Review of “Race and the Wild West”
Race and the Wild West: Sarah Bickford, the Montana Vigilantes, and the Tourism of Decline, 1870-1930, by Laura J. Arata, University of Oklahoma Press, 2020. 285 pages. Photographs, footnotes, bibliography, index. Paperback $24.85.
Born enslaved, Sarah Bickford migrated West as a teenager during the 1870s. She landed in Virginia City, Montana Territory. The traditional narrative touts the American West as a land of opportunity. For Bickford, this was true. She operated several businesses, experienced the support of the white community during an episode of domestic violence, had a successful second marriage with a prominent white man, and eventually became the first Black woman to own a public utilities facility.
Necessity led to the emergence of cultural bubbles in the West. Rural communities often had to more or less make their own rules. In economically-needy Virginia City, Black Americans were pretty well integrated without much fuss. (The experience of Chinese residents is another story entirely.) In nearby communities, Black people could expect institutionalized segregation, as in Helena, where in 1876 constituents voted to shorten the school year for everyone by months rather than house Black students with white students.
It is in this examination of American dreams and Black realities in the West that author Laura J. Arata lays out her best work. After the exodus of its last Chinese miners, never truly welcomed, Virginia City fell into steady decline. Black residents like Sarah were essential to propping up the economy. Bickford loyally made efforts to provide cutting edge, affordable water services to the city despite its obvious decline.
To survive, Virginia City began to bolster the story of the Montana Vigilantes to attract tourists interested in the “Wild West.” Up to today, it relies heavily on the reconstructed narrative of the Vigilantes. Exaggerated histories are common in the Old West, often excluding the presence of nonwhites so thoroughly that their contributions are almost erased. The juxtaposition of a Black woman’s experience next to the reconstructed notion of Vigilantism in Virginia City makes the cause and effect of these tendencies all the starker. Ultimately, it is still the juxtaposition of a Black woman’s experience with the realities of race in the American West that leaves the most lasting impression.
Understanding the history of the American West through the eyes of nonwhite people is essential to a broadened historical imagination and more powerful grasp on American history. In one particularly sad passage, Virginia City’s local newspaper mockingly reported on a Chinese man’s enthusiasm over the election of President Harrison, thinking he would soon be granted the ability to vote. The idea of his enfranchisement was laughable to his white neighbors, and indeed, Asian Americans could not vote until 1952 with the McCarran-Walter Act. These are realities that should not be lost in the background when examining the history of places that purported opportunity and freedom. For its nuanced perspectives on the American West, I highly encourage any lover of Western history to read this book.
—Julia Waters
