Sign-In
Cart
Blackville, Arkansas - Fashioned by a Former Slave: Stories from Individuals Who Remember Blackville
Paperback
Black American HistoryAviationRegional: South
ISBN13: 9781977207760
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Published: Mar 3 2025
Pages: 220
Weight: 0.88
Height: 0.60 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Blackville, Arkansas, an all-Black self-sufficient thriving community was named after its founder Pickens Black Sr., a former slave. When a young man, he migrated to Jackson County in Northeast Arkansas. While working in Jackson County, Black saved his earnings, purchased acres of land, cut the timber, sold it, purchased more acres, repeating the process. By the 1940s he owned 8,000 acres of land, comparable to twelve square miles.
His land started about fourteen miles south of Newport, Arkansas, the county seat, and ran twenty miles south to Shortland. Houses in which families lived that sharecropped on the land of Mr. Black stretched the length of the twenty miles.
Workers grew cotton, rice, and soybeans in season.
There was a mercantile store in Blackville and everything from farming tools and seeds, to watches, shoes and clothes, gasoline, as well as foods were sold there. Black donated the land and paid for the construction of the two churches in Blackville, one Baptist and the other Methodist, and he donated the land and contributed handsomely for the school that was built.
At the height of his power Black owned forty (40) tractors, combines, flatbed trucks, pickup trucks and other agricultural equipment to develop the local economy. He owned several crop dusters which the aviator Pickens Black Jr. and other Black pilots flew. Black pilots resided seasonally in Blackville and flew for the Black enterprise crop dusting.
There was a mechanic shop in Blackville run by men whose sole employment was to maintain the farm machinery for the Black enterprise.
There was a team of builders employed by Black Sr., and their only job was the maintenance and repair of the numerous houses that sharecroppers lived in and the upkeep of structures in Blackville integral to the local economy.
There were men whose salaried occupation was to water and feed the horses and mules that worked the fields.
All the salaried workers lived in Blackville.
When Black died in 1955, he left a rural empire in the isolated hill country that valued in the millions of dollars that consisted of a cotton gin, mercantile store, agrarian machinery, vehicles, grain silos, and a small fleet of airplanes.
The successor of Pickens Black Sr. after his demise was Pickens Black Jr.
Black Jr. expanded the Black enterprise. The rice, cotton, and soybean crops yielded such profits that he had to hire an accountant to come live in Blackville and manage the financial books. A meat slaughtering house was erected and farm animals grown locally were slaughtered and sold. A Farm Manager was hired to come and live in Blackville and manage the huge Black farm economy. The Farm Manager was a recent graduate of AM&N College in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and had a solid academic background in agriculture.
Black Jr. brought a cultural dimension to Blackville. He had a recreation center built for teenagers. A gymnasium was erected to accommodate the junior high school girls' and boys' basketball teams at Blackville Junior High School. A 4-H Club was established.
The aviator would sometimes on a Sunday afternoon take some of the children up in his passenger airplane, circle Blackville, and land, providing them an experience of riding on an aircraft.
Last generation Blackville residents share timeless reflections with readers in this volume.
Also from
Vaughn, Wally G.
Juneteenth Researchers Incorrect about Slaves in Texas: They Knew Before June 19, 1865
Vaughn, Wally G.
Paperback
Also in
Regional: South
Kingdom of Devils: A Tale of Murder in the Shadow of the American Revolution
Grandjean, Katherine
Hardcover
Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War
Fields-Black, Edda L.
Hardcover
They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South
Jones-Rogers, Stephanie E.
Paperback
The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw: From Reconstruction Through Black Lives Matter
Boggs, Belle
Allen, Sylvester, Jr.
Hardcover
When It's Darkness on the Delta: How America's Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land
Eubanks, W. Ralph
Hardcover
Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression
Knowlton, Christopher
Paperback
Wilmington's Lie (Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize): The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy
Zucchino, David
Paperback
The Golden Age of Normandale: An Illustrated Remembrance of Montgomery's Legendary Shopping Center
Moseley, Willie G.
Paperback
The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home
Kiernan, Denise
Paperback
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
King, Gilbert
Paperback
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
Perry, Imani
Paperback
Partisans and Redcoats: The Southern Conflict That Turned the Tide of the American Revolution
Edgar, Walter B.
Paperback
Finding Sarah and Mary: Unraveling African American Genealogy from the Ground Up
Jones Royster, Jacqueline
Paperback
Kings Mountain: America's Most Forgotten Battle That Changed the Course of the American Revolution
Tucker, Phillip Thomas
Hardcover
Lost Raleigh: Exploring the Oak City's Architectural History
Dunn, Ian F. G.
Hanbury, Mary Ruffin
Paperback
I Am Murdered: George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson, and the Killing That Shocked a New Nation
Chadwick, Bruce
Paperback
Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera: An Insider's History of the Florida-Alabama Coast
Jackson, Harvey H., III
Paperback
A Portrait of Walt Disney World: 50 Years of the Most Magical Place on Earth
O'Day, Tim
Vagnini, Steven
Kern, Kevin M.
Hardcover
The Lightning-Bug and the Lightning: Debunking the Myths of Mark Twain, in His Own Words
Dawidziak, Mark
Hardcover
The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim's Journey on the Great Wagon Road
Dodson, James
Hardcover
Language and Life on Ocracoke: The Living History of the Brogue
Gaskill, Candy
Reaser, Jeffrey
Wolfram, Walt
Paperback
Digging Up Bones: When Truth Is Exhumed: When Truth Is Exhumed (Large Print Edition)
Radic, Tanya Covington
Paperback
The Nature of Pain: Roots, Recovery, and Redemption Amid the Opioid Crisis
Sheffel, Mandi Fugate
Hardcover
Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
Covington, Dennis
Paperback
Spooky Florida: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore
Schlosser, S. E.
Paperback
Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America
Taylor, Candacy
Paperback
The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia's Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom
Green, James
Paperback
The Builders: Six Master Carpenters Who Shaped Louisiana's Antebellum Lafourche Country
Plater, David
Paperback
The Dark Side of the Smoky Mountains: A Travel Guide for Your Next Spooky Journey
Eerie Travels
Lance, Erika
Paperback
Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food: Recipes & Stories from Mountain Kitchens
Pressley, Tipper
Casada, Jim
Paperback
Spooky Virginia: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore
Schlosser, S. E.
Paperback
Foxfire 12: Square Dancing, Crafts, Cherokee Traditions, Summer Camps, World War Veterans, Personalities
Foxfire Fund Inc
Paperback
Café Lafitte in Exile: Queer New Orleans and the Story of America's Oldest Gay Bar
Perez, Frank
Palmquist, Jeffrey
Hardcover
Fairies of Northern Appalachia: A History of the Little People of the Mountains
Warburton, Andrew
Paperback
Nashville's New Americans: Tracing the Journeys of Our Immigrant Neighbors
Sellmeyer, Sheri Lea
Paperback
Gullah Days: Hilton Head Islanders Before the Bridge 1861-1956
Barnwell, Thomas C., Jr.
Campbell, Emory Shaw
Grant, Carolyn
Paperback
Everything You Were Taught about the Civil War Is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!
Seabrook, Lochlainn
Paperback
The Price of Borrowed Coffee: The Eighty-Year Pursuit of Justice for Charlie Lee Price
Price, Richard
Paperback
South to America American Classics Edition: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
Perry, Imani
Paperback
We Just Keep Running the Line: Black Southern Women and the Poultry Processing Industry
Gray, Laguana
Hardcover
Spooky North Carolina: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore
Schlosser, S. E.
Paperback
Nether Land: High School Temptation, Insurance Haze, Stolen Resolution, and Murder
Hinton, Kem
Paperback
Defending Dixie's Land: What Every American Should Know About The South and The Civil War
Bishop, Isaac C.
Hardcover
Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America's Revolutionary Era
Bunn, Mike
Hardcover
Backcountry Resistance: South Carolina's Militia and the Fight for American Independence
Borick, Carl P.
Hardcover
The Empire State of the South: Georgia History in Documents and Essays
Meyer, Christopher C.
Paperback
This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South
Crawford, Alan Pell
Paperback
Florida Lore: The Barefoot Mailman, Cowboy Bone Mizell, the Tallahassee Witch and Other Tales
Neile, Caren Schnur
Paperback
Out of Virginia: Black Americans' Search for Freedom in Nineteenth-Century Liberia
Stinnett, Joseph P.
Paperback
Freedom's Dominion (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize): A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power
Cowie, Jefferson
Paperback
Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion
Larson, Edward J.
Paperback
Loving Insects: John Abbot's Drawings and Natural History Collecting in the Atlantic World, 1760s-1840s
Tobin, Beth
Hardcover
Inquisition for Blood: The Making of a Black Female Serial Killer in the Jim Crow South
Henley, Lauren Nicole
Hardcover
Suncoast Empire: Bertha Honore Palmer, Her Family, and the Rise of Sarasota, 1910-1982
Cassell, Frank a.
Paperback
The Tougaloo Nine: The Jackson Library Sit-In at the Crossroads of Civil War and Civil Rights
O'Brien, M. J.
Hardcover
Pine Needles: The Rise and Fall of a Gilded Age Southern Quail Hunting Estate
Rebertus, Robert
Hardcover
Scars on the Land: An Environmental History of Slavery in the American South
Silkenat, David
Hardcover
Creepy Florida: Phantom Pirates, the Hog Island Witch, the DeMented Doctor at the Don Vicente and More
Muncy, Mark
Schultz, Kari Ann
Paperback
A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School
Lanier, Carlotta Walls
Page, Lisa Frazier
Paperback
Arkansas/Arkansaw: How Bear Hunters, Hillbillies, and Good Ol' Boys Defined a State
Blevins, Brooks
Paperback
Unc A to Z: What Every Tar Heel Needs to Know about the First State University
Moore, Cecelia
Graham, Nicholas
Hardcover
Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement
Anderson, Devery S.
Paperback
A Stranger Among Saints: Stephen Hopkins, the Man Who Survived Jamestown and Saved Plymouth
Mack, Jonathan
Paperback
Dixie Be Damned: 300 Years of Insurrection in the American South
Stafford, Saralee
Shirley, Neal
Paperback
Mountain Ghost Stories and Curious Tales of Western North Carolina
Barnett, Janet
Russell, Randy
Paperback
S Is for Southern: A Guide to the South, from Absinthe to Zydeco
Editors of Garden and Gun
Dibenedetto, David
Hardcover
Power and Just Transitions: Struggles for a Post-Coal Future in an Appalachian Valley
Schwartzman, Gabe
Gaventa, John
Paperback
A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagined Literary Landscape
Eubanks, W. Ralph
Hardcover
Eating on a Mountain at the End of the World: How I Found Love, Humor, and Beauty in My Quest for Ethical Food
Vernon, Zackary
Paperback
We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement
Umoja, Akinyele Omowale
Paperback
Cure: New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'em from the Award-Winning Bar
Bodenheimer, Neal
Timberlake, Emily
Hardcover
James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia: A Founder's Journey from Slave Trader to Abolitionist
Thurmond, Michael L.
Paperback
Zora Neale Hurston on Florida Food: Recipes, Remedies & Simple Pleasures
Opie, Frederick Douglass
Paperback