Cindy Daggett was in an unenviable position. She was a young black woman in a small southern town – Salvation, Texas. She described the town as, “the kind of place you ain’t left by the time you’re twenty-five, you’re stuck.” She wanted to leave, but the town found ways to hold on to her. Her father was dead, and her sister got married and moved out, leaving Cindy with the responsibility of caring for their bedridden mother. The town of Salvation was, like many Southern towns, rife with racism, and she was more of a secretary to Sheriff Jim Bewley than a deputy.
All of this made her, understandably, bitter. But things turned around with the arrival of young Jesse Custer. Custer took the job of sheriff from Bewley, and immediately turned to Daggett for help in doing his job. He looked at her as an equal, and even fell in love a little bit by the end.
For her part, Cindy was a balance to Jesse. Where he had always been used to settling problems with his fists and violence, she was an officer of the Law. When Jesse threatened to kill the malicious meat magnate Odin Quincannon, Cindy stopped him, saying that no matter how much the despicable little man might deserve it, he would have to be dealt with lawfully. So for all that Jesse wore the sheriff’s star, Cindy was the one he turned to.
And when Jesse needed backup – facing off the Klu Klux Klan or Quincannon’s plan to blow up the town – she was ready, willing and much more than able.
When Jesse left Salvation, he passed the job of Sheriff on to Cindy.