Jane Katirgis - Meet Nat Love: Cowboy and Former Slave

Published in 2020 by Enslow Publishing, LLC 101 W. 23rd Street, Suite 240, New York, NY 10011 Copyright 2020 by Enslow Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Katirgis, Jane, author. | Penn, Sarah, author. Title: Meet Nat Love: cowboy and former slave / Jane Katirgis and Sarah Penn.

Description: New York: Enslow Publishing, 2020 | Series: Introducing famous Americans | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Audience: Grades 35. Identifiers: LCCN 2018060040| ISBN 9781978511408 (library bound) | ISBN 9781978511385 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781978511392 (6 pack) Subjects: LCSH: Love, Nat, 18541921Juvenile literature. | African American cowboysWest (U.S.)BiographyJuvenile literature. | CowboysWest (U.S.)BiographyJuvenile literature. | West (U.S)BiographyJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC F594.L892 K38 2020 | DDC 978/.02092 [B] dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018060040 Printed in the United States of America To Our Readers: We have done our best to make sure all website addresses in this book were active and appropriate when we went to press. However, the author and the publisher have no control over and assume no liability for the material available on those websites or on any websites they may link to. Any comments or suggestions can be sent by email to . Portions of this book originally appeared in Nat Love: African American Cowboy.Photo Credits: . Contents Looking for Adventure Nat Love and his family were slaves on a tobacco plantation. Nat was born in Davidson County, Tennessee, in 1854.

He had a sister, Sally, and a brother, Jordan. The Civil War ended slavery in 1865. Nats family was free, but they had no money. Nats father died. As a young teenager, Nat became the head of the family. After the end of slavery in America in 1865, Nat Love left Tennessee for adventure.

He went to the Wild West.For more than 200 years, African American slaves worked on American lands. They got no pay for the work. They often worked from sunrise to sunset. The family planted crops to make money. Meanwhile, pioneers traveled west of the Mississippi River. They went to settle unclaimed land. Many went in search of gold.

Nats goal was to see the world. He imagined the West would be full of excitement and adventure. Nat would not leave his family members until they could support themselves. People began to move out West after the Civil War (18611865). They were called pioneers. The government gave them land for free. As a teenager, Nat learned to tame wild horses.

He became an excellent rider. One day he won a horse in a raffle. He sold it for $100. Nat gave half of the money to his mother. He used the rest of the money to begin his new life. Tennessee was a land of hills and farmland. Tennessee was a land of hills and farmland.

Nat helped with his familys small farm. He saved money for his dream to go out West.Nat learned how to tame horses alone. This drawing shows cowboys breaking a wild horse. Lets Learn More To break a horse means to tame a wild horse. Taming a wild horse is hard and dangerous work. A horse trusts the cowboy who breaks it. This process makes it easy for them to work together. Becoming a Cowboy Dodge City, Kansas, was known for being a wild place.

Nat Love was fifteen years old when he arrived in the town. People went to the saloons and gambled. Many cowboys would spend time there between cattle drives. Nats excellent horseback-riding skills earned him a job as a cowboy. The Duval Outfit from Texas hired Nat. Dodge City was popular with cowboys for drinking and fighting. Dodge City was popular with cowboys for drinking and fighting.

Nat had his first adventures in this city. Cattle drives often took months to take a herd between ranches. Cowboys and cattle would have to battle bad storms with no shelter. Other problems were fights with American Indians, bandits, and buffalo stampedes. In 1872, Nat received a better job from the Pete Gallinger Company. He moved to their huge ranch in Arizona. In search of better work, Nat Love moved to Gila River, Arizona.

He might have lived in a house like this one made of adobe (mud brick). Lets Learn More In the Duval Outfit, Nat was known as Red River Dick.A dozen cowboys or more worked a cattle drive. The drives often stretched more than a mile. Nat learned to live in the open air on cattle drives. On one cattle drive, Love traveled from Texas to Deadwood, South Dakota. The cowboys delivered almost 3,000 steer there on July 3, 1876. Over the next few days, Love entered a cowboy contest. Each cowboy had to rope, throw, tie, bridle, saddle, and mount a wild mustang horse.

Love did it in the least time: nine minutes. He won $200. Lets Learn More Ranches raised cattle or other livestock. They would sell livestock to other ranches. Cattle drives were the earliest way of moving cattle from one ranch to another.The top photo shows a scene from the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. It played in towns to show people how cowboys worked.

Nat ran cattle drives up to ranches in South Dakota (map). A shooting contest was held next. Love had learned to shoot a gun well. He entered the contest to try to win more money. Targets were lined up a short distance away. Whoever placed the most shots in the center of the target would win. Love placed fourteen shots in the bulls-eye.