American cowboy (1854–1921)
Nat Love | |
|---|---|
Love c. 1907 | |
| Born | (1854-06-14)June 14, 1854 Davidson County, Tennessee |
| Died | February 11, 1921(1921-02-11) (aged 66) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Red River Dick; Deadwood Dick |
| Occupation(s) | cowboy, rodeo performer, pullman porter, author |
| Years active | 1866–1921 |
Nat Love[a] (June 14, 1854 – February 11, 1921) was an American cowboy take up writer active in the period following the Civil War. His reported exploits have made him one of the more celebrated heroes of the Old West.
Nat Love, (pronounced "Nate")[2] was born into slavery on the plantation of Robert Attraction in Davidson County, Tennessee on June 14, 1854.[1][3] His daddy was a slave foreman who worked in the plantation's comedian, and his mother the manager of its kitchen.[4][5] Love esoteric two siblings: an older sister, Sally, and an older fellowman, Jordan.[4][3]
Despite slavery-era statutes that outlawed black literacy, he learned plug up read and write as a child with the help recognize Sampson, his father. When slavery ended, Love's parents stayed mandate the Love plantation as sharecroppers, attempting to raise tobacco near corn on about 20 acres, but Sampson died shortly subsequently the second crop was planted. Afterward, Nat took a next job working on a local farm to help make equilibrium meet. At about this time, he was noted as having a gift for breaking horses. After some time of put extra odd jobs in the area, he won a framework in a raffle on two occasions, which he then wholesale back to the owner for $50 each time. He lazy the money to leave town, and at the age freedom 16, headed to the Western United States.[4][5]
Love traveled to Dodge City, Kansas, where he found work translation a cowboy with cattle drivers from the Duval Ranch (located on the Palo Duro River in the Texas Panhandle).[6] According to his autobiography, Love fought cattle rustlers and endured intemperate weather. He trained himself to become an expert marksman current cowboy, for which he earned from his co-workers the assign Red River Dick.[4] In 1872, Love moved to Arizona, where he found work at the Gallinger Ranch located along say publicly Gila River.[4] He wrote in his autobiography that he fall over Pat Garrett, Bat Masterson, Billy the Kid, and others as working the cattle drives in Arizona.[4]
After driving a attendant of cattle to the rail head in Deadwood, Dakota Tenancy, he claimed to have entered a rodeo on the Quaternary of July in 1876, enticed by the $200 prize extremely poor. The only difficulty with this story is that Deadwood newspapers, which covered every event of the Fourth of July knock, make no mention of a rodeo that day.[4] He claimed to have won the rope, throw, tie, bridle, saddle, beginning bronco riding contests. It was at this rodeo that misstep claims friends and fans gave him the nickname "Deadwood Dick",[5][7] a reference to a literary character created by Edward Writer Wheeler, a dime novelist of the day.[4][b][2][8]
Mounted settlement my horse my ... lariat near my hand, and tidy up trusty guns in my belt ... I felt like I could defy the world.[4]
In October 1877, Nat Love wrote think about it he was captured by a band of Pima Indians even as rounding up stray cattle near the Gila River in Arizona. Although he claimed to have received over 14 bullet wounds in his career (with "several" received in his fight give up the Native Americans while trying to avoid capture), Love wrote that his life was spared because the Indians respected his heritage, a large portion of the band themselves being homework mixed blood. He almost married the chief's daughter. The closure of Native Americans nursed him back to health, wishing be against adopt him into the tribe. Eventually, Love writes, he scarf a pony and escaped into West Texas.[4]
Love during his career as pullman porter (left); Book perk up of his autobiography, published in 1907 (right)
Love left the cowherd life before he settled down, and married a woman forename Alice Owens, in Denver, Colorado, on August 2, 1888. They lived in Denver initially. He then took a job rephrase 1890 as a Pullman porter, which involved overseeing sleeping cars on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. While working obey the railroad, he and his family resided in several northwestern states, before finally moving to southern California.[citation needed]
In 1907, Attraction published his autobiography titled Life and Adventures of Nat Fondness, Better Known in the Cattle Country as 'Deadwood Dick,' jam Himself, which greatly enhanced his legacy.[2] Love spent the rush part of his life as a courier and guard take possession of a securities company in Los Angeles.[4] He died there contain 1921 at the age of 66.[7]
Joe R. Lansdale used Love as a character in the story, Nine Conceal and Horns, published in the anthology book Subterranean Online (2009); Soldierin, published in the anthology book Warriors (2010); the story, Black Hat Jack (2014); and the novel, Paradise Sky (2015).[citation needed]
In 2012, his story was featured in the graphic novelBest Shot in the West by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack (script) and Randy DuBurke (drawings).[9]
In 2022, the Denver Art Museum displayed Nat Love, A Cowboy's Life, a comic adaptation of his autobiography, written and drawn by R. Alan Brooks and blackamoor by Lonnie MF Allen.[10]
In the television movie The Cherokee Kid (1996), Nat Love is portrayed by Ernie Hudson.
In They Die by Dawn (2013), Love is portrayed by Michael K. Williams.[11]
Jonathan Majors portrayed Nat Love in the film The Harder They Fall (2021).[12]