1803 - 1860

Louisiana Purchase through 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...
Alexander George House
The Alexander George House was a historic home located in Little Rock (Pulaski County). Constructed between 18...
Alph (Lynching of)
A mob of white residents of Benton County lynched Alph, an enslaved African-American man, on August 20, 1849. ...
Anthony House
From 1830 until 1875, a premier hotel stood on the southwest corner of Markham and Scott streets in Little Roc...
Joseph J. Anthony (1780?–1837)
Joseph J. Anthony, a soldier, politician, and Arkansas pioneer, fell victim to one of the most extraordinary a...
Joseph J. Anthony (Murder of)
The only recorded violent death on the floor of the Arkansas General Assembly occurred on December 4, 1837, in...
Antiquarian and Natural History Society of Arkansas
One of Arkansas’s first attempts to preserve its history was organized by a group of “gentlemen naturalist...
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...
Arkansas Banner
In 1843, Democrats in Little Rock (Pulaski County) sought a new newspaper, as the Arkansas State Gazette (1836...
Arkansas College
Arkansas College was founded in Fayetteville (Washington County) in late 1850 by pastor Robert Graham of the D...
Arkansas Married Woman's Property Law
Under the common law that prevailed in all American jurisdictions except Louisiana, once a woman married, all ...
Arkansas Military Institute
The Arkansas Military Institute was one of the earliest schools of its kind in the state. Established in Tulip...
Arkansas Mounted Rifles [Mexican War]
The Arkansas Mounted Rifles was a regiment of volunteers from the state who participated in the Mexican War as...
Arkansas Post
Arkansas Post was the first and most significant European establishment in Arkansas. In the colonial and early...
Arkansas Real Estate Bank
In 1836, the establishment of the Real Estate Bank of Arkansas became the initial act to pass the first state ...
Arkansas State Bank
The Arkansas State Bank (1836–1843) was one of two banks created by the newly formed Arkansas state legislat...
Arkansas Donation Land Act of 1840
On December 23, 1840, Arkansas’s governor Archibald Yell signed into law a statute with the cumbersome title...
Arkansas Synodical College
The Arkansas Synodical College, chartered shortly before the Civil War, was one of several abortive attempts b...
Arkansas Times and Advocate
aka: Arkansas Advocate
The Arkansas Advocate was the second successful newspaper in Arkans...
Arkansas Traveler [Steamboat]
The Arkansas Traveler was a steamboat that sank after hitting a snag in the Arkansas River below Pine Bluff (J...
Arkansas True Democrat
The True Democrat (1852–1857) was first printed on September 7, 1852, in Little Rock (Pulaski County) by own...
Steamboats Named Arkansas
At least twenty nineteenth-century steamboats were called Arkansas or a derivative of the state’s name, acco...
Ashley County Lynching of 1857
Prior to the Civil War, most lynchings in Arkansas and across the nation (particularly on the frontier) took ...
Chester Ashley (1791–1848)
Chester Ashley was prominent in territorial and antebellum Arkansas. He was involved in the dispute over owner...
John James Audubon (1785–1851)
John James Audubon, a frontier naturalist and artist, is famous for illustrating and writing The Birds of Amer...
Austin v. The State
Slaves in the United States had no legal rights and only limited access to legal protection, so few legal case...
Stephen Fuller Austin (1793–1836)
Stephen Fuller Austin, most widely known as the “Father of Texas,” spent a short period of his life in Ark...
George Washington Baines (1809–1882)
George W. Baines was a prominent nineteenth-century Southern Baptist minister, teacher, Arkansas politician, a...
Jacob Barkman (1784–1852)
Jacob Barkman is known as the father of Clark County. An early settler along the Caddo River, Barkman eventual...
Antoine Barraque (1773–1858)
Antoine Barraque established the settlement called New Gascony, one of the earliest settlements in what is now...
Barron-Craig House
The Barron-Craig House, the oldest structure still standing in northern Saline County, is located at Paron nea...
James Woodson Bates (1788–1846)
James Woodson Bates was an early Arkansas settler who was elected as the first Arkansas territorial representa...