Biography:

Farmer. Born– About 1885. Parents– Hayes and Liza (Culver) Cobb. Married– Hannah Ramsey, 1906 (died 1950). Children– Nine; married–Josie Travis Todd.  An illiterate Black tenant farmer in Tallapoosa County. In 1932 he was involved in the Alabama Sharecroppers’ Union. In December of that same year he was involved in a shooting with a deputy sheriff who had been sent to foreclose on one of Cobb’s neighbors. Served twelve years in prison. In 1971, Theodore Rosengarten tape recorded Cobb telling his life story and published the autobiographical book on Cobb’s life as All God’s Dangers; the Life of Nate Shaw.  Received the National Book Award for general nonfiction, 1974. Died November 5, 1973.

Source:

All God’s Dangers.

Publication(s):

All God’s Dangers; the Life of Nate Shaw. New York; Knopf, 1974.