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Black Harris and the Oregon Trail

© Thomas James Martin

Of the many thousands of pioneers who traveled along the famous Oregon Trail in the 1830s and 1840s, perhaps no one person stands out more as an intrepid adventurer and outstanding contributor to the movement westward across the United States than Moses "Black" Harris, a trail guide of African descent.

In the early days the Oregon Trail ran some 2000 miles along rivers and natural landmarks from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. Even over the years as the well-worn paths of the Trail became easier to follow, there was still the need for guides, as it was only too easy to get lost along the way through the wilderness. The wagon trail guides also knew where sources of water and wild foods were located, where to ford rivers, and often could converse with Native Americans.

By most accounts, Moses Harris was one of the foremost of the early western explorers and wagon train guides, a true free spirit who deserves more recognition for the part he played in the settling the West. Like so many elements of Moses Harris's life, his birth is in dispute, though he is thought to have been born around 1800 in Union County, South Carolina (though some historians say Kentucky).

In the era preceding the pioneers, Harris made his living as trapper, hunting fur in the Rocky Mountains in the late 1820s and early 1830's, and he is thought to have first ventured west as a freed slave in 1823. Like most trail guides, he spoke several Native American dialects and is said to have been fluent in the Snake Indian language among others.

Though details of the life of Moses Harris are sketchy, he became famous in the American West for his knowledge of the ways of the wilderness and also for his rescues of settlers who lost their way on the Trail. His expertise in winter travel was legendary, and he is also celebrated for his exceptional stamina and endurance and was looked upon as a person of "great leg" by his peers.

He was painted in the 1830's by Baltimore painter, Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874, one of the most important artists of the West and one of the first artists to venture into the Rocky Mountains. Miller observed that Harris "was wiry of frame, made up of bone and muscle with a face composed of tan leather and whipcord finished up with a peculiar blue black tint, as if gun powder had been burnt into his face."

The Oregon Trail

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