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| Map of Pine Bluff in 1869. The Taylor plantation was along the road circled in red From Arkansas Digital Archive |
In this post, we'll take another look at Pine Bluff, Arkansas during and after the Civil War. The freedman Robert Williams provided detailed testimony about his experience to the federal government as part of a request for financial restitution for provisions taken by the Union army.
The records of testimony that Robert and others gave need to be read critically. In order to receive compensation, Robert needed to not only convince federal officials that he was accurately describing provisions taken, but he also needed to show that he had remained loyal to the Union throughout the war. The federal officials he was speaking to were largely white men from the north who had served as army officers during the war. While they were hostile to the Confederacy and secession, their attitude towards freedpeople was mixed. Former Union soldiers generally hated the institution of slavery, but they also displayed racist attitudes towards freedpeople, viewing them as a "primitive" and often untrustworthy people who had been debased by enslavement. One interviewer described Robert in his records as a "darky witness." Nevertheless, the claim records provide unique insight into the life of freedpeople living around Pine Bluff.
Life at the outbreak of the Civil War
When the war broke out, Robert was in late his twenties and living on the plantation of John Taylor, one of the many plantations surrounding the town of Pine Bluff. He had been "purchased" by Taylor five years earlier. On the Taylor plantation, Robert was a "mechanic," meaning he performed skilled labor that included blacksmithing and sawing timber. He was able to start his own family. He married an enslaved woman named Charlotte, and together they were raising at least two children, their daughters Mary and Alice.
The Taylor plantation was located about three miles southeast of the town of Pine Bluff, on the lower Monticello road and about two miles from the Arkansas River. The plantation was a large operation. Approximately one-hundred enslaved workers lived there, and they were supervised by John Taylor's family and a hired (white) overseer. Unfortunately, detailed records of the plantation are unavailable, but farming in the region generally focused on cotton and food provisions (potatoes, corn, and hogs).
Robert's enslaver, John Taylor, was an interesting figure. He and his wife had moved to Arkansas from Kentucky, likely to take advantage of the farm land that became cheaply available after the removal of local native peoples. He experienced considerable financial success. Between the land he owned and the hundred-some people he enslaved, he was one of the wealthiest men in the state. Yet he carried himself quietly and with grace. Residents who knew John described him as "quiet" and a "plain unassuming man" who "did not stand on his riches."
Most remarkably, Taylor opposed secession and was a staunch Unionist throughout the war even though a Union victory meant devastating personal financial loss. In general, political sentiments around Pine Bluff were mixed. The region was home to a number of plantations, and many of the planters supported secession and the Confederacy. But also living in the area were a number of committed Unionists.
The most prominent Unionists living in Pine Bluff included Anthony A. R. Rogers, an acquaintance of Taylor's. Rogers was a merchant who had moved to Arkansas from Tennessee in 1854. He was a delegate to the 1861 state secession convention, where he opposed leaving the Union. During the second year of the war (in fall 1862), he was arrested by Confederate officials on a charge of treason and imprisoned in Little Rock. Taylor traveled to the city to support Rogers and even offered to cover Rogers's bond.
In general, Unionists like Rogers and Taylor were hated by many residents. John Taylor was called "Yankee John" by Confederates. Tensions became particularly bad in fall 1862 when the Union army began threatening Pine Bluff. Confederate forces were stationed near the town, and Taylor refused to provide them with food provisions, going so far as to bury meat that he had in storage in order to hide it from Confederate authorities. When the Confederate government began pressing enslaved workers into service for the war effort, Taylor warned the enslaved people on his plantation and ultimately sent them temporarily twenty miles away to Bayou Bartholomew so they could avoid Confederate officials. Robert Williams managed to avoid Confederate service, but others on the plantation were not as lucky. Lewis Byers was captured by "rebels" and forced to labor in support of the Confederate war effort until he escaped by running away.
John Taylor, himself, was once captured by bushwhackers (irregular Confederate troops). The bushwhackers were concerned that Taylor would report a raid that they were planning to Union forces. They took Taylor twenty miles away from his plantation, but then released him.
Union army forces began nearing Pine Bluff in the fall of 1863. That September, the Union army occupied the state capital of Little Rock after defeating defending Confederate forces. At the request of Pine Bluff residents, Union forces were sent to the town to protect it from the Confederate soldiers and bandits. Union control of Pine Bluff meant the emancipation of all slaves in the area. To avoid this, most planters fled to Texas with their enslaved workers. Taylor was one of the few who stayed. He not only was aware that he stood to lose his enslaved workforce, but he was candid about this. He told Robert Williams that, "when Federal forces came [Robert] would be as free as [Taylor] was." True to his word, once the Union army took control of Pine Bluff, he told the people he enslaved that they were free, and he offered to employ them for pay if they remained on the plantation. Many of the newly freed workers continued to work for the Taylor family.
A few months after emancipation (in February 1864), Robert Williams reached a labor agreement with Taylor. In exchange for his services as a sawyer and blacksmith, Robert was given the right to farm a forty-acre plot of land known as the "gin field" (because it contained the plantation's cotton gin). On the land, Robert raised hogs and planted corn and cotton, a typical arrangement for a small farmer in Arkansas.
Confederates were angry with Taylor for supporting the Union. Before they left Pine Bluff, Confederate soldiers burned seventy bales of cotton which they found on Taylor's farm, a major financial loss. Many white residents of Pine Bluff shunned the Taylor family, and they largely socialized with occupying Union army officers for the remainder of the war. John Taylor's wife, Mary, once heard rumors that Confederate soldiers serving under Major-General John S. Marmaduke were threatening to damage their plantation in retaliation for their Unionism, although nothing came of that.
The Taylor plantation was protected from Confederate soldiers and bandits by Union soldiers living there. A picket of approximately thirty soldiers were stationed during the last years of the war. The soldiers lived in the former home of the overseer, near Robert Williams' farm.
The Union soldiers were a mixed blessing. While they protected freedpeople and the Taylor family, they also were a considerable burden on households as they requisitioned food provisions. To supplement their rations, the Union soldiers regularly took potatoes, corn, hay, and hogs from the farms on the Taylor plantation.
In August 1864, the corn Robert was growing became ready for harvesting, and the soldiers took it for food and fodder. Robert filed a complaint with the commanding officer. The officer was sympathetic. He explained that the soldiers needed the corn to supplement their provisions but offered to provide Robert with a receipt. However, before he did so, he and his troops were called away because of a rumored upcoming attack on Pine Bluff. While he was away, the commanding officer fell ill, and Robert never got the requested receipt.
Life after the war
Unfortunately, the information about Robert becomes thin after the Civil War ended. However, we can extract some information about conditions in Pine Bluff in the years after the war. John Taylor died the year after the war, but his wife Mary and children remained in the area. In 1870, Mary was living on the plantation with her mother-in-law and children as well as four Black women, likely woman who had been enslaved as domestic servants by the Taylor family. Robert and the Taylor family appeared to have remained on good terms. Robert remained farming on the Taylor plantation throughout the 1870s, and he testified in support of financial claims made by Mary. Mary and her son, Forman, returned the favor and testified for Robert.
Robert also remained in contact with a number of the Union soldiers who had been stationed in Pine Bluff. Quite a few stayed in town after the war as civilians. The soldiers were mostly from out-of-state and were trying to start a new life for themselves. The ex-Union soldiers who testified in favor of Robert's claim were James F. Vaughn, James M. Mahar, and Samuel W. Mallory. The three men were originally from Ireland, Tennessee, and New York respectively. In Pine Bluff, Mahar found work as a carpenter. The other two obtained appointed to state and federal government. Mallory served as a superintendent of the Freedmen's Bureau and then worked as a lawyer, while Vaughn was county sheriff. Not only did these men confirm that Union soldiers had taken Robert's provisions, but they also attested to his character. Vaughn said that Robert was an "industrious and honest man."
Robert's efforts to obtain restitution were successful, and he was paid approximately three-hundred dollars by the federal government. Beyond farming near Pine Bluff during the 1870s, it is unclear what became of him. In all likelihood, his life likely became quite difficult in 1874. That year much of Arkansas, including Pine Bluff, descended into chaos and political violence. State politician Joseph Brooks had run for governor in 1872, and after losing the election, he challenged the results. His efforts came to a climax in the summer of 1874 when Brooks and a large group of armed supporters took control of the State Capital and declared Brooks the governor. The elected governor, Elisha Baxter, refused to acknowledge this, and his own supporters armed themselves and challenged Brooks.
In April, Baxter's supporters imposed martial law in Pine Bluff and the surrounding county. They then arrested Sheriff Vaughn and other influential citizens who supported Brooks' claim. The men spent a number of days in jail, but they were ultimately released, and Baxter, under pressure from the president, ultimately withdrew his claim to the governorship in May. The long-term result of his efforts was the destruction of the Republican Party of Arkansas. Conservative democrats took advantage of the disorder to call a constitutional convention. They then proceeded to revise the constitution and then swept the subsequent election.
The rise of conservative democrats meant a sharp decline in the fortunes of Robert Williams and many of his friends. Ex-planters and Confederate dominated the political party, and their main political goal was to undo the political changes that had taken in the years after the Civil War. Seeing no place for themselves, many of the pro-Union residents and the ex-Union soldiers left the state. Anthony Rogers left for northern California. Options for freedpeople like Robert were more limited. Many lacked the means to move and continued to live and work in Arkansas within an environment that was increasing hostile to freedpeople.
Sources
1. Year: 1870; Census Place: Vaugine, Jefferson, Arkansas; Roll: M593_56; Page: 502A
2. INDEX TO REPORTS OF COMMITTEES OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOR THE SECOND SESSION OF THE FORTY-THIRD CONGRESS. 1874-'75
3. Year: 1870; Census Place: Pine Bluff, Jefferson, Arkansas; Roll: M593_56; Page: 539B
4. Southern Claims Commission
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