Bass Reeves became an American legend against all odds. He was born into slavery but escaped during adulthood, successfully avoiding recapture until the Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery. In the years that followed, he reunited with the love of his life, Jennie Reeves, and they would go on to have 11 children as Bass made a career in law enforcement. Everything about Bass’s life created a sense of justice that’s inalienable from his identity, Lawmen: Bass Reeves star David Oyelowo tells TV Insider.

Series creator Chad Feehan previously told us that the Paramount+ series is about the triumph of the human spirit exemplified through Bass (Oyelowo) and Jennie (Lauren E. Banks). Oyelowo calls that a “perfect” description, “because what [Bass] did and went on to do shouldn’t have been possible at that time.”