emancipation Proclamation. And annually on Juneteenth, Black cowboys all through Texas saddle up for the rodeo. In locations like Longview and Dallas, Henderson and Forth Price, Black equestrians show their prowess as bareback riders, barrel racers, and steer wrestlers. Typically accompanied by meals and music, these occasions, echo the celebratory environment discovered in lots of Black communities on the vacation. They’re additionally a reminder that horses are intimately tied to the histories of Black freedom and survival on the coronary heart of Juneteenth.

Many states, together with my very own, have much less acknowledged emancipation dates, whose histories present vital localized context in regards to the Reconstruction period. However Juneteenth—though belonging at the beginning to Black Texans—has unfold to Black communities all through the USA since its inception, turning into a nationwide day for historic reflection and summertime celebration. When it turned a federal vacation in 2021—a improvement seen by many Black folks as solely symbolic and failing to deal with the fabric calls for of Black communities–Juneteenth entered the bigger public creativeness, turning into a part of mainstream narratives about racial progress. Within the face of this newfound visibility, it’s vital to keep in mind that Juneteenth isn’t only a easy celebration of freedom, but additionally a lesson that Black liberation is each hard-won and incomplete. This has been true from the beginning—the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed into regulation over two years earlier than enslaved folks in Galveston have been advised about it. As a result of it stays true, it’s crucially vital to have interaction with Juneteenth past pithy statements about alternative and progress, and to see the fullness of what it’s: a sobering and complicated story about Black Southern survival and the white supremacist state that seeks to disclaim Black freedom.

In 1860, practically 200,000 slaves lived in Texas, usually tending horses belonging to white cattle ranchers, farmers, and speculators. All through the plantation period, enslaved Black folks generally labored as steady fingers, horse trainers, jockeys, and grooms. Horses have been used as colonial symbols of wealth and energy, in addition to for leisure. To keep up their horses, white colonists relied on generations of Black labor and equine data.

A Experience for Liberty – The Fugitive Slaves by Eastman Johnson, 1862.

However though Black slaves have been exploited for his or her experience with horses, that ability set additionally supplied alternatives for resistance. Numerous Nineteenth-century notices for escaped slaves describe them fleeing plantations on stolen horses. In former slave Lewis Clarke’s memoir, he writes, “I saddled my pony … put my garments right into a pair of saddlebags … and thus geared up set sail for the North Star.” For many who had entry to horses, using helped them evade seize, supplied velocity and mobility that might not be achieved on foot. A folks remodeled into commodity, using with their fellow beasts of burden on the underside of freedom.

After emancipation, former slaves discovered work as cowhands, constructing the horse and ranch tradition that turned synonymous with the American West. Whereas romantic depictions of Wild West Black cowboys abound, the story is in fact extra difficult—one wherein the boundaries of company, imperial conscription, and financial want are regularly blurred. Black cowboys have been Buffalo Troopers deployed by the U.S. Military to defend white settlements and advance the reason for Manifest Future. Black cowboys have been outlaws who constructed their reputations and lives on outrunning the respectable establishments of the frontier nation. Black cowboys have been underpaid laborers driving cattle on dusty trails throughout indigenous land. Black cowboys have been ladies, sharpshooters who opened taverns and drove stagecoaches over the mountains. And Black cowboys have been visionaries utilizing their data to construct self-determined Black cities. In Boley, Oklahoma—an all-Black city based by former slaves in 1905—residents organized an annual rodeo that’s nonetheless in operation as we speak. In its earliest days, the Boley Rodeo showcased the ability of the city’s riders whereas additionally serving as an commercial for a spot created by desires of Black freedom.

Using horses is a observe of being on the transfer, embodying an agility that challenges border logic—forbidden mobility, fugitive consciousness. It’s a observe and a politic that has echoed all through the diaspora, from 18th-century Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture’s famend horsemanship to public protests in opposition to Black loss of life throughout the U.S. to the on a regular basis gatherings of riders in cities like L.A. and Philly.

The Nationwide Western Inventory Present’s Annual MLK, Jr. rodeo, 2012.

To speak about horses and Juneteenth is to adamantly keep in mind and take instruction from the survival methods Black horse riders have been adopting and creating for hundreds of years throughout America. It’s to acknowledge the imaginative methods Black folks have constructed areas for the preservation of land-based data, athletic expertise, ancestral traditions, and political engagement. By studying in regards to the historical past of horse tradition and its significance to Black resistance, we will higher honor the advanced legacies and meanings of today.