Frontier family ca. 1830 from Crockett's Almanac, courtesy of the American Philosophical Society
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For a time it appeared that Arkansas Territory was on its way to becoming Indian Territory. Two virtually simultaneous developments doomed this plan. The first occurred around 1816 or 1817. As the land began to fill with settlers along Boone's Lick Road in southern Missouri, a fork emerged near St. Genevieve in southeastern Missouri. It snaked southwestward into Arkansas, following an old Indian hunting trail along the foothills separating the Arkansas highlands from the delta. Known as the National Road or, more commonly, the Southwest Trail, by 1819 it had made its way to the Red River and on into Texas. At last pioneer families with furnishings, livestock, and children had a viable route into Arkansas.
The second factor that overthrew two decades of federal Indian policy was the emergence of an even more divisive issue: slavery. The controversy suddenly erupted over Missouri statehood and was temporarily resolved by the famous Missouri Compromise. One of the provisions of this understanding was a balance between free states and territories and those that allowed slavery. It was in this context that Arkansas Territory was created and declared open to slavery.
Territorial status combined with the existence of a new road to bring a sudden influx of white settlers into Arkansas. These settlers had seen other territories advance rapidly to statehood and expected Arkansas to do the same. This doomed any hope of transforming Arkansas into an Indian refuge. Those Indians whom the government had persuaded to relocate to Arkansas suddenly faced the same white encroachment they had immigrated to escape.
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"On this important acquisition, so favorable to the immediate interests of our Western citizens, so auspicious to the peace and security of the nation in general, which adds to our country territories so extensive and fertile…I offer to Congress and our country my sincere congratulations."
President Thomas Jefferson
January 16, 1804
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Want more on wilderness Arkansas? Read "The Big Bear of Arkansas."
See also the article "Southwest Trail Main Route to New Arkansas Territory" in the Fall 1993 issue of the Arkansas News.
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