By: James Swift, Jr.
While you’ve probably read a lot of modern Arkansas news here, this day in Black history in 1859, Arkansas enacted a law that called for the exile and ban of free Black and mixed people from living within the state. The bill passed on February 12 and needed for Conway—who was all too happy to be rid of Black people in Arkansas—to sign off on it.
The main conditions of the bill gave free Black people until January 1, 1860, to leave Arkansas or they would be sold into slavery for a year. The money gained from their labor would be used to finance their removal from Arkansas. This is a law that other states considered, but didn’t act on.
In Arkansas’ case, it was the governor’s pro-removal attitude to resulted in the state moving on it after ten years. Another thing that allowed for the state to put this law into action was the decision of the Dred Scott case two years earlier which established that Black people weren’t citizens. This cleared them from any challenges from the U.S. Supreme Court.
It’s important to point out that at this time there was just around 700 free Black people living in the state, but that was a sizable enough population to fan fears. Add to this that some counties made it legal for Black people to own firearms and move about the state with permission and the appeal of the removal act raised significantly.
The fear of slavery was enough to see the bulk of the free Black population leave the state with just under 150 people staying with white families. Those who left Arkansas were leaving behind their property, established homes, and in some cases full communities.
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