The Arkansas state legislature passed a measure requiring that all "free negroes" in the state choose between enslavement or exile. The law required that free black leave the state and that if they were still remaining after the stated period of grace, they would be subject to slave auction. Similar efforts were made around this time in Florida, Mississippi, and Missouri but failed, either through defeat or governor's veto. The Arkansas law was enacted, however. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Sharon Harley, The Timetables of African-American History: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in African-American History (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), 138.