European Exploration to Early Statehood

Act 151 of 1859
aka: Act to Remove the Free Negroes and Mulattos from the State
aka: Arkansas's Free Negro Expulsion Act of 1859
The Arkansas General Assembly passed a bill in February 1859 that b...
Alph (Lynching of)
A mob of white residents of Benton County lynched Alph, an enslaved African-American man, on August 20, 1849. ...
Appeal of the Arkansas Exiles to Christians throughout the World
The “Appeal of the Arkansas Exiles to Christians throughout the World” was a plea for assistance written b...
Ashley County Lynching of 1857
Prior to the Civil War, most lynchings in Arkansas and across the nation (particularly on the frontier) took ...
Austin v. The State
Slaves in the United States had no legal rights and only limited access to legal protection, so few legal case...
Bob (Lynching of)
Bob (no last name recorded) was a formerly enslaved African American man who attempted to encourage a slave re...
Chicot County Lynching of 1836
aka: Bunch (Lynching of)
According to the Arkansas Gazette, an African American identified o...
Crittenden County Lynching of 1840
In early December of 1840, two unidentified escaped slaves were hanged in Crittenden County for allegedly murd...
Factory System
aka: Indian Trading Posts
aka: Indian Factory System
The Indian factory system was a system of trading posts created by ...
Margaret “Peggy” Garner (1834?–1858)
Margaret Garner, a Kentucky-born enslaved woman, gained national notoriety for killing one child and attemptin...
Gary v. Stevenson
The Arkansas State Supreme Court adjudicated Gary v. Stevenson, a freedom suit and racial-identity trial, in 1...
Guy v. Daniel
aka: Abby Guy v. William Daniel
Abby Guy v. William Daniel was a freedom suit and racial identity c...
Nelson Hackett (1810?–?)
Nelson Hackett was an Arkansas slave whose 1841 escape to Canada (then a colony of Great Britain) led to a cam...
Indian Removal
The evolving U.S. policy of Indian Removal shaped Arkansas geographically, economically, and ethnically. Feder...
Jefferson County Lynching of 1857
On July 31, 1857, an unidentified enslaved man was killed in Jefferson County for allegedly murdering a man id...
Lafayette County Lynching of 1859
On May 23, 1859, an unidentified fugitive slave belonging to David E. Dixon of Lafayette County was hanged in ...
Office of Removal and Subsistence
The United States government opened the federal Office of Removal and Subsistence for territory west of the Mi...
Phillips County Lynching of 1849
In early November 1849, two unidentified slaves were burned to death in Phillips County for allegedly murderin...
Phillips County Lynching of 1859
Historians of racial violence long contended that those held in slavery were not often lynched due to the valu...
Sarah Bird Northrup Ridge (1804–1856)
Sarah Northrup Ridge, who married Cherokee leader John Ridge, was part of the forced removal of the Cherokee, ...
Scott County Lynching of 1843
In the spring of 1843, authorities in Scott County jailed a Native American man and an African-American boy f...
Slave Codes
Slave codes were the legal codification of rules regulating slavery. These official parameters for slavery wer...
Slave Literacy
The ability of enslaved people in Arkansas to read and/or write presented one of the significant power struggl...
Slavery
American chattel slavery was a unique institution that emerged in the English colonies in America in the seven...
Toll (Lynching of)
The only documented lynching recorded in Saline County occurred on October 23, 1854, when a slave known only a...
Trail of Tears
“Trail of Tears” has come to describe the journey of Native Americans forced to leave their ancestral home...
Treaty of Council Oaks
On June 24, 1823, Acting Governor Robert Crittenden of Arkansas Territory met with a group of Arkansas Cheroke...
Washington County Lynching of 1856
aka: Randall (Execution of)
A mob of white citizens lynched two enslaved Black men, Aaron and A...
Washington County Lynching of 1860
An enslaved man was lynched by a white mob in Fayetteville (Washington County) on May 4, 1860, for the murder ...
William (Lynching of) [1836]
In late November 1836, a slave identified only as William was burned to death in Hot Spring County for alleged...
William (Lynching of) [1846]
On July 4, 1846, an enslaved man identified only as William was hanged by a mob in Columbia (Chicot County) fo...