Customer Reviews

A Stranger and a Sojourner: Peter Caulder, Free Black Frontiersman in Antebellum Arkansas

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Before reviewing, in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I am Peter Caulder's great-great-grandson.

This came as something of a shock to me, as I'd been told all my life that I was half Dutch and half Cherokee-Choctaw. Nothing about my features, save for a tan that lasts in some degree all year and a high resistance to sunburn, give much of a clue, and I generally think of myself as half white and half Amerind.

Yes, I'm certain of this; I have fond memories of my grandfather - who also had no immediately obvious african features - Henry Elbert Caulder, who is on the last line of the Caulder geneaology in the book. He had three fingers on one hand, having lost them in a combine accident, and died quite some time ago...early 1990's I believe.

So I have a bias.

That said, I really enjoyed the book. For one thing, it gives an insight into a totally different kind of black man in the early 19th century than we are generally led to believe existed - a free sharecropper who joined the army and served for 14 years, helped establish a small colony of free blacks in north-central Arkansas, helped build Ft. Hood...I am generally of empirical mind, but I didn't find enough lacking in the documentation to detract from the value of the information presented or the way it was presented.

I'll concede that much of it is second-hand and speculation, but the basic facts - that Caulder was a free black man born in South Carolina who joined the US Armed Forces with several other colored men (and family members) in his area as 'seconds,' a fairly common practice at that time (and long before the Tuskeegee Airmen, not to detract from their noble accomplishments!) There's no question that he was well-regarded by his fellow soldiers and superior officers, and he seems to have served well, if not in remarkable enough fashion to earn notable commendations.

Regrettably, he also deserted after 14 years, by all indications to be with a woman he loved and help start the aforementioned colony.

There is also no question that when Arkansas made free blacks illegal, a substantial percentage of the commune, including Caulder, moved to south-central Missouri and put down roots there. He still has descendants living there, including at least one of Henry Elbert Caulder's sisters, I *think*. I'd have to ask my mom.

Beyond my obvious personal interest though, I appreciate this book for exposing me to a new way of thinking about what life was like for black people in the years before the Civil War really started building. There is further indication in the book that Peter's father, Moses, was married to a white woman and they lived as husband and wife. Prior to Moses, there seems to be no information, so I can't say if any of my ancestors were slaves or not, and I hope I can say without offending anyone that I don't much care.

It's a fascinating, well-written story that will give you pause to challenge your own notions about the history of race in America, and I think it's well worth reading, regardless of my personal relation to the book.

I *would* like to thank Billy D. Higgins - with whom I've never spoken, nor has anyone in my family that I know of, he seems to have worked exclusively from publicly available information - for putting this book together, both from the personal point of view and from that of a reader.

Billy D Higgins presents information in this book that broadens our understanding of US history. He tells the life story of Peter Caulder, a man of color, who grew up in an integrated rural community in Marion County, South Carolina where free black and white yeomen lived and cooperated in apparent harmony. Peter, his father, and several friends were recruited into the local milita unit as substitutes for more affluent neighbors and then into the US Rifle Regiment. These people of color served in an integrated army unit during the War of 1812 and, in Caulder's case, long after.

Caulder remained in the army for fourteen years, spending most of his time at frontier posts in northwestern Arkansas Territory. After leaving the army, he became a landowner and taxpayer in a free black enclave on the White River in Arkansas.

Unfortunately Higgins as created his book out of very limited documentation by padding fact with speculation, repitition, and extraneous information. Peter Caulder,like most of the people around him, was illiterate. The written record of his life is scantily recorded in census counts, army records and reports, sutlers' accounts, tax rolls, and the accounts of the few literate people with whom he came in contact. The book is awash in "may have", "might have", "perhaps", and "probably". The factual material is sufficient for a scholarly article, but not a book.

I still recommend it. In addition to telling Caulder's story, the book describes military life on the southeastern frontier and supplies interesting glimpses of US-Indian interaction in the wake of the Louisiana Purchase. Like NEGRO COWBOYS by Durham & Everett, A STRANGER AND A SOJOURNER compels the reader to rearrange the furniture in his attic of preconceptions.

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Billy Matney

Higgins provides an extremely detailed account of how the life of an individual, Peter Caulder, otherwise lost to history, is shaped by the trajectories taken by the history of a nation. Higgins masterfully mines the historical record and reconstructs the potent agency demonstrated by an individual otherwise relegated to the margins of society. Caulder clearly leaves his mark on society and Higgins ingeniously teases that out of the historical record. In likewise fashion Higgins boldly fashions a record of how Hal Smith and the 20th century intersected in The Barling Darling: Hal Smith in American Baseball.

The book lacks any proper documentation, and it is full of speculation, in other words, a work of fiction. Higgins portrays the entire population, of Free Persons of Color in Marion County Arkansas as black, this is not the case, most of these families living on white River during that time frame that Higgins talks about in his book, were indeed Native Americans, some of these Indians were of mixed heritage, but I doubt if there were any full Blacks as Higgins tries to make you believe. If Higgins would have done any real research he would have known that there can be a difference between a Free Black Person and a Free Person of Color, anyone atempting to write a book, that covers the issue of race, should make an attemp to do proper research on the subject, before they put pen to paper .
Anyone wishing to use Higgins book for genealogical research is wasting thier time,it is full of errors in most of the ancestrial lines he quotes, but if you have time to spare and like fiction, you might enjoy it, that is if you can work your way around all of the ifs, maybes and probably so's.