125-578: Watson Chapel School District No. 24 ( WCSD ) is a public school district serving the communities of Pine Bluff (including Watson Chapel ) and Sulphur Springs within Jefferson County, Arkansas , United States . Headquartered in Pine Bluff, Watson Chapel School District employs over 300 faculty and staff to provide educational programs for students ranging from kindergarten through twelfth grade and enrolls more than 2,200 students. In 1971
250-648: A Métis fur trader and trapper of mixed Quapaw and colonial French ancestry, settled on this bluff in 1819. After the Quapaw signed a treaty with the United States in 1824 relinquishing their title to all the lands which they claimed in Arkansas , many other American settlers began to join Bonne on the bluff. In 1829 Thomas Phillips claimed a half section of land where Pine Bluff is located. Jefferson County
375-546: A 'per pelt' basis. Colonial trading posts in the southern colonies also introduced many types of alcohol (especially brandy and rum) for trade. European traders flocked to the North American continent and made huge profits from the exchange. A metal axe head, for example, was exchanged for one beaver pelt (also called a 'beaver blanket'). The same pelt could fetch enough to buy dozens of axe heads in England, making
500-715: A Tartar victory in 1584 and the temporary end to Russian occupation in the area. In 1584, Ivan's son Feodor sent military governors ( voivodas ) and soldiers to reclaim Yermak conquests and officially to annex the land held by the Khanate of Sibir . Similar skirmishes with Tartars took place across Siberia as Russian expansion continued. Russian conquerors treated the natives of Siberia as easily exploited subjects who were inferior to them. As they penetrated deeper into Siberia, traders built outposts or winter lodges called zimovye [ ru ] where they lived and collected fur tribute from native tribes. By 1620 Russia dominated
625-537: A combined force of federal troops and freedmen (former slaves freed by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln 's recent Emancipation Proclamation ) near Jefferson Court-House . In the final year of the Civil War, the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment (composed primarily of escaped slaves from Arkansas and Missouri ), was the first regiment of U.S. Colored Troops to see combat. It was dispatched to guard Pine Bluff and eventually mustered out there. Because of
750-412: A common pool that the band divided equally among themselves after Russian officials exacted the tithing tax. On the other hand, a trading company provided hired fur-trappers with the money needed for transportation, food, and supplies, and once the hunt was finished, the employer received two-thirds of the pelts and the remaining ones were sold and the proceeds divided evenly among the hired laborers. During
875-420: A cost of $ 350 million, it will employ over 1,100 full-time staff. The Pine Bluff Convention Center is one of the state's largest meeting facilities. The Arts and Science Center features theatrical performances and workshops for children and adults. Pine Bluff did also boast the only Band Museum in the country but it has closed. Other areas of interest include downtown murals depicting the history of Pine Bluff,
1000-493: A group of Pine Bluff residents asked commanding Major General Frederick Steele to send Union forces to occupy their town to protect them from bands of Confederate bushwhackers . Union troops under Colonel Powell Clayton arrived September 17, 1863, and stayed until the war was over. On October 25, 1863, Confederate cavalry , led by Brigadier-General John S. Marmaduke , attempted to expel Union occupation forces commanded by Colonel Powell Clayton ; but were defeated by
1125-431: A household in the city was $ 30,415, and the median income for a family was $ 39,993. Males had a median income of $ 38,333 versus $ 28,936 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 17,334. About 24.3% of families and 30.6% of the population were below the poverty line , including 45.6% of those under age 18 and 13.7% of those age 65 or over. Pine Bluff had 23 homicides in 2021. Pine Bluff had 23 murders in 2020 -
1250-586: A mob of hundreds rapidly escalated to thousands of whites vehemently demanding execution, despite Kelly's pleas of innocence and lack of trial. The angry mob eventually forced over his custody from an Officer adamantly attempting to deliver the suspect to the jail house, then the crowd watched enthusiastically as he was hung and riddled with bullets. That same year the state adopted a poll tax amendment that disenfranchised many African-American and poor white voters. The Election Law of 1891 had already made voting more difficult and also caused voter rolls to decrease. With
1375-424: A more nuanced picture of the complex ways in which native populations fit new economic relationships into existing cultural patterns. Richard White, while admitting that the formalist/substantivist debate was "old, and now tired," attempted to reinvigorate the substantivist position. Echoing Ray's moderate position that cautioned against easy simplifications, White advanced a simple argument against formalism: "Life
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#17327978201531500-519: A number of English investors were found to back another attempt for Hudson Bay. Two ships were sent out in 1668. One, with Radisson aboard, had to turn back, but the other, the Nonsuch , with Groseilliers, did penetrate the bay. There she was able to trade with the indigenes, collecting a fine cargo of beaver skins before the expedition returned to London in October 1669. The delighted investors sought
1625-549: A number of significant construction projects. Benny Scallion Park was created, named for the alderman who brought a Japanese garden to the Pine Bluff Civic Center. The city has not maintained the garden, but a small plaque remains. In the late 1980s, The Pines, the first large, enclosed shopping center, was constructed on the east side of the city. The mall attracted increased shopping traffic from southeast Arkansas. The most important construction project of
1750-513: A portion of the students going to the Watson Chapel school district. In 2007, the ACLU sued the school district because the dress code allegedly denied students their first amendment rights. It had 3,871 students in the 1969–1970 school year, with more than half within the city limits of Pine Bluff. That year the four schools for white children had 2,135 white students and 96 black students;
1875-608: A project to collect and publish oral histories of former slaves. Writers were sent throughout the South to interview former slaves, most of whom had been children before the Civil War. When the project was complete, Arkansas residents had contributed more oral slave histories (approximately 780) than any other state, although Arkansas' slave population was less than those of neighboring Deep South states. African-American residents of Pine Bluff/Jefferson County contributed more oral interviews of Arkansas-born slaves than any other city/county in
2000-519: A rate of 56.5 murders per 100,000 people. The national average was 6.5 murders per 100,000 people in 2020. Jefferson County is located in the heart of a rich agricultural area in the Arkansas River Basin. The leading products include cotton , soybeans , cattle , rice , poultry , timber and catfish . Major area employers include Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Simmons First National Corp., Tyson Foods , Evergreen Packaging,
2125-494: A refugee camp, and 24 black men, women and children were found hanging from trees in one of the worst mass lynchings in U.S. history. The rate of lynchings of black males was high across the South during this period of social tensions and white resistance to Reconstruction. Armistad Johnson was lynched in 1889, and John Kelly and Gulbert Harris in 1892 in front of the Jefferson County Courthouse, after
2250-518: A royal charter, which they obtained the next year. This charter established the Hudson's Bay Company and granted it a monopoly to trade into all the rivers that emptied into Hudson Bay. From 1670 onwards, the Hudson's Bay Company sent two or three trading ships into the bay every year. They brought back furs (mainly beaver) and sold them, sometimes by private treaty but usually by public auction. The beaver
2375-694: A significant step towards securing Russian hegemony in Siberia when he sent a large army to attack the Khanate of Kazan and ended up obtaining the territory from the Volga to the Ural Mountains . At this point the phrase, "ruler of Obdor , Konda , and all Siberian lands" became part of the title of the tsar in Moscow. Even so, problems ensued after 1558 when Ivan IV sent Grigory Stroganov [ ru ] ( c. 1533–1577 ) to colonize land on
2500-437: A variety of reasons. Reducing them to simple economic or cultural dichotomies, as the formalists and substantivists had done, was a fruitless simplification that obscured more than it revealed. Moreover, Ray used trade accounts and account books in the Hudson's Bay Company's archives for masterful qualitative analyses and pushed the boundaries of the field's methodology. Following Ray's position, Bruce M. White also helped to create
2625-476: Is land and 1.2 square miles (3.1 km ) (2.65%) is water. As of the 2020 United States census , there were 41,253 people, and 16,086 households. As of the census of 2010, there were 49,083 people, 18,071 households, and 11,594 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,048.8 inhabitants per square mile (404.9/km ). There were 20,923 housing units at an average density of 447.1 units per square mile (172.6 units/km ). The racial makeup of
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#17327978201532750-524: Is the first female African American mayor. She was elected in 2016. Beginning around 2020, Utah based entrepreneur John Fenley, owner of the music streaming service Murfie , began buying properties in Pine Bluff for redevelopment. Pine Bluff is on the Arkansas River ; the community was named for a bluff along that river. Both Lake Pine Bluff and Lake Langhofer are situated within the city limits, as these are bodies of water which are remnants of
2875-787: Is the principal city of the Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area and part of the Little Rock - North Little Rock -Pine Bluff Combined Statistical Area . The population of the city was 41,253 in the 2020 census . The city is situated in the Southeast section of the Arkansas Delta and straddles the Arkansas Timberlands region to its west. Its topography is flat with wide expanses of farmland, similar to other places in
3000-593: The Army Air Corps . At one time 275 aircraft were being used to train 758 pilots. Approximately 9,000 pilots had been trained by the time the school closed in October 1944. The Army broke ground for the Pine Bluff Arsenal on December 2, 1941, on 15,000 acres (61 km ) bought north of the city. The arsenal and Grider Field changed Pine Bluff to a more diversified economy with a mixture of industry and agriculture. The addition of small companies to
3125-516: The Fur Institute of Canada , there are about 60,000 active trappers in Canada (based on trapping licenses), of whom about 25,000 are indigenous peoples . The fur farming industry is present in many parts of Canada. The largest producer of mink and foxes is Nova Scotia which in 2012 generated revenues of nearly $ 150 million and accounted for one quarter of all agricultural production in
3250-613: The Kama and to subjugate and enserf the Komi living there. The Stroganov family soon came into conflict in 1573 with the khan of Sibir whose land they encroached on. Ivan told the Stroganovs to hire Cossack mercenaries to protect the new settlement from the Tatars. From c. 1581 the band of Cossacks led by Yermak Timofeyevich fought many battles that eventually culminated in
3375-610: The Mohawk and Mohican . By 1614 the Dutch were sending vessels to secure large economic returns from fur trading. The fur trade of New Netherland, through the port of New Amsterdam , depended largely on the trading depot at Fort Orange (now Albany) on the upper Hudson River . Much of the fur is believed to have originated in Canada, smuggled south by entrepreneurs who wished to avoid the colony's government-imposed monopoly there. England
3500-582: The Mongolian trading town of Kyakhta , which had been opened to Russian trade by the 1727 Treaty of Kyakhta . The papers from the North American Fur Trade conferences, which are held approximately every five years, not only provide a wealth of articles on disparate aspects of the fur trade, but also can be taken together as a historiographical overview since 1965. They are listed chronologically below. The third conference, held in 1978,
3625-599: The Pine Bluff Arsenal and the Union Pacific Railroad . It is the large number of paper mills in the area that give Pine Bluff its, at times, distinctive odor, a feature known prominently among Arkansans. In 2009, Pine Bluff was included on the Forbes list of America's 10 most impoverished cities. Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff was the first purpose-built casino in Arkansas. Completed in 2020 at
3750-637: The Russian-American Company . The term "maritime fur trade" was coined by historians to distinguish the coastal, ship-based fur trade from the continental, land-based fur trade of, for example, the North West Company and the American Fur Company . Historically, the maritime fur trade was not known by that name, rather it was usually called the "North West Coast trade" or "North West Trade". The term "North West"
3875-747: The Western world ), Europe, and the United States (especially New England ). The trade had a major effect on the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coast, especially the Aleut , Tlingit , Haida , Nuu-chah-nulth , and Chinook peoples . There was a rapid increase of wealth among the Northwest Coast natives, along with increased warfare, potlatching , slaving, depopulation due to epidemic disease, and enhanced importance of totems and traditional nobility crests. The indigenous culture
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4000-607: The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and public works funding, Pine Bluff built new schools and a football stadium, and developed Oakland Park as its first major recreation facility. To encourage diversification in agriculture, the county built a stockyard in 1936 to serve as a sales outlet for farmers' livestock. From 1936 to 1938, the WPA through the Federal Writers Project initiated
4125-539: The 10th century, merchants and boyars of the city-state of Novgorod had exploited the fur resources "beyond the portage", a watershed at the White Lake that represents the door to the entire northwestern part of Eurasia. They began by establishing trading posts along the Volga and Vychegda river networks and requiring the Komi people to give them furs as tribute . Novgorod, the chief fur-trade center prospered as
4250-615: The 1620s and 1630s. London merchants tried to take over France's fur trade in the St Lawrence River valley. Taking advantage of one of England's wars with France, Sir David Kirke captured Quebec in 1629 and brought the year's produce of furs back to London. Other English merchants also traded for furs around the Saint Lawrence River region in the 1630s, but these were officially discouraged. Such efforts ceased as France strengthened its presence in Canada. Much of
4375-814: The 17th through the second half of the 19th century, Russia was the world's largest supplier of fur. The fur trade played a vital role in the development of Siberia , the Russian Far East and the Russian colonization of the Americas . As recognition of the importance of the trade to the Siberian economy, the sable is a regional symbol of Sverdlovsk Oblast in the Urals and Novosibirsk , Tyumen and Irkutsk Oblasts in Siberia. European contact with North America, with its vast forests and wildlife, particularly
4500-734: The 1870s onward, community leaders constructed large Victorian -style homes west of Main Street. Meanwhile, the Reconstruction era of the 1870s brought a stark mix of progress and challenge for African Americans. Most blacks joined the Republican Party, and several were elected in Pine Bluff to county offices and the state legislature for the first time in history. Several black-owned businesses were also opened, including banks, bars, barbershops, and other establishments. But in postwar violence in 1866, an altercation with whites ensued at
4625-743: The 1960s and 1970s, major construction projects in the region included private and public sponsors: Jefferson Hospital (now Jefferson Regional Medical Center), the dams of the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System on the Arkansas River (which was diverted from the city to create Lake Langhofer), a Federal building, the Pine Bluff Convention Center complex including The Royal Arkansas Hotel & Suites, Pine Bluff Regional Park, two industrial parks and several large churches. The 1980s and 1990s brought
4750-448: The 1990s was completion of a southern bypass, designated part of Interstate 530 . In addition, a highway and bridge across Lock and Dam #4 were completed, providing another link between farm areas in northeastern Jefferson County and the transportation system radiating from Pine Bluff. Through a private matching grant, a multimillion-dollar Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas was completed downtown in 1994. In 2000, construction
4875-553: The Bay and market trade in London." Arthur J. Ray permanently changed the direction of economic studies of the fur trade with two influential works that presented a modified formalist position in between the extremes of Innis and Rotstein. "This trading system," Ray explained, "is impossible to label neatly as ‘gift trade', or ‘administered trade', or ‘market trade', since it embodies elements of all these forms." Indians engaged in trade for
5000-712: The Branch Normal School of the Arkansas Industrial University, a historically black college . Founded as Arkansas's first black public college, today it is the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff . Pine Bluff and the region suffered lasting effects from defeat, the aftermath of war, and the trauma of slavery and exploitation. Recovery was slow at first. Construction of railroads improved access to markets, and with increased production of cotton as more plantations were reactivated,
5125-514: The Delta Lowlands. Pine Bluff has numerous creeks, streams, and bayous, including Bayou Bartholomew , the longest bayou in the world and the second most ecologically diverse stream in the United States. Large bodies of water include Lake Pine Bluff, Lake Langhofer (Slack Water Harbor), and the Arkansas River . The area along the Arkansas River had been inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous peoples of various cultures. They used
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5250-510: The Democratic Party consolidating its power in what became a one-party state, the atmosphere was grim toward the end of the 19th century for many African Americans. Democrats imposed legal segregation and other Jim Crow laws. Bishop Henry McNeal Turner 's "Back to Africa" movement attracted numbers of local African-American residents who purchased tickets and/or sought information on emigration. Arkansas had 650 emigrants depart to
5375-742: The European colonization of the Americas, Russia was a major supplier of fur pelts to Western Europe and parts of Asia. Its trade developed in the Early Middle Ages (500–1000 AD/CE), first through exchanges at posts around the Baltic and Black seas. The main trading market destination was the German city of Leipzig . Kievan Rus' was the first supplier of the Russian fur trade. Originally, Russia exported raw furs, consisting in most cases of
5500-830: The European settlers. Their resentment of the forced sales contributed to future wars. After the United States became independent, it regulated trading with Native Americans by the Indian Intercourse Act , first passed on July 22, 1790. The Bureau of Indian Affairs issued licenses to trade in the Indian Territory . In 1834 this was defined as most of the United States west of the Mississippi River , where mountain men and traders from Mexico freely operated. Early exploration parties were often fur-trading expeditions, many of which marked
5625-805: The French felt-hatters. Hat makers began to use it in England soon after, particularly after Huguenot refugees brought their skills and tastes with them from France. Captain Chauvin made the first organized attempt to control the fur trade in New France . In 1599 he acquired a monopoly from Henry IV and tried to establish a colony near the mouth of the Saguenay River at Tadoussac . French explorers, like Samuel de Champlain , voyageurs , and Coureur des bois , such as Étienne Brûlé , Radisson , La Salle , and Le Sueur , while seeking routes through
5750-797: The Indians in Canada, following the British takeover of the territory after it defeated France in the Seven Years' War (known as the French and Indian War in North America). Following the British take over of Canada from France, the control of the fur trade in North America became consolidated under the British government for a time, until the United States was created and became a major source for furs being shipped to Europe as well in
5875-643: The Komi and Yugra, by recruiting men of one tribe to fight in an army against the other tribe. Campaigns against native tribes in Siberia remained insignificant until they began on a much larger scale in 1483 and 1499–1500. Besides the Novgorodians and the indigenes, the Muscovites also had to contend with the various Muslim Tatar khanates to their east. In 1552, Ivan IV , the tsar of all Russia , took
6000-417: The Middle East in exchange for silk, textiles, spices, and dried fruit. The high prices that sable, black fox, and marten furs could generate in international markets spurred a "fur fever" in which many Russians moved to Siberia as independent trappers. From 1585 to 1680, tens of thousands of sable and other valuable pelts were obtained in Siberia each year. The primary way for the Russian state to obtain furs
6125-413: The Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Historical Museum, Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Railroad Museum. Fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur . Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period , furs of boreal , polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued. Historically
6250-482: The Province. In 2000 there were 351 Mink farms in the U.S. As of 2015 there were 176,573 trappers in the U.S. with most being in the midwest. California was the first (and only) state to ban trapping for commercial and recreation purposes in 2015. The North American Fur Auction (NAFA) occurs four times a year and attracts buyers from around the world. According to the Northeast Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, at present approximately 270,000 families in
6375-405: The US Army from the American Southeast to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. From 1832 to 1858, Pine Bluff was also a station on the passage of Seminole and Black Seminoles , who were forcibly removed from Florida to the Territory. They included the legendary Black Seminole leader John Horse , who arrived in the city via the steamboat Swan in 1842. Pine Bluff was prospering by
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#17327978201536500-549: The Union forces, Pine Bluff attracted many refugees and freedmen after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in early 1863. The Union forces set up a contraband camp there to house the runaway slaves and refugees behind Confederate lines. After the war, freed slaves worked with the American Missionary Association to start schools for the education of blacks, who had been prohibited from learning to read and write by southern laws. Both adults and children eagerly started learning. By September 1872, Professor Joseph C. Corbin opened
6625-455: The United States , increasing the demand for cotton and helping make possible the rapid expansion of the cotton plantation system across the Deep South . The most profitable furs were those of sea otters , especially the northern sea otter, Enhydra lutris kenyoni , which inhabited the coastal waters between the Columbia River to the south and Cook Inlet to the north. The fur of the Californian southern sea otter, E. l. nereis ,
6750-409: The United States and Canada derive some of their income from fur trapping. The maritime fur trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska . The furs were mostly traded in China for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and
6875-410: The United States. The maritime fur trade was pioneered by the Russians, working east from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Islands to the southern coast of Alaska. British and Americans entered during the 1780s, focusing on what is now the coast of British Columbia . The trade boomed around the turn of the 19th century. A long period of decline began in the 1810s. As the sea otter population was depleted,
7000-429: The Watson Chapel School Board to desegregate schools. Prior to that order black students largely attended two schools while white students attended four of them. Under the judge's orders there would be a single high school, Watson Chapel High School , a single middle school, the former Coleman High School /Coleman Elementary School, and four elementary schools. In 1979 the Jefferson County School District dissolved, with
7125-422: The active approach involved the use of hunting-dogs and of bows-and-arrows. Occasionally, hunters also followed sable tracks to their burrows, around which they placed nets, and waited for the sable to emerge. The hunting season began around the time of the first snow in October or November and continued until early spring. Hunting expeditions lasted two to three years on average but occasionally longer. Because of
7250-454: The area to provide for flood control and protect from channel shift. One of the world's longest individual levees at 380 miles runs from Pine Bluff to Venice , Louisiana . Pine Bluff is the largest city in a three-county MSA as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau including Jefferson , Cleveland , and Lincoln counties. The Pine Bluff MSA population in 2000 was 107,341 people. The Pine Bluff MSA population in 2007 dropped to 101,484. Pine Bluff
7375-433: The area, making it by 1890 the state's third-largest city. The first telephone system was placed in service March 31, 1883. Wiley Jones , a freedman who achieved wealth by his own business, built the first mule-drawn, street-car line in October 1886. The first light, power and water plant was completed in 1887; a more dependable light and water system was put in place in 1912. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, economic expansion
7500-446: The authors searched for connections on a global stage that revealed its "high political and economic importance." E.E. Rich brought the economic purview down a level, focusing on the role of trading companies and their men as the ones who "opened up" much of Canada's territories, instead of on the role of the nation-state in opening up the continent. Rich's other work gets to the heart of the formalist/substantivist debate that dominated
7625-404: The basic values of the European approach" and that "English economic rules did not apply to the Indian trade." Indians were savvy traders, but they had a fundamentally different conception of property, which confounded their European trade partners. Abraham Rotstein subsequently fit these arguments explicitly into Polanyi's theoretical framework, claiming that "administered trade was in operation at
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#17327978201537750-416: The beaver, led to the continent becoming a major supplier in the 17th century of fur pelts for the fur felt hat and fur trimming and garment trades of Europe. Fur was relied on to make warm clothing, a critical consideration prior to the organization of coal distribution for heating. Portugal and Spain played major roles in fur trading after the 15th century with their business in fur hats. From as early as
7875-508: The best fur country was far to the north and west, and could best be reached by ships sailing into Hudson Bay . Their treatment in Canada suggested that they would not find support from France for their scheme. The pair went to New England, where they found local financial support for at least two attempts to reach Hudson Bay, both unsuccessful. Their ideas had reached the ears of English authorities, however, and in 1665 Radisson and Groseilliers were persuaded to go to London . After some setbacks,
8000-470: The children of slaves. The Métis in the Canadian Red River region were so numerous that they developed a creole language and culture. Since the late 20th century, the Métis have been recognized in Canada as a First Nations ethnic group. The interracial relationships resulted in a two-tier mixed-race class, in which descendants of fur traders and chiefs achieved prominence in some Canadian social, political, and economic circles. Lower-class descendants formed
8125-563: The city was 75.6% Black or African American , 21.8% White , 0.2% Native American , 0.63% Asian , 0.01% Pacific Islander , 0.68% from other races , and 1.1% from two or more races. 1.5% of the population were Latino of any race. There were 18,071 households, out of which 28.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.3% were married couples living together, 27.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.8% were non-families. 31.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.6% had someone living alone who
8250-423: The city's business district grew rapidly. The Masonic Lodge, built by and for the African-American chapter in the city, was the tallest building in Pine Bluff when completed in 1904. The Hotel Pines, constructed in 1912, had an intricate marble interior and classical design, and was considered one of Arkansas' showcase hotels. The 1,500-seat Saenger Theater , built in 1924, was one of the largest such facilities in
8375-441: The city, leaving a small oxbow lake (later expanded into Lake Pine Bluff). River traffic diminished, even as the river was a barrier separating one part of the county from the other. After many years of regional haggling, because the bond issue involved raised taxes, the county built the Free Bridge, which opened in 1914. For the first time, it united the county on a permanent basis. African Americans in Pine Bluff were damaged by
8500-412: The colony of Liberia in West Africa, more than from any other state in the United States. The majority of these emigrants came from the black-majority Jefferson, St. Francis, Pulaski, Pope, and Conway counties. According to historian James Leslie, Pine Bluff entered its "Golden Era" in the 1880s. Cotton production and river commerce helped the city draw industries, public institutions and residents to
8625-512: The commencement program for Arkansas AM&N College (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff ). The decade of the 1960s brought heightened activism in the civil rights movement: through boycotts and demonstrations, African Americans demanded an end to segregated public facilities and jobs. Some whites responded with violence, attacking demonstrators, and bombing a black church in Pine Bluff in 1963. Some civil rights demonstrators were shot. Local leaders worked tirelessly, at times enlisting
8750-543: The continent, established relationships with Amerindians and continued to expand the trade of fur pelts for items considered 'common' by the Europeans. Mammal winter pelts were prized for warmth, particularly animal pelts for beaver wool felt hats, which were an expensive status symbol in Europe. The demand for beaver wool felt hats was such that the beaver in Europe and European Russia had largely disappeared through exploitation. In 1613 Dallas Carite and Adriaen Block headed expeditions to establish fur trade relationships with
8875-436: The course of the 15th century and proceeded with the " gathering of the Russian lands ", the Muscovite state began to rival the Novgorodians in the north for the Russian fur trade; ultimately, Novgorod would lose its autonomy and be absorbed by the authorities in Moscow along with its vast hinterland. At the same time, Moscow began subjugating many native tribes. One strategy involved exploiting antagonisms between tribes, notably
9000-450: The decline in fur animals and realized the market was changing, as beaver hats went out of style. Expanding European settlement displaced native communities from the best hunting grounds. European demand for furs subsided as fashion trends shifted. The Native Americans' lifestyles were altered by the trade. To continue obtaining European goods on which they had become dependent and to pay off their debts, they often resorted to selling land to
9125-738: The district covered 125 square miles (320 km) of land. All schools in the district are accredited by AdvancED (formerly the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools). Initially the Dollarway School District (DSD) sent older white students to Watson Chapel High School and other area high schools, as it did not have its own high school for white students nor one for black students. In 1957 DSD opened its own high school for white children, Dollarway High School . District Court for Eastern District of Arkansas judge Oren Harris , in 1971, ordered
9250-565: The early history of contact between Europeans and the native peoples of what is now the United States and Canada . Dr. S. E. Dawson's admirable "The Saint Lawrence Its Basin & Border-Lands" covers in detail the twenty-or-so main "gateways" connecting the St. Lawrence River with its neighbouring basins. Though these were all once canoe routes, not all were trade routes. In 1578 there were 350 European fishing vessels at Newfoundland . Sailors began to trade metal implements (particularly knives) for
9375-797: The easternmost trading post of the Hanseatic League . Novgorodians expanded farther east and north, coming into contact with the Pechora people of the Pechora River valley and the Yugra people residing near the Urals . Both of these native tribes offered more resistance than the Komi, killing many Russian tribute-collectors throughout the tenth and eleventh centuries. As the Grand Principality of Moscow increased in power over
9500-461: The economy began to recover. The first railroad reached Pine Bluff in December 1873. This same year Pine Bluff's first utility was formed when Pine Bluff Gas Company began furnishing manufactured gas from coke fuel for lighting purposes. The state's economy remained highly dependent on cotton and agriculture, which suffered a decline through the 19th century. As personal fortunes increased from
9625-714: The field or, as some came to believe, muddied it. Historians such as Harold Innis had long taken the formalist position, especially in Canadian history, believing that neoclassical economic principles affect non-Western societies just as they do Western ones. Starting in the 1950s, however, substantivists such as Karl Polanyi challenged these ideas, arguing instead that primitive societies could engage in alternatives to traditional Western market trade; namely, gift trade and administered trade. Rich picked up these arguments in an influential article in which he contended that Indians had "a persistent reluctance to accept European notions or
9750-586: The first recorded instances of Europeans' reaching particular regions of North America. For example, Abraham Wood sent fur-trading parties on exploring expeditions into the southern Appalachian Mountains, discovering the New River in the process. Simon Fraser was a fur trader who explored much of the Fraser River in British Columbia. Economic historians and anthropologists have studied
9875-522: The first to operate in the southern sector, but were unable to compete against the Americans who dominated from the 1790s to the 1830s. The British Hudson's Bay Company entered the coast trade in the 1820s with the intention of driving the Americans away. This was accomplished by about 1840. In its late period the maritime fur trade was largely conducted by the British Hudson's Bay Company and
10000-491: The fur trade extremely profitable for the Europeans. The Natives used the iron axe heads to replace stone axe heads which they had made by hand in a labor-intensive process, so they derived substantial benefits from the trade as well. The colonists began to see the ill effects of alcohol on Natives, and the chiefs objected to its sale and trade. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 prohibited sale by European settlers of alcohol to
10125-591: The fur trade in North America during the 17th and 18th centuries was dominated by the Canadian fur shipping network that developed in New France under the fur monopoly held first by the Company of One Hundred Associates , then followed in 1664 by the French West India Company , steadily expanding fur trapping and shipping across a network of frontier forts further west that eventually went all
10250-487: The fur trade of that colony (now called New York) fell into English hands with the 1667 Treaty of Breda . In 1668 the English fur trade entered a new phase. Two French citizens, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers , had traded with great success west of Lake Superior in 1659–60, but upon their return to Canada, most of their furs were seized by the authorities. Their trading voyage had convinced them that
10375-593: The fur trade through two taxes, the yasak (or iasak) tax on natives and the 10% "Sovereign Tithing Tax" imposed on both the catch and sale of fur pelts. Fur was in great demand in Western Europe, especially sable and marten, since European forest resources had been over-hunted and furs had become extremely scarce. Fur trading allowed Russia to purchase from Europe goods that it lacked, like lead, tin, precious metals, textiles, firearms, and sulphur. Russia also traded furs with Ottoman Turkey and other countries in
10500-408: The fur trade's important role in early North American economies, but they have been unable to agree on a theoretical framework to describe native economic patterns. John C. Phillips and J.W. Smurr tied the fur trade to an imperial struggle for power, positing that the fur trade served both as an incentive for expanding and as a method for maintaining dominance. Dismissing the experience of individuals,
10625-442: The fur trade; they made marriages or cohabited with high-ranking Indian women of similar status in their own cultures. Fur trappers and other workers usually had relationships with lower-ranking women. Many of their mixed-race descendants developed their own culture, now called Métis in Canada, based then on fur trapping and other activities on the frontier. In some cases both Native American and European-American cultures excluded
10750-568: The growing demand for furs, driving the creation and expansion of the fur trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, although new trends as well as occasional revivals of prior fashions would cause the fur trade to ebb and flow right up to the present. Often, the political benefits of the fur trade became more important than the economic aspects. Trade was a way to forge alliances and maintain good relations between different cultures. The fur traders were men with capital and social standing. Often younger men were single when they went to North America to enter
10875-454: The growth of Pine Bluff during the 1840s and 1850s. With its proximity to the Arkansas River, the small town served as a port for travel and shipping. Steamships provided the primary mode of transport, arriving from downriver ports such as New Orleans . From 1832 to 1838, Pine Bluff residents would see Native American migrants on the Trail of Tears waterway who were being forcibly removed by
11000-530: The historical Arkansas River channel. (The former is a man-made expansion of a natural oxbow; the latter was created by diking the old channel after a man-made diversion.) Consequently, the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (or the Arkansas Delta ) runs well into the city with Bayou Bartholomew picking up the western border as a line of demarcation between the Arkansas Delta and the Arkansas Timberlands . A series of levees and dams surrounds
11125-610: The industrial base helped the economy remain steady in the late 1940s. Defense spending in association with the Korean War was a stabilizing factor after 1950. In 1957, Richard Anderson announced the construction of a kraft paper mill north of the city. International Paper Co. shortly afterward bought a plant site five miles east of Pine Bluff. Residential developments followed for expected workers. The next year young minister Martin Luther King Jr. addressed students at
11250-645: The land from the Urals eastward to the Yenisey valley and to the Altai Mountains in the south, comprising about 1.25 million square miles of land. Furs would become Russia's largest source of wealth during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Keeping up with the advances of Western Europe required significant capital and Russia did not have sources of gold and silver, but it did have furs, which became known as "soft gold" and provided Russia with hard currency. The Russian government received income from
11375-407: The long hunting season and the fact that passage back to Russia was difficult and costly, beginning around the 1650s–1660s, many promyshlenniki chose to stay and settle in Siberia. From 1620 to 1680, a total of 15,983 trappers operated in Siberia. The North American fur trade began as early as the 1500s between Europeans and First Nations (see: Early French Fur Trading ) and was a central part of
11500-420: The majority of the separate Métis culture based on hunting, trapping and farming. Because of the wealth at stake, different European-American governments competed with various native societies for control of the fur trade. Native Americans sometimes based decisions of which side to support in times of war in relation to which people had provided them with the best trade goods in an honest manner. Because trade
11625-407: The maritime fur trade diversified and was transformed, tapping new markets and commodities while continuing to focus on the Northwest Coast and China. It lasted until the middle to late 19th century. Russians controlled most of the coast of what is now Alaska during the entire era. The coast south of Alaska saw fierce competition between, and among, British and American trading vessels. The British were
11750-534: The mixed-race descendants. If the Native Americans were a tribe with a patrilineal kinship system, they considered children born to a white father to be white, in a type of hypodescent classification, although the Native mother and tribe might care for them. The Europeans tended to classify children of Native women as Native, regardless of the father, similar to the hypodescent of their classification of
11875-431: The natives' well-worn pelts. The first pelts in demand were beaver and sea otter, as well as occasionally deer, bear, ermine and skunk. Fur robes were blankets of sewn-together, native-tanned, beaver pelts. The pelts were called castor gras in French and "coat beaver" in English, and were soon recognized by the newly developed felt-hat making industry as particularly useful for felting. Some historians, seeking to explain
12000-454: The nineteenth century, along with the largely unsettled territory of Russian America , which became a significant source of furs also during that period. The fur trade began to significantly decline starting in the 1830s, following changing attitudes and fashions in Europe and America which no longer centered around certain articles of clothing as much such as beaver skin hats, which had fueled
12125-539: The outbreak of the Civil War ; most of its wealth was based on the commodity crop of cotton. This was cultivated on large plantations by hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans throughout the state, but especially in the Delta. The city had one of the largest slave populations in the state by 1860, and Jefferson County, Arkansas was second in cotton production in the state. When Union forces occupied Little Rock ,
12250-563: The pelts of martens , beavers , wolves , foxes , squirrels and hares . Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Russians began to settle in Siberia , a region rich in many mammal fur species, such as Arctic fox , lynx , sable , sea otter and stoat ( ermine ). In a search for the prized sea otter pelts, first used in China, and later for the northern fur seal , the Russian Empire expanded into North America, notably Alaska . From
12375-686: The prized sables that the natives did not value, but greater demand for furs led to violence and force becoming the primary means of obtaining the furs. The largest problem with the yasak system was that Russian governors were prone to corruption because they received no salary. They resorted to illegal means of getting furs for themselves, including bribing customs officials to allow them to personally collect yasak , extorting natives by exacting yasak multiple times over, or requiring tribute from independent trappers. Russian fur trappers, called promyshlenniki , hunted in one of two types of bands of 10–15 men, called vatagi [ ru ] . The first
12500-569: The problems of economic conditions during the Great Depression . Pine Bluff residents scrambled to survive. In 1930, two of the larger banks failed. The state's highway construction program in the later 1920s and early 1930s, facilitating trade between Pine Bluff and other communities throughout southeast Arkansas, was critical to Jefferson County, too. After the inauguration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, he launched many government programs to benefit local communities. Through
12625-505: The river for transportation as did European settlers after them, and for fishing. By the time of encounter with Europeans, the historical Quapaw were the chief people in the area, having migrated from the Ohio River valley centuries before. The city of Pine Bluff was founded on a high bank of the Arkansas River heavily forested with tall pine trees. The high ground furnished settlers a safe haven from annual flooding. Joseph Bonne,
12750-548: The state's disfranchisement in 1891–1892 and exclusion from the political system. But they continued to work for their rights; they joined activists in Little Rock and Hot Springs in a sustained boycott of streetcars, protesting passage in 1903 of the Segregated Streetcar Act, part of a series of Jim Crow laws passed by the white-dominated legislature. They did not achieve change then. Development in
12875-510: The state. The city served to compile a valuable storehouse of oral slave narrative material. During the 1933 Mississippi River flood, country singer Johnny Cash evacuated to Pine Bluff. World War II brought profound changes to Pine Bluff and its agriculture, timber and railroad-oriented economy. The Army built Grider Field Airport which housed the Pine Bluff School of Aviation and furnished flight training for air cadets for
13000-623: The state; it operated the state's largest pipe organ. When Dollarway Road was completed in 1914, it was the longest continuous stretch of concrete road in the United States. The first radio station (WOK) broadcast in Arkansas occurred in Pine Bluff on February 18, 1922. Two natural disasters had devastating effects on the area's economy. The first was the Great Flood of 1927 , a 100-year flood . Due to levee breaks, most of northern and southeastern Jefferson County were flooded. The severe drought of 1930 caused another failure of crops, adding to
13125-628: The summer, promyshlenniki would set up a summer camp to stockpile grain and fish, and many engaged in agricultural work for extra money. During late summer or early fall the vatagi left their hunting grounds, surveyed the area, and set up a winter camp. Each member of the group set at least 10 traps and the vatagi divided into smaller groups of two to three men who cooperated to maintain certain traps. Promyshlenniki checked traps daily, resetting them or replacing bait whenever necessary. The promyshlenniki employed both passive and active hunting-strategies. The passive approach involved setting traps, while
13250-416: The support of national figures such as Dick Gregory and Stokely Carmichael , to help bring about change over the period. Voter registration drives that enabled increased black political participation, selective buying campaigns, student protests, and a desire among white local business leaders to avoid damaging negative media portrayals in the national media led to reforms in public accommodations. During
13375-410: The term castor gras , have assumed that coat beaver was rich in human oils from having been worn so long (much of the top-hair was worn away through usage, exposing the valuable under-wool), and that this is what made it attractive to the hatters. This seems unlikely, since grease interferes with the felting of wool, rather than enhancing it. By the 1580s, beaver "wool" was the major starting material of
13500-621: The trade stimulated the exploration and colonization of Siberia , northern North America , and the South Shetland and South Sandwich Islands . Today the importance of the fur trade has diminished; it is based on pelts produced at fur farms and regulated fur-bearer trapping , but has become controversial. Animal rights organizations oppose the fur trade, citing that animals are brutally killed and sometimes skinned alive. Fur has been replaced in some clothing by synthetic imitations, for example, as in ruffs on hoods of parkas . Before
13625-471: The two schools for black children had 1,640 students, with all being black. In 1971 the schools had 3,750 students, with about 45% of them being black. 34°11′22″N 92°03′59″W / 34.1895°N 92.0664°W / 34.1895; -92.0664 Pine Bluff, Arkansas Pine Bluff is the tenth-most populous city in the US state of Arkansas and the county seat of Jefferson County . It
13750-604: The way to modern day Winnipeg in Western Canada by the mid-1700s, coming into direct contact and opposition with the English fur trappers stationed out of York Factory at Hudson Bay . Meanwhile, the New England fur trade expanded as well, not only inland, but northward along the coast into the Bay of Fundy region. London 's access to high-quality furs was greatly increased with the takeover of New Amsterdam, whereupon
13875-452: Was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.14. In the city, the population was spread out, with 25.5% under the age of 18, 13.4% from 18 to 24, 24.3% from 25 to 44, 24.4% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.6 males. The median income for
14000-419: Was also fueled by the growing lumber industry in the region. Situated on the Arkansas River, Pine Bluff depended on river traffic and trade. Community leaders were concerned that the main channel would leave the city. The United States Army Corps of Engineers built a levee opposite Pine Bluff to try to keep the river flowing by the city. During a later flood, the main channel of the river moved away from
14125-496: Was an independent band of blood relatives or unrelated people who contributed an equal share of the hunting-expedition expenses; the second was a band of hired hunters who participated in expeditions fully funded by the trading companies which employed them. Members of an independent vataga cooperated and shared all necessary work associated with fur trapping, including making and setting traps, building forts and camps, stockpiling firewood and grain, and fishing. All fur pelts went into
14250-808: Was bought mainly for the English hat-making trade, while the fine furs went to the Netherlands and Germany . Meanwhile, in the Southern colonies , a deerskin trade was established around 1670, based at the export hub of Charleston, South Carolina . Word spread among Native hunters that the Europeans would exchange pelts for the European-manufactured goods that were highly desired in native communities. Carolinan traders stocked axe heads, knives, awls, fish hooks, cloth of various type and color, woolen blankets, linen shirts, kettles, jewelry, glass beads, muskets , ammunition and powder to exchange on
14375-459: Was by exacting a fur tribute from the Siberian natives, called a yasak . Yasak was usually a fixed number of sable pelts which every male tribe member who was at least fifteen years old had to supply to Russian officials. Officials enforced yasak through coercion and by taking hostages, usually the tribe chiefs or members of the chief's family. At first, Russians were content to trade with the natives, exchanging goods like pots, axes, and beads for
14500-447: Was completed on the 43,000-square-foot (4,000 m ) Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center. Carl Redus became the first African American mayor in the city's history in 2005. The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff recently opened a $ 3 million business incubator in downtown Pine Bluff. Also, a new $ 2 million farmers market pavilion was opened in 2010 on Lake Pine Bluff in downtown Pine Bluff. Shirley Washington
14625-595: Was established by the Territorial Legislature on November 2, 1829, and began functioning as a county April 19, 1830. At the August 13, 1832, county election, the pine bluff settlement was chosen as the county seat. The Quorum Court voted to name the village "Pine Bluff Town" on October 16, 1832. Pine Bluff was incorporated January 8, 1839, by the order of County Judge Taylor. At the time, the village had about 50 residents. Improved transportation aided in
14750-489: Was less highly prized and thus less profitable. After the northern sea otter was hunted to local extinction , maritime fur traders shifted to California until the southern sea otter was likewise nearly extinct. The British and American maritime fur traders took their furs to the Chinese port of Guangzhou (Canton), where they worked within the established Canton System . Furs from Russian America were mostly sold to China via
14875-409: Was minimal. For New England, the maritime fur trade and the significant profits it made helped revitalize the region, contributing to the transformation of New England from an agrarian to an industrial society. The wealth generated by the maritime fur trade was invested in industrial development, especially textile manufacturing . The New England textile industry in turn had a large effect on slavery in
15000-440: Was not a business, and such simplifications only distort the past." White argued instead that the fur trade occupied part of a "middle ground" in which Europeans and Indians sought to accommodate their cultural differences. In the case of the fur trade, this meant that the French were forced to learn from the political and cultural meanings with which Indians imbued the fur trade. Cooperation, not domination, prevailed. According to
15125-402: Was not however overwhelmed, it rather flourished, while simultaneously undergoing rapid change. The use of Chinook Jargon arose during the maritime fur trading era and remains a distinctive aspect of Pacific Northwest culture. Native Hawaiian society was similarly affected by the sudden influx of Western wealth and technology, as well as epidemic diseases. The trade's effect on China and Europe
15250-574: Was rarely spelled as the single word "Northwest", as is common today. The maritime fur trade brought the Pacific Northwest coast into a vast, new international trade network, centered on the north Pacific Ocean, global in scope, and based on capitalism but not, for the most part, on colonialism . A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China, the Hawaiian Islands (only recently discovered by
15375-593: Was slower to enter the American fur trade than France and the Dutch Republic , but as soon as English colonies were established, development companies learned that furs provided the best way for the colonists to remit value back to the mother country. Furs were being dispatched from Virginia soon after 1610, and the Plymouth Colony was sending substantial amounts of beaver to its London agents through
15500-415: Was so politically important, the Europeans tried to regulate it in hopes (often futile) of preventing abuse. Unscrupulous traders sometimes cheated natives by plying them with alcohol during the transaction, which subsequently aroused resentment and often resulted in violence. In 1834 John Jacob Astor , who had created the huge monopoly of the American Fur Company , withdrew from the fur trade. He could see
15625-614: Was the fastest-declining Arkansas MSA from 2000 to 2007. The Pine Bluff area is also a component of the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff Combined Statistical Area which had a population of 902,443 people in the 2014 U.S. census estimate. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 46.8 square miles (121 km ), of which 45.6 square miles (118 km )
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