Freedom through Dryland Farming – The Story of New Mexico’s First Black Settlement, Blackdom

Maya L. Allen University of New Mexico

Blackdom township farmers (NMSU Archives RG98-103-001) Sunday school class Photos: Historical Society for Southeast New Mexico

• All Black farming town in southeastern New Mexico Blackdom • Black people cultivated a safe, empowered space for themselves Land Acknowledgement • Mescalero Apache Land • The Mescalero Apache Reservation was established in 1873

The Homestead Act - 1862 • Resulted in the settlement of 270 million acres Blackdom • Blackdom was incorporated in 1903 16 miles south of Roswell, New Mexico Blackdom Blackdom

Land patents of the Blackdom residents Bureau of Land Management Federal land conveyance record database Blackdom Timeline

Blackdom pooled their acreage to create the Blackdom Oil company and increase In January Frank Boyer and Daniel their probability of finding oil. Enters Keyes depart from Georgia and arrive in People started to truly settle and build into a contract worth 1 million dollars New Mexico in October the community of Blackdom today. Blackdom Blackdom Oil Journey West Settlement Company 1903 1912 1928 1900 1908 1919 Blackdom Townsite Blackdom Post Blackdom Company Office Abandoned Thirteen Black men form the Blackdom Height of Blackdom where an estimated Residents slowly had been leaving Townsite Company valued at $10,000 300 residents lived in town. Town sported Blackdom for numerous reasons. After a church, store, and office building 1928 Blackdom was no more. 24th Infantry Buffalo Soldier

Ella Boyer and their children moved to NM in 1901

Homesteaded near Dexter, NM President

Ella Boyer 1909 desert land claim under enlarged homestead act

Two of the three board Members in 1911

NMSU Archives RG98-125-001 and 002 Blackdom Founding

Frank Boyer and twelve other Black men formed the Blackdom Townsite Company with a putative capitalization of $10,000 on Sept. 5, 1903

Articles of Incorporation: 1) “maintain a colony of Negroes by means of the cultivation of crops” 2) establish a system of education including college 3) “improve and upbuilding of the moral and mental conditions of the colony”

The town of Blackdom was established around 1908 and was abandoned after 1928 •Townsite company had targeted advertising to convince more people to move to Blackdom The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races 1911 •THE NAME – Intentional •Multiple Professions •Most were former sharecroppers from the South

Blackdom township farmers (NMSU Archives RG98-103-001) Bouteloua eriopoda & Yucca elata

Photo: Patrick Alexander Dry Land Farming • Water for dryland farming was contingent rainfall and having a good water pump and water rights

• Blackdom was 4km away from the Pecos River & did not have permanent surface water Figure 9-1 Ruddiman 2014 Data from Prism Climate Group 33.1636 -104.5089 3632ft Loam Sand, silt, and clay

• Great for plant growth because it retains water but drains well

Photo: Brent Wilson Alfalfa Medicago sativa

Boyer had the largest hay harvest business in Dexter, NM

Well adapted to drought

Alfalfa can grow deep roots to reach ground water (~20ft)

Well drained soil

Nelson 2015 Blackdom Crops

Miller 2018; Baton et al. 2001; Nelson 2015; Berg & Walton 2013 Crop Production • Apples were one of the first crops planted at Blackdom • Community orchard • Frank Boyer cited his growth and success at market of his golden wax beans in his letters to obtain a water pump

Spivey 2001; Winsett 2012; Nelson 2015 Golden wax beans Sorghum bicolor

• Crutcher Eubank, a farmer in Kentucky, homesteaded in Blackdom in 1906 • One of the most drought resistant crops • Introduced to America by enslaved African people • Grown in subsistence plots by enslaved people

Nelson 2015; Carney 2010; 1900 US Federal Census Black Farmer Community

There are less Black farmers today than in 1920

14% of the American farmers were Black (1920s) →1-2% now Post Office (1912) Store, Church, The Height of Office Building Blackdom 300 Residents Blackdom Timeline

Blackdom pooled their acreage to create the Blackdom Oil company and increase In January Frank Boyer and Daniel their probability of finding oil. Enters Keyes depart from Georgia and arrive in People started to truly settle and build into a contract worth 1 million dollars New Mexico in October the community of Blackdom today. Blackdom Blackdom Oil Journey West Settlement Company 1903 1912 1928 1900 1908 1919 Blackdom Townsite Blackdom Post Blackdom Company Office Abandoned Thirteen Black men form the Blackdom Height of Blackdom where an estimated Residents slowly had been leaving Townsite Company valued at $10,000 300 residents lived in town. Town sported Blackdom for numerous reasons. After a church, store, and office building 1928 Blackdom was no more. Data from Prism Climate Group 33.1636 -104.5089 3632ft WATER

• Artesian well drilling was expensive $4,000

• Too many wells had been dug in the Pecos Valley that the water table dropped

• A new law passed banning new artisan wells

Berg & Walton 2013 1916 Worm Infestation destroyed the apple crops

World War I - 1917 •Job opportunities increased in Roswell •Several men were drafted

Soldiers from the 369th Infantry Regiment (15th N.Y.), also known as the "Harlem Hellfighters," who earned the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action. Blackdom Oil Company 1919

Leased the tracts of land to major developers in NY and California

Contracted with the National Exploration Company ~$70,000 ~$1mill today

Oil prices collapsed during the Great Depression 1930s Frank Boyer (center) with family NMSU Archives RG98-109-001 Bibliography Nelson, Timothy E., "The Significance Of The Afro-Frontier In American History Blackdom, Barratry, And Bawdyhouses In The Borderlands 1900 - 1930" (2015). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 1110. https://scholarworks.utep.edu/open_etd/1110 Wiseman, Regge N., "Glimpses of Late Frontier Life in New Mexico's Southern Pecos Valley: Archaeology an History at Blackdom and Seven Rivers. (2001). Museum of New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies Archaeology Notes 233. http://www.nmarchaeology.org/assets/files/archnotes/233.pdf Judith A. Carney and Richard Nicholas Rosomoff. In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa’s Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World. (Berkeley: University of California Press, (2010). Friefeld, Jacob & Eckstrom, Mikal & Edwards, Richard. (2019). African American Homesteader “Colonies” in the Settling of the Great Plains. Great Plains Quarterly. 39. 11-37. 10.1353/gpq.2019.0001 USDA. 1899. A Soil Survey in the Pecos Valley New Mexico. Green, Brienne. 2016. Blackdom settlement a tribute to two men’s courage, hope http://www.artesianews.com/1238133/a-2000-mile-walk-and-a-dream.html Lerner, Rosie. What is Loam? Purdue University. https://www.purdue.edu/hla/sites/yardandgarden/what-is-loam/ Winsett, Shea Aisha, "I'm Really Just an American: The Archaeological Importance of the Black Towns in the American West and Late-Nineteenth Century Constructions of Blackness" (2012). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539626687.https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-tesy-ns27 Miller, Austin J.. "Blackdom: Interpreting the Hidden History of New Mexico's Black Town." (2018). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/218