Nat Love

Nat Love (1854-1921) was an African American cowboy. Born into slavery on the plantation of Robert Love in Tennessee, Love learned to read and write at a young age despite the criminalization of black literacy throughout the South. Following emancipation, his parents remained on the plantation as sharecroppers until Sampson, his father, died unexpectedly. Forced to grow up fast, Love worked as a breaker of horses on a local farm and managed to earn enough to leave town by the age of 16. He headed West via Kansas, working as a cowboy along the way. Love excelled as a cattle driver, fighting off rustlers and learning how to shoot and survive in the harsh American wilderness. Throughout his travels, he met Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, became a prizewinning rodeo star, and was captured by a group of Pima Indians. He eventually settled in California, where he published his autobiography The Life and Adventures of Nat Love (1907) and worked as a courier and guard for a Los Angeles firm.