Black Cowboys & the American West
Bass Reeves, Nat Love and the Black cowboys the Westerns left out — on apparel, wall art and the American Legends 2027 calendar.
The West Was Never All White
Historians estimate that as many as one in four cowboys who worked the great cattle drives was Black — an estimate grounded in decades of scholarship, and one the Hollywood Western erased almost completely.
Bass Reeves escaped slavery into Indian Territory during the Civil War, was appointed a Deputy U.S. Marshal in 1875, and served over three decades across some of the most dangerous country in America, arresting thousands and reportedly never taking a wound in the line of duty. Many believe his career helped inspire the Lone Ranger. Nat Love, born into slavery in Tennessee in 1854, went west as a teenager and left behind a first-person account of Black frontier life in his 1907 autobiography. Henrietta "Aunt Rittie" Williams Foster rode, roped and worked cattle on the Texas coast, and delivered generations of children as a midwife.
Put them on a t-shirt or hoodie from our Old West & Cowboys designs, hang them as canvas or a poster, or meet all three in the American Legends 2027 calendar.
Read the full history, free: Black Cowboys Who Helped Build the American West — sourced from the National Park Service, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian and Texas A&M University Press.