The REAL Lone Ranger & 8 Black Legends Hollywood Didn’t Show You.

part 2:

 In 1895, at the age of 60,  when most people were slowing down, Mary was just getting started. She became the first black woman to deliver mail for the United States Postal  Service. She didn’t just carry letters, she protected them with a rifle and a revolver. Every week she braved the frontier,  covering 300 m of dangerous terrain.

When the snow buried the trails and the  horses couldn’t move, Mary didn’t quit. She strapped on snowshoes, slung the heavy mail sacks over her shoulders,  and walked for miles to ensure the message was delivered. She was a legend in the town of Cascade,  Montana. Mary was the only woman, aside from those of illreute,  allowed to drink in the local bars.

 The town didn’t just respect her. They adored her. When her  house burned down, the community rallied to build her a new one. She was a force of nature, a woman of steel  in a world of iron. When she passed away in 1914, the entire town gathered for one of the largest funerals Montana had ever seen.

 Stage  coach Mary Fields, a true pioneer who proved that courage has no gender and no limits. In the Wild West, the horizon was the only limit and a man could reinvent himself into whoever he  dared to be. For not love, that dream was to become a cowboy. Born into slavery  in Tennessee, Not didn’t wait for life to happen.

 At just 15 years old, he headed  straight to Kansas, drawn by the call of the great west. In the dusty streets of Dodge City, amidst the  saloons and gambling houses, he saw black and white cowboys swaggering with pride. To join him,  he had to prove his worth.

 He climbed onto a wild, unbroken horse and  rode it until the beast surrendered. From that moment on, Nat Love was a man of action.  He drove cattle across Texas and Arizona, survived clashes on the frontier,  and allegedly crossed paths with legends like Jesse James and Billy the Kid. But Nat became a legend in his own right in  1876.

In a famous contest in Deadwood, South Dakota, he was challenged to rope, tie,  saddle, and mount a Mustang as fast as possible. He did it all in  exactly 9 minutes. That day he earned the title dead  wood dick and a record that he claimed was never beaten. As the century turned, Nat hung up his spurs but never stopped moving.

 He traveled the country as a Pullman porter and later worked as a security guard, living a life that was always in motion. Not love passed away in 1921,  leaving behind a story of a man who refused to be fedded by his past. He was a man of action in an age of giants. In the world of rodeo, where man meets beast,  one name stands out as the ultimate innovator.

 Meet Bill Picket, the man they called the dusty  demon. A descendant of black, white, and Cherokee ancestors. Picket didn’t just ride horses. He invented a brand new way to dominate  the ring. After watching herder dogs subdue giant steers by biting  their lips, Picket wondered, could a man do the same? In the 1880s, he proved the answer was a resounding yes.

  In a move that left audiences gasping, Picket would wrestle a steer to the ground, grab its horns, and bite  its lip to bring the massive animal to its knees. This became the sport of  bulldoging. His fame exploded, taking him from the American West  to England, Mexico, and South America. But fame came with a price.

 In Mexico City, after winning a bet against a bull, an angry  crowd pelted him with bottles, breaking his ribs. Picket was  more than a performer. He was a barrier breaker. When racist rules kept black cowboys out, he sometimes posed  as a full-blooded Cherokee just to compete. He even became a movie star, featuring in the first all black westerns  ever filmed.

 Though he died in 1932 by a tragic kick from a horse,  his legacy remains unbroken. Today, bulldoging is still a staple of rodeo. And Bill Picket stands tall in the Hall of Fame. He was a man of steel  who proved that with enough grit, you can bring any giant to the ground. In the vast history of the Wild West, many came seeking  fortune.

 But Bridget Biddy Mason forged hers from the chains of slavery. Born in 1818,  she spent decades at the mercy of others. Her master forced her to walk a grueling 1,700 m from Mississippi to Utah, trudging behind a caravan while protecting her children, including a newborn baby. But her master made a fatal mistake.

 He brought her into California, a state where slavery was illegal. Biddy Mason didn’t just wait for luck. She seized her freedom. With the help of new friends  and a brave local sheriff, she took her master to court. Despite bribes and  threats, a judge ruled in her favor. In 1856, Biddy  and 13 members of her family were finally free.

 But that was only  the beginning of her legend. Settling in Los Angeles, she worked tirelessly  as a nurse and midwife, saving every penny with a vision for the future. She invested in land  when others saw only dirt. Biddy Mason became one of the  richest women in Los Angeles. a real estate tycoon who used her wealth  to heal her community.

 She founded schools, fed the poor, and established the city’s first  African Methodist Episcopal Church. Though she was buried in an unmarked grave for  nearly a century, her legacy could not be hidden. In 1988,  thousands gathered to finally give this pioneer the honor she deserved.

 Biddy Mason,  the woman who walked toward freedom and built an empire. In the untamed Wild West, reinvention  was often the only way to survive. But for one woman, it was the only way to serve. Meet Kathy Williams, a woman who  lived a dangerous double life in the heat of the American frontier. Born into slavery in 1844,  she saw the horrors of the Civil War firsthand as a forced laborer, a cook and a washerwoman  for the Union Army.

 She watched cities burn and gunboats sink. But when the war ended,  Kathy refused to return to a life of servitude. She cut her  hair, dawned a man’s uniform, and stepped into the recruitment office as William Kathy. In 1866,  she did the unthinkable. She enlisted in the 38th US Infantry Regiment.

  She became one of the legendary Buffalo Soldiers, the fierce black regiments named by Native Americans for their courage and  spirit. For two grueling peers, she marched across the scorching plains  and rugged mountains, protecting the construction of the Intercontinental Railroad.

 Her fellow soldiers never suspected that  the brave man beside them was actually a woman. It wasn’t until a deadly case of smallpox  struck in 1868 that her secret was finally revealed.  A doctor’s examination ended her military career, leading to an honorable discharge. But Kathy Williams had made history. She remains the only woman to ever serve as a Buffalo soldier and the very first black woman to enlist in the United States Army.

 She was a soldier of iron will  who proved that valor knows no gender. In the glittering gold crazed streets of San Francisco, most people were looking for nuggets in the dirt.  But Mary Ellen Pleasant was looking for something more powerful. Information. Born in  1814, her origins were mystery, but her intellect was undeniable.

 She didn’t rely on books. She studied people. Working as a domestic servant, she mastered the art of observation,  famously saying, “I have let books alone and studied men and women a good deal. She was a master of the long game.” While working as a cook for the city’s elite,  Mary ees dropped on their private conversations, learning the secrets of the stock market  and real estate.

 She took her small savings, invested with boldness, and built a massive fortune. On the 1890  census, she didn’t just call herself a housekeeper. She listed her occupation as capitalist.  But Mary Ellen Pleasant wasn’t just building an empire for herself. She was funding a revolution. She was a secret financeier  of the abolitionist movement.

 When she heard of John Brown’s plan to raid  Harper’s ferry to end slavery, she allegedly gave him $30,000,  a staggering fortune at the time. After slavery fell, she spent the rest of her life fighting against racial discrimination in the West. Though she  lost her wealth in her final years due to a legal battle, San Francisco never forgot her.

 She died in 1904  as the mother of human rights in California. A woman of mystery,  a woman of wealth, and a fearless warrior for justice. The  Wild West was a fleeting era, a brief spark in history that Mark Matthews watched fade into the sunset. Born in 1894, he didn’t just hear stories of the frontier, he lived them.

 At just 15 years old, too young to  legally serve, he lied about his age to join the legendary 10th  Cavalry. He was a Buffalo soldier, a man of iron and horse,  trained at Fort Hatchika to ride, jump, and shoot with deadly precision.  Every time there was a contest, Mark Matthews was the one who walked away with the win.

 In 1916, he rode into the dusty  heat of Mexico, participating in the relentless pursuit of revolutionary  ponchovilla. But the end of the frontier wasn’t the end of his service. Mark Matthews  became a bridge between two worlds. In the 1930s, he trained military recruits in the art of horsemanship  and even tended to the stables of President Franklin Roosevelt.

 When the world fell into the darkness of World War II, this Buffalo soldier sailed to  the South Pacific to fight once more, proving his valor on a global stage. When he  passed away in 2005 at the incredible age of 111,  he was one of the last living links to a vanished world. He watched the Wild West turned from a lawless frontier  into a modern nation.

 But the heroic legacy of his all black unit remained unbroken.  Mark Matthews was a centinarian warrior, a man who saw the  beginning and the end of an age. He proved that true heroes don’t just survive history,  they define it. In the Wild West, the fiercest battles  weren’t always fought with guns.

Sometimes they were fought with books. Meet  Elizabeth Scott Flood, a woman who refused to take no. Born in New York in 1828,  she migrated west during the gold rush. But when she arrived in Sacramento, she faced a wall of prejudice. Her young son was banned from local schools because of his  skin color.

 But Elizabeth didn’t wait for the law to change. She changed the world herself. On May 29th, 1854,  she opened her very own private school. It started for black children, but her vision had no borders. Soon she was welcoming Asian and Native American students,  believing every child deserved a future. After moving to Oakland, she founded another school  and the city’s first African Methodist Episcopal Church.

 Tragically, Elizabeth died at just 39, but her indomitable spirit lived on. Her daughter Lydia eventually became one of the first children to attend an integrated public school in Oakland. Elizabeth Flood is the final piece of our tapestry. The ninth legend who helped build the American frontier. From the badges of Bass Reeves to the classrooms of Elizabeth Flood, these heroes defined the West.

 If these stories touched you, please leave a comment below. Which of these nine heroes inspired you the most? Don’t forget to smash that subscribe button and hit the notification bell for Vintage  Shots, where we bring history back to life. Share this video to honor these untold legends. Thank you for watching Vintage Shots, and we’ll see you  in the next Journey Through Time.