| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.3

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

A Stranger and a Sojourner: Peter Caulder, Free Black Frontiersman in Antebellum Arkansas. By Billy D. Higgins. (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2004. xviii, 349 pp. $34.95, ISBN 1-55728-777-5.)

Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier. By Carolyn Earle Billingsley. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004. xiv, 215 pp. Cloth, $49.95, ISBN 0-8203-2509-0. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-8203-2510-4.)

These two books trace the experience of two pioneers in antebellum Arkansas, one rich and one poor, one who thrived and one who did not, one white and one black. Peter Caulder, depicted in A Stranger and a Sojourner, left his native state of South Carolina with several friends to join the United States Army during the War of 1812. He served a little more than two enlistments, posted for most of that time to the Arkansas Territory. He saw little military action but distinguished himself by his knowledge of the land, and he was assigned to hunting, guiding, and exploration. Although Caulder was illiterate and left no personal records, Billy D. Higgins skillfully uses sutlers' ledgers, army returns, court records, and travelers' accounts to re-create Caulder's experience as well as this corner of army life.

The frontier army seems to have agreed with Caulder. Higgins argues that, although Caulder was recognized as an African American, he was also a valued soldier and was treated relatively well. His superiors often granted him special privileges and attractive assignments. The main indication of racial discrimination is that, despite a good service record, Caulder was bypassed for promotion in favor of less experienced men who were white. Caulder's reaction, judging by his decision to reenlist twice, was mild acceptance. Caulder, however, deserted when the nature of his assignments changed under a new commander.

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