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Contribution #260 of 365
Robert Ball Anderson
Homesteader, Farmer and Western Landowner
1870–1900s
The contribution
How this work helped shape America
Born enslaved in Kentucky, Robert Ball Anderson escaped slavery during the Civil War and served in the United States Colored Troops before building an independent economic life in the West. After working in Iowa, he staked an 80-acre Nebraska homestead in 1870. Although drought, low farm prices and grasshopper infestations eventually forced him to surrender that claim, Anderson continued pursuing farming and landownership, demonstrating the persistence required of Black Americans seeking economic independence on the western frontier.