Tricia Martineau Wagner, author and presenter
These 4 historical non-fiction books are written is a short story format for a crossover audience; adults and children as young as fifth grade.
To order books: Contact the author directly at tricia@authortalk.org for autographed books or scroll down to see links at bottom of page.
The word cowboy conjures up vivid images of rugged men on saddled horses˜men lassoing cattle, riding bulls, or brandishing guns in a shoot-out. White men, as Hollywood remembers them. What is woefully missing from these scenes is their counterparts: the black cowboys who made up one-fourth of the wranglers and rodeo riders. This book tells their story.
When the Civil War ended, black men left the Old South in large numbers to seek a living in the Old West˜industrious men resolved to carve out a life for themselves on the wild, roaming plains. Some had experience working cattle from their time as slaves; others simply sought a freedom they had never known before. The lucky travelled on horseback; the rest, by foot. Over dirt roads they went from Alabama and South Carolina to present-day Texas and California up north through Kansas to Montana. The Old West was a land of opportunity for these adventurous wranglers and future rodeo champions. A long overdue testament to the courage and skill of black cowboys, Black Cowboys of the Old West gives these courageous men their rightful place in history.
ISBN 978-0-7627-6071-8
Paperback: 180 pages
$14.95
Praise for Black Cowboys of the Old West
From the Pages of Black Cowboys of the Old West
It Happened on the Oregon Trail includes twenty-nine unusual, remarkable,
and little-known events that happened along the trail from Independence,
Missouri to Oregon's Willamette Valley. Read about Rufus K. Porter, who developed
a plan to fly people to Oregon in hot air balloons; Emily Fisher, a former slave,
who ran a hotel that catered to westward travelers; about Lafayette Tate, who
experienced "trail justice" for committing murder; about Catherine Hickman and
David Parks, who met on the trail and were married in a trailside wedding; and Solomon Butcher, a frontier photographer, who captured life on the Great Plains.
This book reveals the hidden stories that few people know, and that are not
covered in general interest books about the trail.
ISBN 0-7627-2579-6
Paperback: 192 pages
$12.95
Reviews
From the Pages of It Happened on the Oregon Trail
Interesting Facts
Begun in earnest in the 1830s and named for the emerging system of steam railroads in the United States, the Underground Railroad moved hundreds of slaves northward each year through a network of safe houses organized by the efforts of blacks and whites who abhorred slavery. It Happened on the Underground Railroad recounts the stunning tales of rescue and reveals the stories of the people who aided slaves on their flight to freedom.
ISBN- 0-7627-4001-9
Paperback: 144 pages
$9.95
From the Pages of It Happened on the Underground Railroad
Glossary
Quotes from Slaves
The brave pioneers who made a life on the frontier were not only male—and they were not only white. The story of African-American Women of the Old West is one that has largely gone untold--until now. The story of ten African-American women is reconstructed from historic documents found in century-old archives.
The ten remarkable women in African American Women of the Old West were all born before 1900, some were slaves, some were free, and some lived both ways during their lifetime. Among them were laundresses, freedom advocates, journalists, educators, midwives, business proprietors, religious converts, philanthropists, mail and freight haulers, and civil and social activists.