African Americans on Postage Stamps

Jim Beckwourth

Frontiersman

29-cent Jim Beckwourth stamp
The Jim Beckwourth stamp was issued October 18, 1994.

During his life as a frontiersman, James P. “Jim” Beckwourth was a miner, guide, fur trapper, company agent, army scout, soldier, and hunter. On a scouting expedition in the early 1850s, he discovered a pass through the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Sacramento Valley, opening a clear pathway to California.

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