Reading: Black Settlement in Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory
The history of black Oklahomans is linked closely to westward expansion and the desire for land in nineteenth-century America. During that period white farmers craved cotton lands in what is now the American southeast, and they pressured the government to remove Indian tribes from the region. Indians, the Five Tribes, had lived upon this land for many years, growing crops, raising families, and developing their own culture. In response to farmers' demands, however, the federal government began a systematic policy of Indian removal in the 1830s. Black slaves came with their Indian masters across the Trail of Tears to their new territorial home in the West, to what is now the state of Oklahoma.
Until its abolition after the Civil War era, slavery became a fixture in Indian Territory, but historians continue to debate the nature of the institution among the Indians. Some argue that it hardly resembled the institution established in the Deep South, but was more akin to indentured servitude of early America. Others differ, contending that "bondage was bondage," and that enthrallment implied a kind of brutality that made it similar to the chattel slavery of the Old South. Whatever the argument, slaves attempted to escape their bondage by running away, and they also revolted against their Indian masters in other ways. In Indian Territory, as elsewhere, both white and black abolitionists worked openly and clandestinely to overthrow slavery. After the Civil War the federal government granted freedom to Indian slaves, and it forced the tribes to grant allotments of lands to blacks. Although some Indians disliked that idea, most of the former slaves and free blacks among the tribes received some acreage.
As settlers sustained their demands for more soil, the federal government opened for settlement a section within Indian Territory in 1889 called the Unassigned Lands, an area of land in central Oklahoma not granted to any group of Indians. In the Land Run of 1889 whites and a few black settlers descended upon the territory to stake out homesteads. The following year the U.S. Congress created Oklahoma Territory, roughly the western half of the present state.
Until its abolition after the Civil War era, slavery became a fixture in Indian Territory, but historians continue to debate the nature of the institution among the Indians. Some argue that it hardly resembled the institution established in the Deep South, but was more akin to indentured servitude of early America. Others differ, contending that "bondage was bondage," and that enthrallment implied a kind of brutality that made it similar to the chattel slavery of the Old South. Whatever the argument, slaves attempted to escape their bondage by running away, and they also revolted against their Indian masters in other ways. In Indian Territory, as elsewhere, both white and black abolitionists worked openly and clandestinely to overthrow slavery. After the Civil War the federal government granted freedom to Indian slaves, and it forced the tribes to grant allotments of lands to blacks. Although some Indians disliked that idea, most of the former slaves and free blacks among the tribes received some acreage.
As settlers sustained their demands for more soil, the federal government opened for settlement a section within Indian Territory in 1889 called the Unassigned Lands, an area of land in central Oklahoma not granted to any group of Indians. In the Land Run of 1889 whites and a few black settlers descended upon the territory to stake out homesteads. The following year the U.S. Congress created Oklahoma Territory, roughly the western half of the present state.