A remarkable and dangerous journey. I think it ties in somewhat to the theme of this thread.
I'm sure it does, thanks for the reference. I expect one could spend years researching all these accounts. The thing is about these many and diverse stories of the West... I'd guess they're all true, for the most part, the West being a big and diverse place, with the passage of time being an added dimension. Fer example, the one part of Northern Mexico Olmstead travelled in 1857 might have been a different place in 1837, things changing as rapidly as they were during those years.
Still waiting on that "Savage Frontier" episode to arrive. In thhe meantime, another group of Texans at that time, about one third of the population actually, also ain't much talked about; Blacks, slaves for the most part.
Pertinent to this thread, might be the majority of Black folks on the Frontier fringe, or at least a significant proportion, were runaway slaves attempting against all odds to make it to Mexico and freedom. Surely there must be some epic and heroic stories of flight here, 'cept few cared to record 'em.
Noah Smithwick gives one of the better accounts of a single episode of the same. Now Smithwick was a remarkable guy, and actually partnere3d for a while whith a Yankee who had impregnated a slave and then taken the remarkable step of purchasing her so that his children would be free.
http://www.lsjunction.com/olbooks/smithwic/otd17.htm Webber having become entangled in a low amour, the result of which was an offspring, which, though his own flesh and blood, was the property of another, without whose consent he could not provide for nor protect it, he faced the consequences like a man. Too conscientious to abandon his yellow offspring and its sable mother to a life of slavery, he purchased them from their owner, who, cognizant of the situation, took advantage of it to drive a sharp bargain.
Building himself a fort in the then unsettled prairie, Webber took his family home and acknowledged them before the world. There were others I wot of that were not so brave.
The Webber family of course could not mingle with the white people, and, owing to the strong prejudice against free negroes, they were not allowed to mix with the slaves, even had they so desired: so they were constrained to keep to themselves. Still there wasn't a white woman in the vicinity but knew and liked Puss, as Webber's dusky helpmeet was called, and in truth they had cause to like her, for, if there was need of help, Puss was ever ready to render assistance, without money and without price, as we old timers know.
Webber's house was always open to any one who close to avail himself of its hospitality, and no human being ever went away from its doors hungry if the family knew it. The destitute and afflicted many times found an asylum there. One notable instance was that of a poor orphan girl who had gone astray and had been turned out of doors by her kindred. Having nowhere to lay her head, she sought refuge with the Webbers. Too true a woman to turn the despairing sinner away, Puss took her in, comforting and caring for her in her time of sorest trial.
Beneath that sable bosom beat as true a heart as ever warmed a human body. At another time they took in a poor friendless fellow who was crippled up with rheumatism and kept him for years. By such generous acts as these, joined to the good sense they displayed in conforming their outward lives to the hard lines which the peculiar situation imposed on them, Webber and his wife merited and enjoyed the good will, and, to a certain extent the respect, of the early settlers.
...and here's Smthwick's outrage at and contempt for the inevitable fate of the Webber family.
After the Indians had been driven back, so that there was comparative safety on Webber's prairie, a new lot of people came - "the better sort," as Colonel Knight styled them - and they at once set to work to drive Webber out. His children could not attend school, so he hired an Englishman to come to his house and teach them, upon which his persecutors raised a hue and cry about the effect it would have on the slave negroes, and even went so far as to threaten to mob the tutor. The cruel injustice of the thing angered me, and I told some of them that Webber went there before any of them dared to, and I, for one, proposed to stand by him.
I abhorred the situation, but I honored the man for standing by his children whatever their complexion. But the bitter prejudice, coupled with a desire to get Webber's land and improvements, became so threatening that I at length counseled him to sell out and take his family to Mexico, where there was no distinction of color. He took my advice, and I never afterward saw or heard of him. Turns out the Webbers did set up house again, IIRC just across the river along the lower Rio Grande.
Now given that account, and the relatively free fraternization Smithwick expereienced with various Indian groups in his life, plus the fact that when war broke out Smithwick declared himself a Union man, one might expect him to have been anti-slavery.
Aint that simple; Smithwick himself admits to owning at least two, here commenting on his runaway slave episode...
http://www.lsjunction.com/olbooks/smithwic/otd25.htm It was curious to note the different views taken of that affair by the negroes - a man and a woman - in my possession. The woman, who was a mulatto, openly avowed her sympathy for the fugitives, while the man, a full-blooded negro, took the other side. Posts running long, I'll cut and paste the episode in its entirety next post.
Birdwatcher
