A Stranger and a Sojourner: Peter Caulder, Free Black Frontiersman in Antebellum Arkansas tells the extraordinary story of Peter Caulder, a free African American settler in the Arkansas Territory. After serving as a rifleman in the war of 1812, Caulder established a community of free-born African Americans in northern Arkansas and was largely accepted by his white neighbors until an 1859 expulsion law forced the community to flee the state and settle in Missouri. Like many frontier people, Peter Caulder was unschooled and signed his name only with a mark. To document such a man s life, and to...

A quiet kid from small-town Arkansas became an All Star fifty years ago. The St. Louis Cardinals were contenders in 1957 and '59, two of Hal Smith's best years as a Major League player. Smith, out of tiny Barling, Arkansas, had risen in the Minor Leagues, and even played in Mexico, Cuba, and the Asian circuit. Readers will be intrigued to learn key roles Smith played as baseball went through profound changes in the late 1950s. At the time, Smith was helping Bob Gibson grow into an All Star pitcher and Tim McCarver to become one of the great catchers. Smith, himself, played in the 1959 All...