New Mexico, Land of the Free? Guest Post by Loretta Miles Tollefson, Author of Not Just Any Man

Please join me in welcoming Loretta Miles Tollefson to Let Them Read Books! Loretta is here today with a guest post about New Mexico in the 1820s, the setting of her latest novel, Not Just Any Man.

Just a man. Known for his character, not the color of his skin. That’s all Gerald, son of a free  black man and an Irish servant girl, wants to be. It’s an impossible goal in slave-holding Missouri, but in the West, mountain men and villagers alike seem to accept him without question.

New Mexico is all that Gerald hoped for, but shortly after he arrives in Taos, he realizes he wants more than he’d thought: A girl with her own complex ancestry and a high mountain valley with intriguing potential. 

Can Gerald survive the Sangre de Cristo mountains, the Mohave Indians, and the arid south rim of the Grand Canyon as well as the fellow trapper who hates him for the color of his skin? Can he prove to himself and the girl he loves that he is, after all, not just any man?

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New Mexico, Land of the Free?

Not Just Any Man is set in New Mexico under Mexican control, but its story is actually propelled by events in the United States, specifically Missouri. Before it became a state in 1820, Missouri wasn’t a bad place for a free person of African ancestry to live. Free Blacks didn’t have the social or economic mobility of Whites, and most of them subsisted as menial laborers, but they could legally hold property and enter into apprenticeship agreements. And work was readily available: in the countryside during harvest and other high-activity seasons, and on the river the rest of the year.

But in 1820, Missouri entered the Union as a slave-holding state. Almost immediately, the lives of its free citizens of African descent began to change. Travel was restricted. The sale of goods was limited. And there were fewer jobs available as more and more slaves were imported  to work the new state’s crops and river cargo. But one of the most egregious changes was to the penalty for enslaving a free Black.

Up until 1825, anyone caught enslaving a free Black in Missouri was automatically sentenced to death. Without benefit of clergy, which meant they’d go to their reward without spiritual guidance or comfort. Under the new law, the penalty for enslaving a free Black was reduced to a maximum of thirty lashes and ten years in prison.

This sentence was further reduced if the enslaved person was returned to freedom. If this happened, the penalty was simply a $1000 fine and court costs. While this was a significant amount of money in the 1820s, it certainly wasn’t death.

Not Just Any Man imagines that, given the new laws, the safest place for a free Black in 1820s Missouri was somewhere else. For a single man, New Mexico was a logical place to head. There was economic opportunity there, and, perhaps even more importantly, Americans of any skin color were not only welcome, they were invited to become full citizens.

In the 1820s, Mexico’s attitude toward racial differences was remarkably different from the United States. This was especially true in New Mexico, where frontier conditions left little time to worry about the color of each other’s skin. Families of all ethnic and racial backgrounds freely participated in every aspect of community life, including government land grant programs. In fact, historical records indicate that at least one family of African ancestry lived in the Taos area, where Gerald Locke, Jr., fleeing Missouri and its laws, arrives in the late 1820s. And where he finds the love of his life.

No one in New Mexico seems to care about Gerald’s race or ethnicity. Even the girl. It turns out that his only problem is the attitude of other American trappers. Or of one of them, at any rate. The one who also has his eye on the girl. But you’ll have to read the book to find out who that trapper is and what he does about Gerald. Can Gerald survive the Sangre de Cristo mountains, the Mohave Indians, and the arid south rim of the Grand Canyon as well as the one man in New Mexico who hates him for the color of his skin? Can he prove to himself and the girl he loves that he is, after all, not just any man?

About the Author:

Loretta Miles Tollefson grew up in the American West in a log cabin built by her grandfather. She lives in New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo mountains, where she researches the region’s history and imagines what it would have been like to actually experience it. Visit Loretta's website and follow her on Facebook.