UA Press, African American Studies, Fayetteville Library Present Author Billy D. Higgins

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. —Author Billy D. Higgins, professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, will speak on the topic of his book, “A Stranger and a Sojourner: Peter Caulder, Free Black Frontiersman in Antebellum Arkansas,” (UA Press 2004) at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, in the Walker Meeting Room of the Fayetteville Public Library.

“A Stranger and a Sojourner” tells the extraordinary story of Peter Caulder, who established a community of free-born African Americans in the Arkansas Territory. After serving as a rifleman in the war of 1812, Caulder was largely accepted by his neighbors until an 1859 expulsion law forced the community to flee the state and settle in Missouri.

Like many frontier people, Caulder was unschooled and signed his name only with a mark. To document such a man’s life, and to determine how he thrived within a slave society and came to join a free black backwoods community, Higgins has interwoven oft-neglected primary sources - many of which are reproduced here - from around the country. Through information revealed in censuses, tax records, sutlers’ account books, army returns, folk stories, land warrants, travelers’ journals and newspaper notices, a fascinating - and groundbreaking - account of Caulder, his family, his friends and his community has emerged.

Higgins, who teaches history and geography at UA Fort Smith, is the author of numerous articles on Peter Caulder and on David Hall, who was also a free black pioneer. His essays on African-American culture before and after the Civil War have appeared in “Freedom’s Odyssey: African American History Essays from Phylon” and the “Arkansas Historical Quarterly.” “A Stranger and a Sojourner,” his first book, is a co-winner of the 2005 Ragsdale Award.

The lecture is sponsored by the Fayetteville Public Library, the UA Press and the African American Studies Program in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. It will be followed by a book signing and reception. For more information on the book “A Stranger and a Sojourner,” visit the UA Press Web site at http://www.uapress.com/titles/fa04/higgins_sojourner.html.