Born enslaved in Tennessee, this girl came west with Ursuline nuns after being freed. Not known for her quiet temperament, she left the convent in her teens and became, in time, a restaurant owner in several towns in Montana, Wyoming and Alberta and Saskatachewan, Canada, … Read MoreMary Fields (1832-1914)
Born in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1863, Joseph Blackburn Bass made his mark in the newspaper business in Kansas, Montana, and California. After teaching school during the 1890s, Bass took over ownership of the Topeka Call in 1896, where he had worked for two years … Read MoreJoseph Blackburn Bass (1863-1934)
John Ware was born a slave in South Carolina circa 1845. When the Civil War ended, he decided to exercise his freedom by moving west. Ware settled in Texas and got a job with a rancher who raised horses. In 1879 Ware rode north on … Read MoreJohn Ware (1845?-1905)
If any man of any color attained the ranks of legendary in the American West, it was James Beckwourth (also: Beckwith, Beckwoth). If any attest to his fame is necessary, one only needs to read the description under the accompanying lithograph and note that even … Read MoreJames Pierson Beckwourth (c. 1805 – 1866)
The daguerreotypist James Presley (J.P.) Ball was born in 1825 in Virginia, probably a Freeman. As a young man he learned daguerreotyping and opened his first studio in Cincinnati, Ohio at age twenty. The city was a center for anti-slavery activity as well as the … Read MoreJames Presley Ball (1825-1904)
Isaiah Dorman was born free in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1832 although the precise date of his birth is unknown. The date of his death, June 25, 1876, however, will be both long admired by many and reviled by others in American history. On that day, this … Read MoreIsaiah Dorman (1832-1876)
Edward Rose, also known by the names Five Scalps, Nez Coupe and “Cut Nose,” was the son of a white trader father and a Cherokee and African American mother. Little else is known about his early life including where he was born. He may have … Read MoreEdward Rose (c. 1780- c. 1833)
An unusual incidence of interracial solidarity between blacks and Asian Americans occurred during Booker T. Washington’s visit to Seattle. In March 1913, Washington embarked on a national speaking tour in order to raise money for Tuskegee Institute, the chronically underfunded “Normal and Industrial School” in … Read MoreBooker Washington in Seattle, 1913
