Highly profitable reading. . . . This is an important work that is based upon incredible research and written with clarity, grace, and sensitivity. The story of Caulder, his family, and his associates is not only inherently interesting, but it is also a story with broad historical implications."—Willard B. Gatewood, Alumni Distinguished Professor of history emeritus at the University ... Read moreof Arkansas and author of Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880—1920 and Smoked Yankees and the Struggle for Empire: Letters from Negro Soldiers, 1898—1902. "Higgins has performed a remarkable achievement as well as a great service by piecing together the life of Peter Caulder, an obscure but fascinating figure whose biography gives us a new perspective on the racial aspects of the antebellum Arkansas frontier." —S. Charles Bolton, author of Arkansas, 1800–1860, and co-editor of A Whole Country in Commotion, writing in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette "Billy Higgins, detective-historian of remarkable merit, has put together one of the more intriguing stories I have ever read about the Antebellum South in all its complexity. Peter Caulder, an illiterate free black, defied all our generalizations about race as he served with distinction in the United States Army, repeatedly crossed the color line, and became an Arkansas yeoman farmer, thriving and respected by white neighbors until he fell victim of new discriminatory legislation on the eve of the Civil War. It is essential reading for students of African-American and Southern history." —Don Higginbotham, professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of George Washington: Uniting a Nation "Higgins presents a more complex and nuanced picture of life for blacks in the antebellum South in this portrait of a black frontiersman who lived and thrived in the Arkansas Territory. . . . Using numerous historical resources, Higgins reconstructs Caulder's life as an independent, though engaged, citizen of the territory. He also portrays the number of other free blacks who lived in tentative peace and self-sufficiency among white neighbours until the murder of a local white man, the expulsion of free blacks, and the threat of enslavement forced Caulder to flee Missouri. This well-researched book adds new dimension to portraits of the lives of blacks before and after the Civil War." —Booklist (American Library Association) "A painstakingly reconstructed account of a remarkable life, one that reveals the interwoven frontiers of race, geography, and culture in nineteenth century America. And a worthy reminder that history is always more complicated than we thought." —H. W. Brands, distinguished professor of history at Texas A & M University and author of The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s "Meticulously researched and solidly written, Higgins' book succeeds as a look into some of the best—and the worst—of the settling of Arkansas. Anyone interested in local history will want to add it to his bookshelf." —Grant Tolley, Southwest Times Record (Fort Smith, Arkansas) Show Less