Black pioneers : images of the Black experience on the North American frontier / John W. Ravage ; foreword by Quintard Taylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ravage, John W., 1937-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American pioneers--West (U.S.)--History--Pictorial works.

African American pioneers.

Frontier and pioneer life--West (U.S.)--Pictorial works.

Frontier and pioneer life.

History.

West (U.S.)--History--Pictorial works.

West (U.S.).

Genre:

Pictorial works.

Illustrated works.

Physical Description:

xvii, 288 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Salt Lake City : University of Utah Press, [2008]

Summary:

It is difficult to piece together existing records that describe the migrations of African Americans in the nineteenth-century American West. Efforts to assemble collections of oral histories, images, diaries, and other written documents on the black experience in the Western United States and Canada have proven surprisingly fruitful, however, and the rewarding culmination of such research flourishes in the archival images found in this second edition of John Ravage's Black Pioneers.

Using public and private collections in every western state and in Canada, Ravage has gathered more than three hundred photographs, line drawings, lithographs, stereoviews, and other images. This new edition also adds sections on black entertainers and ranchers, a chapter on the dating of historic photographs and their genealogical significance, as well as an expanded bibliography. All aid understanding of the black frontier experience.

Ravage goes beyond the stereotypical photography of the era, which often reflected white fears and prejudices, to present the works of frontier photographers. Galveston's Lucius Harper, Denver's John Green, and the Northwest's nomadic James Presley Ball all bring life to their subjects and meaning to their presence in the American West. Black Pioneers is a vibrant visual document of the profound influence blacks had on communal and frontier history.

Contents:

Moving westward and northward

Early imagery

Black westerners in white mythology

Black photographers in the west

Warriors and soldiers

Cowhands and ranch hands

Women of the west

The adventurers

Across the country's interior

To the coast

Alaska and the Pacific Northwest

"Haole 'Ele 'Ble" in Owhyhee

Follow the drinkin' gourd

Entertainers and artists

Nonphotographic imagery.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-275) and index.

ISBN:

9780874809411

087480941X

OCLC:

259754319