Cowboys' Shifting Reputation
Cowboys were not always regarded as American heroes. In fact, as late as the 1880s, the were regarded as violent and uncontrollable. The passage below describes a shift in how the public perceived cowboys. Think about what might have accounted for that shift.
Drovers, as they were originally called, suffered early on a most disreputable reputation. The cowboys "had a reckless disregard of any restraint not imposed by himself," wrote a contemporary from the East, controlled only by "the necessity for growth of law and order to protect people in the West.'' People to fear, cowboys were shiftless, unsavory, rough-hewn, unkempt. . . . "Throughout the East, the name 'cowboy' is looked upon as a synonym for lawlessness and cussedness," editorialized the Bismarck (D.T.) Tribune. . . . "[A cowboy is] often held in disfavor by the general population as a rough, uncouth, and possibly lawless man." Disdain reached to the highest level: in 1881 President Chester Arthur in his address to Congress used the term "cowboys" to describe "armed desperadoes" blocking peaceful settlement of Arizona Territory.
Twenty years later another president, Roosevelt, was a "cowboy." The cowboy had become a "knight on horseback," the symbol for "courage, honor, chivalry, individualism." . . . An influential contemporary interpreter of the cattle industry, Joseph Nimmo, wrote [in 1886] that cowboys, while originally reputed to be ruffians, were improving and were generally "true and trusty men" who "have done much toward subduing a vast area to the arts of peace.". . .
Source: Collins, Ross. F. ''Newspapers in Dakota Territory.'' Cowboys and Cow Town. Vol. 3. No. 1. http://www.scripps.ohiou.edu/mediahistory/mhmjour3-1.htm. Downloaded August 15, 2006.
Questions:
1. In what ways did the public perception of cowboys shift in the late 19th century?
2. What are some reasons why such a shift may have occurred in the 1890s?
