This week’s open thread will focus on African-American Cowboys.
Nat Love, also known as Deadwood Dick (1854–1921), was an African American cowboy following the American Civil War. In 1907, Love wrote his autobiography, “Life and Adventures of Nat Love.” In his autobiography, Nat Love explains that his father was a slave foreman in the fields, and his mother managed the kitchen. Love had an older brother Jordan and an older sister Sally. Love was born a slave on the plantation of Robert Love in Davidson County, Tennessee, in June, 1854. Despite slavery era statutes that outlawed black literacy he learned to read and write as a child with the help of his father, Sampson Love. Eventually Nat Love’s family was freed from bondage because of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. When slavery ended, Sampson attempted to start a family farm to raise tobacco and corn, but he died shortly after the second crop was planted. Nat then took a second job working on a local farm to help make ends meet.