CRAWFORD COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — We have a lot of history right in the backyard of 5COUNTRY, and that includes the story of Bass Reeves from Crawford County.
Reeves was a man who was born into slavery and forced to fight for the Confederacy. Reeves escaped slavery and later became the first black man to serve as a U.S. Marshal west of Mississippi.
Reeves' story is featured at the U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith. A monument of Reeves is located at Ross Pendergraft Park on Garrison Avenue which was installed in 2012. The monument cost about $300,000 dollars to create and was funded completely by donations.
Bass Reeves Monument
Reeves' story has inspired books, a Netflix movie, and now a series on Paramount+. The newly released series is called Lawmen: Bass Reeves.
"He literally came from nothing, born into slavery, literally stole his own freedom, and became one of the most respected lawmen in this region by the time he passed away in 1910,” David Kennedy, the curator of collections and exhibits at the U.S. Marshals Museum, said.
The show is based on the first two books of the historical fiction series Follow The Angels, Follow The Doves: The Bass Reeves Trilogy written by Sidney Thompson.
Thompson received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Arkansas and serves as the creative consultant for the show. Thompson says Reeves came on his radar when Morgan Freeman said in an interview that playing him would be a dream.
"The way he was talking, I could tell he was instantly playing Bass Reeves at that moment, just talking about how nobody had given him any credit, written a story, and he was this great lawman, 32 years, the most successful one of the Wild West,” Thompson said.
Reeves was born without his freedom on a plantation in Crawford County, and as he grew older, his slave owner forced him to fight on the Confederate side of the Civil War.
One day, he was able to break away, and some historical accounts say he took refuge with indigenous tribes and learned their languages. Reeves returned to Arkansas as a free man when slavery was abolished through the 13th Amendment and bought land in Van Buren.
During those years, lawlessness plagued the region, so Federal Judge Isaac C. Parker of Fort Smith ordered more federal marshals to be hired.
“He is one of a number of important deputies who served during a very difficult time, in a very deadly place in the country,” Kennedy said.
Reeves broke barriers at a time when black Americans still didn’t have many rights.
“Most of his career, he was a deputy U.S. Marshal,” Thompson said. “He had the authority to arrest and kill and shoot in self-defense. And across the board, regardless of if the people were white, you know, of any race, he had the authority and I thought that was a no-brainer story.”
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.