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Bountiful Jim Lent

A little history…

   During the American Civil War, the slaves that escaped or were emancipated and made their way north, because of the nature of their disposition at the time and because even though they, had escaped, were still legally, or illegally, owned by plantations in the south.  As the war progressed and President Lincoln signed the proclamation freeing all of the slaves, the newly freed slaves came to be known as contraband by both sides, the Union and the Confederacy. During the latter part of the war, more and more of the slaves made their way to northern lines, with the flood gates opening after Lincoln’s ‘Emancipation Proclamation’,  putting the Union Army in the predicament that they  had to do something to house and care for them, and that something was to establish the Grand Contraband Camp in Hampton, Virginia. This camp was the first entirely self-contained black community in the United States.

   There were several camps established as the ex slaves exited the south, and after the war several more were established in and around the very plantations in which the people of color had been enslaved. As the overflow became untenable, many of the blacks began moving west into the wide-open western territories and took up the trades of the westerners. The bigger ranches accepted these ex slaves and taught them the ways of cattle and horses eventually bringing the ranks of the black American cowboys up to 40% of the working cowboys in the United States.

Not only were these contraband cowboys hard working and diligent, but they were very well thought of and received equal pay for equal work on the cattle drives and ranches from Texas to California, Arizona to Wyoming and Montana,

   The families, around which this story is based, are not real, yet they epitomize the struggles abounding with the black family's desires and dreams to own their own spreads and the equally hardened racism practiced by southern sympathizers even into the 1880’s. Bountiful Jim Lent, Lewis Bishop and countless more were forced to endure harassment, murder and prejudice on a scale never before seen in this country, yet they endured and grew their families, their ranches and their dreams.
   It is within this scenario the story you are about to read takes place. The opening is hard, but the Night Riders were just as they are portrayed. Hard calloused men, uncaring about a human life of a different color. The men portrayed here were rampant as ex confederates and sympathizers. So, now the setting has been made, enjoy your copy of…Contraband Cowboys.

  Contraband Cowboys will be the one Hunter Series novel you'll want to read again. Feel free, the boys are all waiting.






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