Off Duty: Black Soldiers and Mobility in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands 1866–1890

Abstract

Throughout the post-Civil War era, Black soldiers in the U.S. Army were at the vanguard of U.S. expansion in the U.S. West. Rather than focusing solely on their official military duties however, this article examines Black troops’ off-duty activities, specifically the complex economic and social ties they developed with civilians who resided near the posts they garrisoned in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. In many cases, these connections transcended the very geographic, racial, and ethnic boundaries that Black soldiers were charged with policing, illustrating that relationships between local people and agents of the U.S. government in the region were more complex than scholars have previously acknowledged. Relying on transcripts from U.S. Army general courts-martial proceedings, this article demonstrates how these interactions shaped Black enlisted men’s perceptions of themselves, army life, and the locales they policed and inhabited. These interactions between Black soldiers and local people often undermined the Army’s official missions, but they allowed Black troops to improve the quality of their lives and demonstrate the persistent fluidity and porousness of the southwest borderlands.