Black Pioneers: Images of the Black Experience on the North American Frontier

by John Ravage, Quintard Taylor (Foreword by)

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 flourished 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.

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Carol Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has an amazing number of photographs of the Black experience in the West. The book was helpful in my research on Black photographer, John Green.

BUT, there are many errors in the text. For example, USGS photographer Timothy H. O'Sullivan is referred to as Thomas O'Sullivan (pages 88-89).

John Green was indeed a studio photographer for decades in Denver, not an amateur (page 37).

Stereo photography did not usually use 8 x 10' negatives (page 36).

Enjoy the photographs, but be careful with the text.

[Theophilus (Theo) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kudos to John Ravage. Pictorial proof, along with "The Black West" by Loren Katz, that African Americans did not all flock to large Eastern and Midwest cities after the Civil War. Thousands headed west into every state west of the Mississippi River and into Canada and the Alaskan Territory. These people were integral to the development of the West and Canada. Most history text writers seem to overlook this fact. Lots and lots of pictures from black cowboys in Arizona to black whalers in in the Pacific, including Hawaii. Ravage takes a few steps further than Katz and shows there is lots more to be discovered. From the time of the Conquistadors (way before the Pilgrims) until the present, African Americans have been in the "New World". Thanks Mr. Ravage.