{"id":8298,"date":"2021-12-26T11:05:38","date_gmt":"2021-12-26T10:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=195683"},"modified":"2021-12-26T11:27:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T10:27:12","slug":"from-slave-to-real-lone-ranger-the-incredible-life-of-black-wild-west-lawman-bass-reeves","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/from-slave-to-real-lone-ranger-the-incredible-life-of-black-wild-west-lawman-bass-reeves\/","title":{"rendered":"From slave to real Lone Ranger? The incredible life of black Wild West lawman Bass Reeves"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Kev Lochun\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 26 December 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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It didn\u2019t seem an unusual altercation among off-duty Confederate soldiers during the early days of the American Civil War<\/a>. An after-dark card game, a sense of injustice or cheating, a swift dispensing of physical retaliation. It happened often and regularly.<\/p>\n

But this particular disagreement was unlike any other. It occurred between slave and \u2018master\u2019. The contretemps was brutal and speedy; the enslaved man, Bass Reeves, battered the man he\u2019d been forced to accompany into battle \u2013 George R Reeves, the future speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. As Bass\u2019 daughter Alice would later recall, her father \u201claid him out cold with his fist and then made a run for the Indian Territory north across the Red River\u201d.<\/p>\n

For the next few years, Bass Reeves was the runaway slave looking over his shoulder. But the abolition of slavery, brought about by the resolution of the Civil War, would open doors for Reeves, ushering him towards a journey on which he would become a gun-toting public servant of the highest order. He would make history as a pioneering African-American US deputy marshal operating west of the Mississippi River, and one of the most feared lawmen charged with apprehending dangerous miscreants across the American West during the 19th century. He became known the \u2018Invincible Marshal\u2019. Some believe his life and times were the basis for the fictional Lone Ranger.<\/p>\n

Who was Bass Reeves?<\/h3>\n

That Bass Reeves would become such a dedicated and celebrated lawman wasn\u2019t abundantly obvious from his early life. He was born into slavery in Arkansas in 1838, his family working in servitude for George Reeves\u2019 father, the state legislator William Reeves. When Reeves the elder moved to northern Texas, he took his enslaved people with him, among them eight-year-old Bass. At first, the youngster worked as a water boy before graduating to being a field hand. His skill with horses and mules then led to him becoming a blacksmith\u2019s assistant.<\/p>\n