NAACP

New Spain

Credited as one of the discoverers of the territory that now comprises the modern states of Arizona, New Mexico and Southwestern Texas was a black Moorish slave by the name of Esteban. He was the slave of Andres Dorantes and often referred to as “Little Stephen.”

After a failed attempt to colonize Florida in 1528, about 250 men set sail westward, hoping to return to reach Spanish settlements. They were shipwrecked near present Galveston and most of them drowned or were killed by Indians. Only four survived. Dorantes and Esteban, along with Alonso de Castillo and Cabeza de Vaca were held captive. Esteban and de Vaca developed a following as medicine men, becoming famous among the natives for their marvelous cures.

In 1534, the castaways were finally able to escape from the Indians and make their way westward through the wilderness. They crossed the, went up the Pecos River and then, westward across the Rio Grand above present day El Paso eventually reaching Spanish settlements.

Later Esteban continued his travels as a guide to a company led by Friar Marcos de Niza in the search for the treasures of gold, copper, and iron that de Vaca had reported to the Viceroy of New Spain. After pushing northward, leaving most of his company behind, and reaching Cibola, Esteban was killed by natives who were upset by the liberties he had taken with their women.

Mexico

In 1828, shortly following its independence from Spain, Mexico outlawed the practice of slavery in the Southwest. The few blacks who came to New Mexico under Mexican rule were typically fur trappers like the legendary James P. Beckwourth. Beckwourth resided in Fort Vasquez 1836-40 and married a Santa Fe women. He left the state but returned as a member of Kearney’s conquering army in 1847. Soon after New Mexico became a part of the United States, an unratified constitution drafted in 1850 banned slavery in New Mexico. Slavery was officially abolished in New Mexico in 1861, one year before the U.S. Congress outlawed it.

Territory of New Mexico

These buffalo Soldiers accompanied Col. Hatch’s body to Ft. Leavenworth in 1889. Sgt Nathan Fletcher (top left) was among those pinned down by Victorio on April 6, 1880. Robert Burley (bottom, second from left) was a private in Lt. Cusack’s Co. G that rode to the rescue on April 7, 1880.

In the 1870’s, the town of Dora, in the Cimarron Valley, was first settled by freed slaves. Black cowboys, and Buffalo Soldiers were some of the late nineteenth century African-Americans who came to New Mexico.

Blackdom in southeastern New Mexico was a settlement of African-American homesteaders about 16 miles south of Roswell, New Mexico. The “kingdom” was established around 1900 by Francis Marion Boyer. He walked from Georgia to New Mexico pursuing the dream of his father to establish a self-sustaining community.

What was once Blackdom is now farm and ranch land. A County Detention Center has also been built near the former site of Blackdom.

House said to have been built by Francis Boyer.

Johnnie B. Scott
Alamogordo, NM