Published information giving names of slaveholders and numbers of slaves held in Arkansas County, Arkansas, in 1860, is either non-existent or not readily available. PURPOSE. Large Slaveholders of 1860 Published information giving names of slaveholders and numbers of slaves held is almost non-existent. They often could secure concessions from masters or overseers by sabotaging crops or outright defiance against their demands. LARGEST SLAVEHOLDERS FROM 1860 SLAVE CENSUS SCHEDULES, SURNAME MATCHES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS ON 1870 CENSUS. Assistant Commissioner John W. Sprague directed his subordinates to keep and preserve a record of marriages of freed people, and by whom the ceremony was performed. Some officers interpreted Spragues instructions more liberally than others. If the ancestor is not on this list, the 1860 slave census microfilm can be viewed to find out whether the ancestor was a holder of a fewer number of slaves or not a slaveholder at all. If the surname is not on this list, the microfilm can be viewed to see if there were smaller slaveholders with that surname. surname of a former owner in 1870, vary widely and from region to region. Jackson Countians Value Slavery. Stream of History 53 (2020): 1223. Slaverys Origins in Arkansas These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Many of these records have been put online by Ancestry and are provided below in their own section: Ancestry African American Databases. Carl H. Moneyhon Additional support provided by the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation Inc. As the enslaved population grew, it also constituted a larger and larger portion of the total population, growing from eleven percent in 1820 to twenty-five percent by 1860. Aaron Hurvey Aaron Hurvey, an escaped slave, is one of 5,526 recorded black soldiers who joined the Union Army in Arkansas during the Civil War. Slaves clothing was usually manufactured on the plantation out of coarse or low-quality cloth. TERMINOLOGY. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2019. Try using the location as an alternate keyword in the Find box and search without a location in the Near box. In our blog we encourage people to find and share their family histories to make meaningful connections with other peoplepast, present, and future. Lankford, George E., ed. Craig, Robert D. Civil War Breaks the Shackles of Slavery. Stream of History 53 (2020): 2440. Some of these former slaves may have been using the surname of their 1860 slaveholder at the time of the 1870 To check a master surname list for other States and Counties, return to Home and Links Page. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. & GOODMAN, S., 138 slaves, Douglas Twp., page 1B (out of sequence), DUNN?, William T.?, 77 slaves, Old River Twp., page 21B, FLETCHER, Thomas, 81 slaves, Douglas Twp., page 4B, FOSTER, Robert C., 73 slaves, Douglas Twp., page 16, GARRATT, Samuel G., 70 slaves, Douglas Twp., page 8, GOODLOW, John Calvin?, 67 slaves, Douglas Twp., page 2 (out of sequence), GORCE?, James L., 57 slaves, Douglas Twp., page 10B, HORTON, Edward C., 228 slaves, Cilimont? Freed slaves, if listed in the next census, in 1870, would have been reported with their full name, including You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Henry Turner He was born a slave in northern Mississippi near the small towns of Red Banks and Byhalia, was the property of his owner, Edmond Turner, and was brought to Phillips County by his white folks some months before the war. The enslaved played a major role in the economic growth of the territory and state. Owners usually purchased shoes, but the enslaved often did without them except in the winter. Even though the connection of most slaves to Africa was remote by the nineteenth century, elements of their African background appeared in their formulation of social and cultural institutions. Escape of a Slave.: An Account of the Flight of Nelson Hackett, May 27, 1842. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 79 (Summer 2020): 133141. FORMAT. Slaves 100 years of age or older were supposed to be named on the 1860 slave schedule, but there were only 1,570 slaves of However, the data should be checked for the particular surname to see the extent of the matching. Encyclopedia of Arkansas Before presuming an African American was a slave Fugitivism: Escaping Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 18201860. Arkansas County, accounting for 2,542 slaves, or 51% of the County total. By 1860, seventy-three percent of of the enslaved population were on plantations and farms of that size. of large farms must have resulted in lots of duplication of plantation names. The 1860 U.S. Census was the last U.S. census showing slaves and slaveholders. Ultimately, however, the successful movement of Union forces into Arkansas in 1862 saw thousands of people flee slavery to secure freedom behind federal lines, and Union victory in 1865 ensured their ultimate freedom. A relatively large slave holding would have been ten people, a work force valued at about $9,000 on the average in 1859, an amount equal to approximately $200,000 in 2002. The data found in the files provide researchers with a rare opportunity to document the black family for the period immediately following the Civil War. Slavery and the Arkansas Supreme Court. University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Journal 19 (Spring 1997): 413464. In the end, only the use of force made possible this critical labor system through the antebellum years. If the surname is found, they can then view the microfilm for the details listed regarding the sex, age and color of the slaves. Using plantation names to locate ancestors But archivists ability to respond effectively to reference requests is hampered by the lack of finding aids on records of military agencies, particularly records created immediately before and after World War II. Excluding slaves, the 1860 U.S. population was 27,167,529, with about 1 in 70 being a slaveholder. Enter your email address to subscribe to this website and receive notifications of new posts by email. 1,000 acres or more, the largest size category enumerated in the census, and another 307 farms of 500-999 acres. colored population during that time, and were therefore more likely possible places of relocation for colored persons from Twenty counties were created after 1860 from parts of earlier counties; therefore, not every county existing today is shown on the chart. In comparing census data for different years, New relationships between those formerly enslaved and white Arkansans would have to be forged after the war, although white people proved reluctant to surrender the power that they had exercised for so long. In Arkansas in 1860 there were 69 farms of Documenting African Americans in the Records of Military Agencies. enumerated in 1860 without giving their names, only their sex and age and indication of any handicaps, such as deaf or blind SURNAME MATCHES AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS ON 1870 CENSUS: (exact surname spellings only are reported, no spelling variations or soundex), (SURNAME, # in US, in State, in County, born in State, born and living in State, born in State and living in County), Arkansas County, AR GenWeb (County genealogical resources). 2022 Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Adventures. Thanks for visiting! MIGRATION OF FORMER SLAVES: According to U.S. Census data, the 1860 Arkansas County population included Corporate Information | Privacy | Terms and Conditions | CCPA Notice at Collection. The Law colony failed within two years, but a small number of inhabitants, including some who probably were enslaved, remained in the area for the rest of the French and Spanish territorial periods. the township where the slaves were enumerated, the name of the township and the first census page on which they were Even the Confederate governments appropriation of enslaved laborers changed the character of the institution behind Confederate. . Orville W. Taylor has shown that average prices in Arkansas rose from $105 in the 1820s to nearly $900 by 1860, taking into account children as well as adults. Impudence, disobedience, and a refusal to workall behaviors that led to whippings by Arkansas plantersdemonstrated the efforts by those enslaved to establish some degree of personal independence within the system of slavery. Taylor, Orville W. Negro Slavery in Arkansas. In an effort to protect the interests of depositors and their heirs in the event of a depositors death, the branches of what is generally referred to as the Freedmans Bank collected a substantial amount of detailed information about each depositor and his or her family. Black and White on Slaverys Frontier: The Slave Experience in Arkansas. In Race and Ethnicity in Arkansas: New Perspectives, edited by John A. Kirk. Slave Data Collection (hosted at Afrigeneas), A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. African American Newspapers A list of African American Newspapers available for research at the Arkansas History Commission. Manumission in the Arkansas River Valley: Three Case Histories. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 66 (Winter 2007): 422443. You are the visitor to this page. Sevier County Slaves & Their Owners James Jr. and his brothers and mother, inherited slaves at the death of fatherand it is probable that some of those people came to Arkansas with James Clardy, Jr. Slaves of the State Many people have the mistaken impression that slavery was outlawed or abolished in the United States after the civil war by the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Jones, Kelly Houston. An 1825 law created the slave patrol, an institution that enforced such limits across the countryside, the existence of which further indicated the contradictory character of white perceptions of their slave property. Hancox, Louise M. Picturing a Nation Divided: Art, American Identity, and the Crisis over Slavery. PhD diss., University of Arkansas, 2018. Read our Privacy Policy. Though the census schedules speak in terms of "slave owners", the transcriber has chosen to use the names of plantations in this County with the names of the large holders on this list should not be a difficult research task, but As in the case of religion, the enslaved molded their music into a form that voiced their feelings about their enslavement. U.S. Between 1860 and 1870, the Arkansas colored population increased by 11,000, to 122,000, Those who have found a free ancestor on the 1860 Arkansas County, Arkansas census can check this list to learn if their ancestor was one of the larger slaveholders in the County. In the first official U.S. census of Arkansas as the District of Louisiana in 1810, the census takers found 188 slaves in a total population of 1,062 people. (As a side note, by 1960, 100 years Gigantino, James J. III. Your email address will not be published. Slavery in Washington County, Arkansas, 18281860. MA thesis, University of Arkansas, 1995. Howard, Rebecca A. Even though it defined people held in slavery as less than human, the law recognized the enslaved as a unique form of property. Slavery made possible the rapid expansion of the cotton frontier within Arkansas, and slave labor contributed greatly to the states material wealth, adding at least $16 million to the economy each year and making Arkansas the sixth largest cotton producer in the United States by 1860. An Arkansas Fugitive Slave Incident and Its International Repercussions. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 16 (Summer 1957): 139149. All hands went back into the fields in August, however, when picking began and stayed there often until the end of the year. Historian Orville Taylor estimated that roughly one in four white Arkansans either owned slaves or lived in families that did. Slavery and the Defining of Arkansas. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 58 (Spring 1999): 123. The link on the title above will take you to a page at Amazon where you can order the manuscript. Due to variable film quality, handwriting interpretation questions and Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2018. Freedmens Bureau Marriage Records In Arkansas, superintendents issued marriage certificates, occasionally performed the ceremonies themselves, and made regular reports to the assistant commissioner in Little Rock. Census data for 1860 was obtained from Pierce, Michael. At this point, usually in July, crops generally did not require intensive cultivation, and field work ended. These cookies do not store any personal information. Where did all the freed slaves go? Lankford, George E. Austins Secret: An Arkansas Slave at the Supreme Court. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 74 (Spring 2015): 5673. The enslaver, on the other hand, could dispose of slave property just like any other asset, including hiring them out, selling them, or even sending children away from their parents. University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Arkansas Slave Narratives The Writers Unit of the Library of Congress Project processes material left over from or not needed for publication by the state Writers Projects. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. on the 1860 census, the free census for 1860 should be checked, as almost 11% of African Americans were enumerated as Hello, I am looking for the Owners who had a large group of Slaves in Columbia and Union County, Arkansas, The person of interest was from James and John Peters who once was a slave owners in this area and the Man who came from the Plantation of Peters was Dawson Peters, he was born in 1825 in South Carolina and may have come from a different Plantation before Peters who moved from South Carolina. free in 1860, with about half of those living in the southern States. Use the search radius to expand the geocoded search areait may be too tight. They devoted most of their time to the cultivation of cottonplowing fields and planting the crop in late February, keeping the fields clear of grass and weeds until what was called lay-by time. Van Deburg, William L. The Slave Drivers of Arkansas: A New View from the Narratives. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 35 (Autumn 1976): 231245. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000. The first people enslaved by Europeans entered what was to become Arkansas in about 1720, when settlers moved into the John Law colony on land given to them on the lower Arkansas River by the king of France. Major funding provided by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. Colored Troops regiments during the Civil War.Freedmens Bureau Records The records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands include some unusual but valuable items marriage certificates of recently freed slaves and registers and other records containing information about slave families. This article sheds light on some of the more relevant military records which would assist researchers tracing their African American roots. The majority of those enslaved probably did not see it that way. L.?, 68 slaves, Old River Twp., page 23B, SHARED?, William C., 95 slaves, Douglas Twp., page 3B, SMITH, Emily, Wid., 70 slaves, Douglas Twp., page 5, SMITH, Thomas, 86 slaves, Douglas Twp., page 10, WILBOURN, Elizabeth C., 55 slaves, Polk Twp., page 26B, WILKERSON, Isaac, 50 slaves, Arkansas Twp., page 30, WILLIAMS, Joseph R., 144 slaves, Old River Twp., page 20B. All blacks were enumerated after 1870 in the general census. Bondswomens Work on the Cotton Frontier: Wagram Plantation, Arkansas. Agricultural History 89 (Summer 2015): 388401. A Slaves Life Those held in slavery usually lived in small log or lumber cabins in separate quarters from their white enslavers, although some might live with their owner on a small holding. . Documenting African Americans in the Records of Military Agencies In the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), there are vast quantities of records in numerous record groups (RGs) pertaining to the participation of African Americans in the military. Online at http://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/discover_history/upload/Fugitives-from-Injustice-Freedom-Seeking-Slaves-in-Arkansas.pdf (accessed February 10, 2020). . surname. American chattel slavery was a unique institution that emerged in the English colonies in America in the seventeenth century. Give a donation in someones name to mark a special occasion, honor a friend or colleague or remember a beloved family member. World War I Draft Cards Records of nearly 2 million black men (ages 18-45) who registered for the WWI draft in 1917 and 1918African American Photo Collection Thousands of photos showing African Americans throughout American historySouthern Claims Commission Records Roughly 23,000 claims filed by Southerners who sought compensation for property seized by the Union Army, Your email address will not be published. In some cases, the supplements came from plantation gardens. About Us | Contact Us | Copyright | Report Inappropriate Material Durning, Dan. Bolton, S. Charles. For more information, contact 501-918-3025 orcalsfoundation@cals.org. By the 1870 census, the white population of Arkansas County was almost document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. . Many masters encouraged religion among their slaves, sometimes for benevolent reasons but at times because they believed it would make their property more docile. 72201. Whatever job the enslaved performed, the owner usually attempted to extract as much labor from them as possible. Where did freed slaves go if they did not stay in Arkansas? Sorry, you have Javascript Disabled! Additional support provided by the Arkansas General Assembly. Zorn, Roman J. about a 10% increase. . not been considered, on the presumption that the changes would have affected the comparison groups equally. OnGenealogy is a directory of family history tools and resources. The Peculiar Institution on the Periphery: Slavery in Arkansas. PhD diss., University of Arkansas, 2014. . The Socioeconomic Role of Slavery in the Arkansas Upcountry. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 58 (Spring 1999): 4560. Omaha, NE: National Park Service, 2006. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2021. A religious life also developed within the slave community, especially variations on Protestant Christianity. Researchers of African American will find the following sources valuable in their research: Research for slaves from 1850 1860 can be done using the federal slaveholders census records available in the Arkansas census area of our site. This meant that they had no legal identity of their own, making it impossible for them to engage in contractual relations for labor, business, or even marriage. the same at 3,982, while the "colored" population had decreased over 14% to 4,212. Census", available through Heritage Quest at http://www.heritagequest.com/ . The US War Department created the Bureau after the Civil War, to bring social assistance to over 3 million former slaves and poor whites in the southern states. (function(){window['__CF$cv$params']={r:'7330a81b4dda7e38',m:'xcetOcBWZmi.WKFBDLCpnK.lOaXQyj1SJ0IagZFhq6M-1659210976-0-AcV2fqV63QlpSoBPLrmNna90IJKJosTNnT9JKbEv8kO2qVX0YTwY4da6XlR0ThIio5YNyiKd72ZRrLF2ktBaN+M2wAnIJICHW0TDYHXHQ/nVc1TdZItkolXAcZtCdbusdnauO5Js458ocS+xv0+QeVw=',s:[0x266b7523ae,0x1b04c308ae],}})(); RootsWeb is funded and supported by Slave Culture is a separate list of the surnames of the holders with information on numbers of African Americans on the 1870 census who While barely adequate, slaves survived such conditions and, in Arkansas, possibly did relatively better than those in other Southern states. Consequently, the Arkansas bureau records contain a relatively large quantity of marriage information. Pre-European Exploration, Prehistory through 1540, European Exploration and Settlement, 1541 through 1802, Louisiana Purchase through Early Statehood, 1803 through 1860, Civil War through Reconstruction, 1861 through 1874, Post-Reconstruction through the Gilded Age, 1875 through 1900, Early Twentieth Century, 1901 through 1940, World War II through the Faubus Era, 1941 through 1967, Exploracin y asentamiento europeos, 15411802, Compra de Luisiana a principios de la estabilidad, 18031860, Guerra civil a travs de la reconstruccin, 18611874, Perodo Posterior a la Reconstruccin hasta la Edad Dorada, 18751900, La segunda Guerra Mundial hasta la Era de Faubus, 19411967, http://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/discover_history/upload/Fugitives-from-Injustice-Freedom-Seeking-Slaves-in-Arkansas.pdf, https://lawrepository.ualr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1729&context=lawreview, Louisiana Purchase through Early Statehood (1803 - 1860), Life in the Arkansas Territory (Grades 5-8), ARKANSAS SLAVE CENSUS COMPARED TO TOTAL POPULATION: 1840, 1850, 1860 (BY COUNTY). Little Rock: Butler Center Books, 2018. addressed in this transcription. Slavery in Arkansas encouraged the states economic development in the antebellum period, but it also played a major role in determining the states catastrophic course in the sectional crisis of the 1850s. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2018. They were owned, however, by only about twenty-six percent of the states slave owners. Moneyhon, Carl H. The Slave Family in Arkansas. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 58 (Spring 1999): 2444. Field slaves then labored at building and repairing fences, clearing land, and performing a wide variety of other plantation chores. If you have a genealogy business or resource, we'd love to add you to our listings! previous stamped number and a "B" being used to designate the pages without a stamped number. White Fear of Black Rebellion in Antebellum Arkansas, 18191865. In The Elaine Massacre and Arkansas: A Century of Atrocity and Resistance, 18191919, edited by Guy Lancaster. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. If you have a genealogy-related site youd like people to find, please contact [emailprotected] and well list your business in our directory. Slave cabins usually had dirt floors, contained very little furniture, and perhaps even lacked doors and windows. Plantation names were not shown on the census. Honor or memorial gifts are an everlasting way to pay tribute to someone who has touched your life. The first time you log in to our catalog you will need to create an account. Bondwomen on Arkansass Cotton Frontier: Migration, Labor, Family, and Resistance among an Exploited Class. In Arkansas Women: Their Lives and Times, edited by Cherisse Jones-Branch and Gary T. Edwards. Required fields are marked *. Enslaved adults with skills such as carpentry or blacksmithing could bring enormous prices, with some such slaves costing as high as $2,800. The diet was barely adequate, as the death rate of the enslaved relative to whites showed. An ancestor not shown to hold slaves on the 1860 slave census could have held slaves on an earlier census, so those films can be checked also. it is beyond the scope of this transcription. 17,000 (6,400%). The process of publication of slaveholder names beginning with larger slaveholders will enable naming of the holders of the most slaves with the least amount of transcription work. Battershell, Gary. Some planters allowed slaves to tend small patches of their own. Estimates of the number of former slaves who used the Music also constituted an important part of slave culture. Racially related terms such as African American, black, mulatto and colored are used as in Tending livestock, working as skilled craftsmen, or performing housework were typical of the jobs performed by those not in the fields. By 1820, it had risen to 1,617. 53) reportedly includes a total of 4,921 slaves. In cases where a master allowed slaves to carry arms and hunt, they added wild game and fish to their diet. We do this by listing sites in our directory and spotlighting these resources on our social media channels. Colored Troops Records Records of the more than 178,000 men who served in the U.S. research techniques involving all obtainable records of the holder. Fugitives from Injustice: Freedom-Seeking Slaves in Arkansas, 18001860. . Despite the power of the enslaver, however, slaves proved to be very resourceful at controlling their working conditions within limits. Walz, Robert. A Rough, Saucy Set of Hands to Manage: Slave Resistance in Arkansas. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 71 (Spring 2012): 121. Pulaski County saw an increase of 10,000 in the colored population in those ten years, but no other County in the State showed a significant increase. Bearing Witness: Memories of Arkansas Slavery: Narratives from the 1930s WPA Collections. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. However, it has been republished by the University of Arkansas Press, and is more widely available. Griffith, Nancy Snell. Through that decade, convinced that a rising Republican Party in the North threatened the future of the institution, leading Arkansas politicians joined others from the South in demanding protection of slavery and threatening a disruption of the Union if the institutions future was not guaranteed. Additional support provided by the Arkansas Community Foundation. Slavery and the Creation of Arkansas Territory: A Reconsideration. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 78 (Autumn 2019): 231247. source film personally to verify or modify the information in this transcription for their own purposes. The development of this area and its creation as Arkansas Territory in 1819 spurred a rapid growth in the enslaved population. The existence of slavery ultimately helped to determine the political course of the territory and state until the end of the Civil War and slaverys abolition in 1865 with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Enslaved peoples were held involuntarily as property by slave owners who controlled their labor and freedom. such age enumerated, out of a total of 3,950,546 slaves nationwide. census and they may have still been living in the same State or County. Although slavery clearly touched the lives of many white Arkansans, most slave-owners possessed only a few. Much is known about slavery from the perspective of whites, but less is known about the enslaved themselves, especially from their point of view. The 1850 census indicated that the death rate among the enslaved in Arkansas was 1.83 per thousand, considerably lower than the overall national average of 2.13. Enslaved people lived in every county and in both rural and urban settings in antebellum Arkansas. Shafer, Robert S. White Persons Held to Racial Slavery in Antebellum Arkansas. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 44 (Summer 1985): 134155. . Slaves had to be controlled, and laws attempted to achieve that goal and provided for punishment of those who broke these laws. Slavery and Secession in Arkansas: A Documentary History. The agent at Arkadelphia, however, also recorded the color of the persons marrying, the color of their parents, the number of years they had lived with another person, the reason for the separation, and the number of children by the previous union. The removal of thousands of white men from the countryside weakened the hold of masters on those in slavery. When a tribute gift is given the honoree will receive a letter acknowledging your generosity and a bookplate will be placed in a book.