Uh oh...
It appears that you're using a severely outdated version of Safari on Windows. Many features won't work correctly, and functionality can't be guaranteed. Please try viewing this website in Edge, Mozilla, Chrome, or another modern browser. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused!
Read More about this safari issue.
As America prepares to celebrate 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it is easy to think of the nation’s earliest history as something that happened in far away places like Boston, Philadelphia or Williamsburg. But long before Arkansas became the 25th state in 1836, this land was already deeply connected to the story of early America.
Arkansas was not an empty frontier. The land was home to three Native tribes: the Osage, the Caddo and the Quapaw. The Quapaw lived primarily along the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers and were most instrumental in the success of early Europeans who explored the area. French Explorers relied heavily on relationships with the Quapaw and utilized the trade routes they had built to expand their fur trade networks throughout the Mississippi River Valley.
In 1686, French trader Henri de Tonti founded Arkansas Post, southeast of Pine Bluff, near the town now known as Gillett. Arkansas Post is considered the first permanent European settlement in the lower Mississippi Valley and predates the United States by nearly a century.
Life at Arkansas Post was not easy, and settlers likely would not have survived without the support and knowledge of the Quapaw people. Early European traders depended heavily on Native nations for food, trade, navigation and survival skills in an unfamiliar environment. The Quapaw helped French settlers learn river routes, understand seasonal flooding patterns and establish trade networks across the Mississippi Valley. They also traded valuable animal pelts, which fueled the French fur trade economy.
Even though Arkansas was far from the major Revolutionary War battles, the region was still connected to the larger conflict between European powers. While the Declaration of Independence was being signed in Philadelphia in 1776, Arkansas was still a tiny frontier settlement flying the Spanish flag along the Arkansas River. Spain eventually became an ally of the American colonies against Britain during the Revolution, and control of the Mississippi River became strategically important. Arkansas Post helped Spain maintain influence in the lower Mississippi Valley during this period.
By 1800, however, control of the Louisiana Territory shifted once again. Through the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain agreed to return the vast territory, including present-day Arkansas, back to France under Napoleon Bonaparte. The transfer was part of Napoleon’s attempt to rebuild French influence in North America, though the change likely had little immediate effect on daily life at Arkansas Post beyond yet another flag flying over the settlement.
The signing of the Declaration of Independence helped set in motion a chain of events that would eventually transform Arkansas completely. After the American Revolution, the young United States began looking westward toward the Mississippi River as critical to its future growth, and Arkansas sat directly along that important trade corridor. Just three years after Spain returned Louisiana to France, Napoleon abandoned his North American ambitions and sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Overnight, Arkansas went from being part of a European colonial empire to part of an expanding United States, setting the stage for increased settlement and eventually statehood in 1836. As American influence grew in the region, Arkansas Post briefly served as the first capital of the Arkansas Territory beginning in 1819 before the capital moved to Little Rock in 1821.
Cover Photo: Depiction of Arkansas Post in 1689, copied from the original by Annie Hatley in 1904. Public domain.
We do the work.
You check your email.
Sign up for our weekly e-news.
Get stories sent straight to your inbox!
Like this story? Read more from Julie Kohl
I love to cook, and that includes cooking at the campsite. But not...
I have always loved dining outdoors, and I will look for just about any...
If I told you I had a story about a doctor, a snake and a stork, you’d...
Join the Conversation
Leave a Comment