1870: "What Might Have Happened if Dr. Tan[n] Hadn't Found Them"

In one of her semi-autobiographical novels, Laura Ingalls Wilder recalls her first interaction with an African American man, Dr. George Tann. Laura's reflection provides a small vignette of the relationship between white and Black settlers along the frontier. George Tann was a real physician who practiced within Kansas and the Osage reservation throughout the 1870s. He treated the Ingalls family who were stricken with a serious bout of malaria, commonly referred to as "fever 'n' ague" throughout the 19th century. 

The following excerpt is from the chapter "Fever 'N' Ague" in Little House on the Prairie. 

“Then the doctor came. And he was the black man. Laura had never seen a black man before and she could not take her eyes off Dr. Tan[n]. He was so very black. She would have been afraid of him if she had not liked him so much. He smiled at her with all his white teeth. He talked with Pa and Ma, and laughed a rolling, jolly laugh. They all wanted him to stay longer, but he had to hurry away. 

Mrs. Scott said that all the settlers, up and down the creek, had fever 'n' ague. There were not enough well people to take care of the sick, and she had been going from house to house, working night and day. "It's a wonder you ever lived through," she said. "All of you down at once." What might have happened if Dr. Tan[n] hadn't found them, she didn't know. 

Dr. Tan[n] was a doctor with the Indians. He was on his way north to Independence when he came to Pa's house. It was a strange thing that Jack, who hated strangers and never let one come near the house until Pa or Ma told him to, had gone to meet Dr. Tan[n] and begged him to come in.”

Source:

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper Collins: 1935), pages 191-192.