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1838 BASS REEVES July 1838, Crawford County, Arkansas: Bass Reeves was born into slavery in Crawford County, Arkansas. This period marks the beginning of his life journey in a deeply divided America, setting the stage for his eventual rise as a legendary figure. 1910 1863 1863 BASS REEVES 1863, Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma): During the Civil War, Reeves escaped from his enslaver and lived among Native American tribes in the Indian Territory. This escape can be considered a turning point in his life, leading him from slavery to a period of relative freedom and learning. 1838 1875 1875 BASS REEVES 1875, Fort Smith, Arkansas: After the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, Reeves was recruited to serve as a deputy marshal in the Western District of Arkansas, which included Indian Territory. Reeves's knowledge of the territory and its languages made him an invaluable asset. 1863 1880 1880 BASS REEVES 1880s, Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma): Throughout the 1880s, Reeves served as a deputy U.S. marshal, capturing over 3,000 felons and earning a reputation as one of the most effective and respected lawmen in the territory. His work during this period, based out of Fort Smith and later Paris, Texas, solidified his legacy. 1875 1910 1910 January 12, 1910, Muskogee, Oklahoma: Bass Reeves passed away in Muskogee, Oklahoma. His death marked the end of a remarkable career and life, during which he had become a symbol of courage, justice, and resilience. BASS REEVES 1880 1838

IN SEARCH OF BASS REEVES

By the end of his illustrious career, Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves may well have been the preeminent lawman of the Old West. He brought upwards of 3,000 outlaws to justice and served in law enforcement for 32 years after the Civil War. In this documentary, we explore Bass’s life from captive slave to legendary lawman, through the antebellum South to the fierce battlefields of the Western Theater of the Civil War and the untamed plains of the Indian Territory where Native American tribes engaged in chattel slavery, holding African Americans in bondage on plantations that resembled those of the American South. We follow Bass as he strives to uphold the Constitution while fighting accusations against his character by a hostile press intent on riling up the local population against him as he endured great family tragedies that would break a lesser man. We pursue the long- hidden truths of his life as a father who arrested his own son for murder, a Black man who hunted down outlaws of all races, and a deputy marshal who is one of the greatest lawmen of the Old West. His story is one of an escape to freedom and the dangers of the West for a former slave who rose to become a legend of the law. Join us as we go in search of Bass Reeves.

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