Outskirts Press, INC.

A Glimpse of the "Old" Black West

In 1868, Brackettville, Texas, was a wild and dangerous place for most men. A haven for many undesirables, the town drew all manner of drifters, lowlife, and gunmen from every corner of the surrounding territories. Brackettville was wild and dangerous for most men, but for a Black man, this place was the doorway to Hell. Johnson Able had drifted into Texas two years earlier. A runaway slave from Alabama, Johnson had taken flight one moonless night to escape the Pope Plantation and pursue his own destiny. Rejected and scorned by society, he headed West—but his quest for a new life presented trials and tribulations he’d never imagined. An elegant and powerful novel, Ride Beyond the Restless Darkness explores the role African Americans played in westward expansion and the settlement of the West. It also tells the story of one man’s determination to survive in a hostile land…with his pioneer spirit and values intact and his heart open to possibility.

During those years of drifting and trekking westward, he had many adventures, including living among the Comanche in New Mexico, where he easily and quickly learned the Comanche language,...