Bass Reeves

U. S. Marshal

A Brief History of U. S. Marshal Bass Reeves follows the pictured print.

500 S/N 18"  24" - $90

Bass Reeves (1824 – 1910) was the first black commissioned United States deputy marshal west of the Mississippi River.  He was born to slave parents in July 1824 in Paris, Texas. He escaped to Indian Territory after severely beating his young master in a dispute over cards and lived among the "five civilized tribes," especially the Creeks, as a fugitive until 1863. Freed by the Emancipation Proclamation and no longer a fugitive, the six-foot-two, 190-pound former slave left the Indian country, bought land near Van Buren, Arkansas, and became a successful stockman and farmer.