American Progress, by John Gast, 1872. Courtesy Autry Museum of the American West/Public Domain
U.S. Conquest
Africans on the North American Frontier, 1501-1848
The U.S. conquest of Texas represented a critical stage in the broader expansion of what would become the American West after 1848. For scholars of historical process, the Anglo-American conquest of Texas was not an isolated event but part of a longer trajectory of westward expansion rooted in the displacement of Indigenous peoples, the growth of white democracy, and the extension of cotton cultivation and chattel slavery across the Deep South frontiers of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana during the early nineteenth century.
At the same time, a northern vision of westward expansion emerged from the Revolutionary era. Federal policies such as the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the Naturalization Act of 1790 established principles of citizenship, land ownership, and territorial governance that would shape the nation's growth.
The Northwest Ordinance signaled to European powers that lands north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River would ultimately be incorporated into the United States and governed according to federal regulations. Later, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 attempted to maintain sectional balance by pairing the admission of slave states with free states. Together, these policies encouraged migration into western territories and laid the groundwork for the incorporation of regions such as Texas and Oregon in 1845.
For many Americans between the 1820s and 1840s, westward expansion became central to the construction of an “American” identity. This identity was associated with access to supposedly “free land” and encounters with a perceived “wilderness”—a concept that obscured the reality that expansion depended upon the conquest and dispossession of Indigenous peoples throughout both the United States and the former Spanish and Mexican borderlands. This interpretation of the West was later popularized by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893).
Yet Turner's frontier thesis presented western expansion primarily as a story of Anglo-American progress and civilization, minimizing the racial, social, and cultural frontiers that shaped the region. Beginning in the late twentieth century, scholars challenged this interpretation by highlighting the urban, environmental, gendered, racialized, and economically subsidized dimensions of western development. Rather than viewing the West as a simple process of conquest and settlement, these scholars emphasized the continuous interactions among Native Americans, European Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Mexican Americans. These diverse peoples and their relationships have always been central to the western experience.
Long before the United States consolidated control over the North, people of African descent played significant roles in the exploration and development of western territories physically and conceptually north of the Missouri Compromise line (36°30′ north latitude), the boundary established to restrict the expansion of slavery prior to the Civil War. Western regions considered part of this northern space included present-day Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington.
A critical but often overlooked aspect of this history is that, before the Jacksonian era and well into the early nineteenth century, American expansion was constrained by powerful Indigenous nations as well as British and French commercial networks in the Missouri River Valley. These rival centers of political and economic power limited the United States' ability to project authority unilaterally across the West. Consequently, U.S. officials were often compelled to treat western Indigenous nations as essential diplomatic and economic partners, negotiating trade agreements and adhering to treaty obligations with a degree of consistency rarely seen in the eastern United States.
As in the Southwest, Indigenous-European relations shaped the political and economic development of the northern West. Unlike the Southwest, however, the northern West contained relatively small populations of African descent outside California prior to the twentieth century, making Indigenous peoples the primary nonwhite actors in the region's historical development.
Nevertheless, African-descended individuals made important contributions to the exploration and development of western territories north of the Missouri Compromise line. Following a tradition that can be traced back to Esteban in the sixteenth century, Black explorers, scouts, interpreters, guides, envoys, and mountain men played essential roles in expanding geographic knowledge and facilitating intercultural exchange. Among the most notable figures were York, the enslaved member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; Edward Rose, a prominent trader and intermediary among Plains nations; and James P. Beckwourth, the famed mountain man, explorer, and guide whose experiences became part of western frontier legend.
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Black Frontiersmen
York’s experience illustrates both the importance of African Americans to the exploration of the West and the contradictions of a frontier built on ideals of freedom while maintaining slavery. Between 1803 and 1806, York accompanied Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark on the Corps of Discovery expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific Coast. The expedition sought to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory, establish an American presence, and identify routes that would facilitate future settlement and expansion.
Yet York did not join by choice. As historical performer Hasan Davis notes, “the choice of joining the Corps of Discovery was not York’s to make.” Enslaved by Clark, York left behind his wife and home with no recorded opportunity to consent to the journey.
Despite his enslaved status, York played a vital role in the expedition’s success. In addition to serving Clark, he performed many of the same duties as other members of the Corps, including hunting, scouting, trading, and exploring unfamiliar territory. He carried firearms, participated in diplomatic encounters with Native nations, and even voted alongside the expedition’s members on where to establish winter camp in 1805-1806.
For many Indigenous peoples—including the Sioux, Blackfeet, Nez Perce, and Shoshone—York was the first Black person they had encountered. Lewis and Clark frequently used his physical appearance and strength to enhance their prestige and facilitate exchanges with Native communities.
Yet while the white members of the expedition received double pay and land grants after their return, York was sent back into slavery. Only after years of petitioning Clark to allow him to live nearer to his wife was he finally granted freedom in 1815. York’s story demonstrates how African Americans were essential participants in western exploration while often being denied the rewards and recognition afforded to their white counterparts.
Edward Rose’s path to freedom differed significantly from York’s because he operated less as an agent of American expansion and more as a cultural intermediary who navigated multiple worlds on the frontier. Born around 1780 to a white trader father and a Cherokee and African American mother, Rose became a member of the Crow Nation and built a reputation as a guide, interpreter, and diplomat.
Rose's linguistic abilities and knowledge of Indigenous societies made him indispensable to several major expeditions. In 1823 alone, he served as an envoy, interpreter, and guide for William Henry Ashley’s Missouri River expedition, participated in Colonel Henry Leavenworth’s campaign against the Arikara, and assisted mountain man Jedediah Smith’s exploration of the northern Plains and Rocky Mountains.
Rose’s significance, however, extended beyond exploration. After working as an interpreter for Colonel Henry Atkinson’s Yellowstone expedition in 1825, he returned to Crow society, where he rose to the position of war chief. Renowned for his military prowess in conflicts against the Blackfeet and Arikara, he earned the Crow nickname Nez Coupe (“Cut Nose”) and the title “Five Scalps” for reportedly killing five Blackfeet warriors in battle. Rose’s life challenges traditional narratives of the frontier by revealing how people of African descent could become influential figures within Native communities and shape western history on their own terms rather than merely serving imperial ambitions.
Among the most celebrated Black figures of the American West was James Pierson Beckwourth, whose life embodied the cultural complexity of the frontier. Born in Virginia in 1798 to Sir Jennings Beckwith and an enslaved mixed-race woman, Beckwourth spent part of his youth in St. Louis before being apprenticed to blacksmith George Casner. During this period, he developed a profound resistance to enslavement, later recalling that he “could not bring myself to obedience to orders.” Determined never to return to bondage, he eventually left St. Louis and began a life of exploration that would span much of the North American West.
As a trapper, guide, explorer, and diplomat, Beckwourth worked for major fur-trading enterprises, including William Ashley’s Rocky Mountain Fur Company, alongside legendary frontiersmen such as Jim Bridger and Kit Carson. Yet his greatest achievements stemmed from his deep integration into Indigenous societies. Spending much of his adult life among the Apache, Crow, and Sac peoples, Beckwourth became what scholars describe as a culturally hybrid figure who moved comfortably among African, Native, European, and Mexican worlds. He married the daughter of a Crow chief and, according to scholar John Ravage, was honored as “A Chief of All Chiefs” by the Crow Nation. Later, the Sac Nation bestowed upon him the name “Dark Sky.”
Beckwourth’s contributions to western expansion were substantial. He fought in military conflicts across the continent, participated in the discovery and mapping of important routes through the Rocky Mountains, and helped identify passes that facilitated migration to Oregon, Utah, and California.
Ironically, some of his most significant accomplishments accelerated the very process of American expansion that would ultimately dispossess many Native communities. His discovery of Beckwourth Pass near Lake Tahoe opened access to California’s gold country and encouraged further settlement of the region. At the same time, Beckwourth criticized white Americans for their treatment of Native peoples and challenged the assumptions underlying Manifest Destiny, demonstrating an awareness of the destructive consequences of western conquest.
Like the thousands of Spanish-speaking Africans and Afro-descended frontiersmen who came before him, Beckwourth occupied a unique position at the intersection of multiple cultures. Together, York, Edward Rose, and James Beckwourth reveal that African Americans were not merely passive observers of western expansion but active participants in exploration, diplomacy, trade, and cultural exchange. Their lives challenge traditional frontier narratives that center exclusively on white pioneers and settlers.
Although many of their contributions have been overlooked or minimized, Black explorers, interpreters, guides, and mountain men helped map routes, forge alliances, and create the networks that made American expansion into the West possible. Recovering their stories provides a more complete and accurate understanding of the history of the North American frontier.
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Conquest in the Pacific Northwest
During the 1840s, Anglo-American pioneers from the East followed routes such as the South Pass into the Oregon and Utah territories. Although these migrants differed from southern slaveholding elites, they shared important similarities with the white colonists who had settled Mexican Texas. In both cases, they sought to establish a democratic frontier that was fundamentally a white empire—a vision of racialized self-government that never fully materialized in the Midwest. Historian Eugene Berwanger argues that this project in the Northwest was rooted less in the expansion of slavery than in Free-Soil ideology and white imperialist attitudes.
Many western migrants opposed the spread of slavery not because they supported racial equality, but because they believed slavery threatened the independence of white settlers seeking to build small farms and businesses. As a result, hostility toward African Americans became a defining feature of many western communities. Berwanger characterizes this phenomenon as “Negrophobia,” a form of anti-Black prejudice that shaped western settlement and politics.
This hostility was reinforced by the rise of nineteenth-century ethnological theories, which increasingly portrayed racial inequality as innate rather than socially produced. Scientific racism, combined with fears that slavery would degrade white labor and undermine opportunities for white settlers, contributed to the development of an early form of nativism based on conquest, exclusion, and racial segregation.
Free states such as Indiana and Illinois, which experienced growing Black migration from neighboring slave states, became important examples for western settlers who sought to preserve white freedom while limiting the presence of people of color. Consequently, the westward expansion of the United States was often driven not only by the desire for land and opportunity, but also by efforts to construct racially exclusive societies.
The most dramatic example of this form of white empire-building emerged in Oregon during the 1840s. To understand settlement in the Pacific Northwest, it is essential to recognize how the Texas Revolution and the ideology of Manifest Destiny established a model for white conquest. Many Anglo pioneers sought land ownership, political power, and social equality for themselves in territories promoted as empty wilderness destined by God for white settlement. Yet the democratic ideals they championed were accompanied by systematic efforts to exclude nonwhite populations.
In Oregon, lawmakers attempted to create a white settler society by making life so difficult for people of color that they would leave voluntarily. The Organic Code of 1843, according to historian Elizabeth McLagan, prohibited slavery while simultaneously excluding “all black and most Indian men” from voting. The following year, the Provisional Government enacted the first of several Black exclusion laws. These measures required free Black residents to leave the territory within three years and emancipated enslaved African Americans to depart within six months or face forced labor. Such policies reveal the contradiction at the heart of Oregon’s Free-Soil politics: opposition to slavery coexisted with a determination to exclude African Americans altogether.
The experience of Black pioneer George Washington illustrates both the limits of Oregon’s racial order and the alternative possibilities that emerged beyond it. Facing exclusionary legislation, Washington left Oregon City with his former owners, the Cochran family of Missouri, and relocated north of the Columbia River. There they established a settlement called Centerville, later renamed Centralia, in present-day Washington State.
Because Black settlers were unable to claim land directly, the Cochrans initially filed the claim on Washington’s behalf before transferring ownership to him. Washington later married Mary Jane Cooness and became a prominent figure in the community.
More significantly, he and the Cochrans helped foster a more inclusive settlement alongside members of the Chehalis Nation. Their example attracted other settlers who envisioned a different form of frontier society. In 1851, residents of the Cowlitz and Puget Sound regions petitioned Congress for a separate territorial government, leading to the creation of Washington Territory in 1853. Thus, while Oregon exemplified the racial exclusivity of white empire-building in the Northwest, communities such as Centralia demonstrated that alternative and more inclusive visions of settlement also existed on the western frontier.
Source - Bibliography
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