Nat Love

Thousands of black cowpunchers drove cattle up the Chisholm Trail after the Civil War, but only Nat Love wrote about his experiences. Born to slaves in Davidson County, Tennessee, the newly freed Love struck out for Kansas after the war. He was fifteen and already endowed with a reckless and romantic readiness. In wide-open Dodge City he joined up with an outfit from the Texas Panhandle to begin a career riding the range and fighting Indians, outlaws, and the elements. Years later he would say, "I had an unusually adventurous life". That was rare understatement. More characteristic was Love's claim: "I carry the marks of fourteen bullet wounds on different parts of my body, most any one of which would be sufficient to kill an ordinary man, but I am not even crippled". In 1876 a virtuoso rodeo performance in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, won him the moniker of Deadwood Dick. He became known as DD all over the West, entering into dime novels as a mysteriously dark and heroic presence. This vivid autobiography includes encounters with Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid, a soon-after view of the Custer battlefield, and a successful courtship. Love left the range in 1890, the year of the official closing of the frontier. Then, as a Pullman train conductor he traveled his old trails, and those good times bring his story to a satisfying end.

True or False: After Nat Love became a cowboy, he never gave up riding the trails. False! After many years as a cowboy, Nat saw that railroads were connecting towns across the country. He wanted to keep up with the times. In 1889, Nat quit the cowboy life. He began working on trains instead.

Born in a log cabin in Tennessee in June 1854, Nat Love was the slave of Robert Love. He was about six when the Civil War began, and after the slaves were freed following the war, Love was ready to start living a new life out West, where he could find work as a cowhand. It wasn't long before he started showing his talents as a cowboy, roping and herding cattle and learning to shoot a Colt .45. He used his skill in roping contests at rodeos, where he earned the nickname "Deadwood Dick" and was proclaimed "Champion Roper of the Western Cattle Country." Eventually Love walked away from the life of a cowboy and worked as a Pullman porter, becoming one of the most popular. Though some may be more fiction than fact, the vivid accounts in his autobiography tell tales of adventures with such characters as Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, Kit Carson, and the James Brothers. In this new offering, readers can discover the truth and tall tales Nat Love spun in his self-penned work.

Surveys the life of Nat Love, African American cowboy, renowned for his riding, roping, and sharpshooting.

True or False: After Nat Love became a cowboy, he never gave up riding the trails. False! After many years as a cowboy, Nat saw that railroads were connecting towns across the country. He wanted to keep up with the times. In 1889, Nat quit the cowboy life. He began working on trains instead.

When Nat Love was born into slavery in Tennessee, his family worked on a tobacco plantation. He longed to see the world and soon became a talented horse rider. At the age of fifteen, he left his family and headed to Dodge City, Kansas. As a young cowboy in America's Wild West, Love broke wild horses and won shooting contests. Young readers will delight in learning about the adventures of this African American cowboy. A timeline, sidebars, and primary sources add depth to this easy-to-read narrative.

Thousands of black cowpunchers drove cattle up the Chisholm Trail after the Civil War, but only Nat Love wrote about his experiences. Born to slaves in Davidson County, Tennessee, the newly freed Love struck out for Kansas after the war. He was fifteen and already endowed with a reckless and romantic readiness. In wide-open Dodge City he joined up with an outfit from the Texas Panhandle to begin a career riding the range and fighting Indians, outlaws, and the elements. Years later he would say, “I had an unusually adventurous life.” That was rare understatement. More characteristic was Love’s claim: “I carry the marks of fourteen bullet wounds on different parts of my body, most any one of which would be sufficient to kill an ordinary man, but I am not even crippled.” In 1876 a virtuoso rodeo performance in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, won him the moniker of Deadwood Dick. He became known as DD all over the West, entering into dime novels as a mysteriously dark and heroic presence. This vivid autobiography includes encounters with Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid, a soon-after view of the Custer battlefield, and a successful courtship. Love left the range in 1890, the year of the official closing of the frontier. Then, as a Pullman train conductor he traveled his old trails, and those good times bring his story to a satisfying end.

Written while Nat Love was living in California, this autobiography is an invaluable record of the wildness of the American West in the final decades of the nineteenth century. Filled with tales of adventure and danger, The Life and Adventures of Nat Love is a moving self portrait of a man who defied the circumstances of his birth and played a minor role in the transformation of the American landscape. Born into slavery, Nat Love is raised on a plantation in Tennessee alongside two siblings. Taught to read and write by his father Sampson, Nat becomes resourceful and intelligent at a young age. Forced to work, first as a slave and then, after emancipation, as a sharecropper, Love dreams of escaping the South in order to make a name for himself. At 16, already well known as a breaker of horses, he heads West for work as a cowboy. On the wide-open plains of Kansas, he learns to shoot and survive with limited resources while fighting off rustlers and other nefarious characters. In Deadwood, Dakota Territory, 1876, Love wins a major rodeo competition and earns the nickname “Deadwood Dick.” Despite his successes, Love is forced to continue his itinerant lifestyle, and travels south into Arizona. Exciting and beautifully written, The Life and Adventures of Nat Love is a record of the life of a forgotten American hero. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Nat Love’s The Life and Adventures of Nat Love is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.