Editing Jefferson County, Arkansas (section)

==History==
The area now known as Jefferson County was occupied by the [[Quapaw]] when [[Henri de Tonti]] established [[Arkansas Post]] in 1686. De Tonti claimed the area for [[Louis XIV]], [[List of French monarchs|King of France]].<ref name="eahc">{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=779 |title=Jefferson County |last=Bearden |first=Russell E. |date=February 5, 2016 |website=[[Encyclopedia of Arkansas]] |publisher=[[Central Arkansas Library System]] |access-date=April 30, 2016}}</ref>

In March [[1819 in the United States|1819]], [[Robert Crittenden]] was appointed secretary of the Arkansas Territory. That same year, Joseph Bonne, traveling upstream on the Arkansas River from Arkansas Post, built a cabin on a "high bluff covered with pine trees" on the river's south bank.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}} Several years later, James Scull, also from Arkansas Post, established a tavern and small inn on the river's north bank, across from what would become the site of Pine Bluff.<ref name="eahc"/> Five years later, Secretary Crittenden convinced the remaining Quapaw to sign a treaty with the [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. government]] relinquishing what remained of their tribal lands.<ref name="eahc"/>

[[Steamboats of the Mississippi|Steamboat travel]] led to expanding settlement, bringing to the area such men as [[French people|French]] ''[[Émigré|émigré]]'' [[Antoine Barraque|Antoine Barraqué]], [[Native Americans in the United States|Indian]]<!-- EDITORS NOTE: Please do not change name to "Native American" as it would be historically inaccurate. Thank you. --> [[Merchant|trader]] and [[veteran]] of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] (a [[Civil township|township]] in northwest Jefferson County and Pine Bluff's principal east–west street are both named for him), and brothers James T. and John Pullen (main thoroughfares are both named for them).<ref name="eahc"/> On November 2, 1829, Territorial Governor [[John Pope (Kentucky)|John Pope]]—Crittenden's successor—approved the establishment of Jefferson County. Though Bonne's cabin was initially used; by August 1832, "Pine Bluff Town" became the permanent [[county seat]]."<ref name="eahc"/>

The land in the county was developed as large cotton plantations, with fronts on the river for transportation. The plantations were dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans, who comprised a majority of the population in the county well before the American Civil War.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}} After the war, planters in Jefferson County gradually resumed cotton cultivation and processing.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}} The economy was driven by cotton and the Delta area was highly productive.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Because of the county's large African-American population, it was a center of Black political power in [[Reconstruction era|the decades after]] the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] before [[Jim Crow]] eliminated nearly all Black participation in politics. Twenty-two different African Americans from Jefferson County were elected to the Arkansas state legislature between 1871 and 1893, by far the most from any county.<ref>{{cite web |title=Arkansas African American Legislators, 1868-1893 |url=https://web.saumag.edu/library/files/2018/09/Arkansas-African-American-Legislators-List.pdf |website=Southern Arkansas University |access-date=January 20, 2024}}</ref>

In [[1886 in the United States|1886]], Jefferson County produced 55,120 [[Baler|bales]] of cotton, the most in Arkansas, and the second-most throughout the South.<ref>{{cite book |author =Jefferson County Immigration Bureau |title= Jefferson County, Arkansas: Full Description |location= Chicago |publisher=C.S. Burch Publishing Co. |date=August 1888 |page=4 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=dEhDAAAAYAAJ |access-date=August 21, 2011}}</ref>  Transportation companies serving the county at the time included the [[St. Louis Southwestern Railway|Cotton Belt Route]], the [[St. Louis – San Francisco Railway]], [[Missouri Pacific Railroad|Missouri Pacific]], the Arkansas River Packet Company, the [[Wiley Jones|Wiley Jones Street Car Lines]], and the Citizens Street Railway Company.<ref>{{cite book |author =Jefferson County Immigration Bureau |title= Jefferson County, Arkansas: Full Description |location= Chicago |publisher=C.S. Burch Publishing Co. |date=August 1888 |pages=15–16 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=dEhDAAAAYAAJ |access-date=August 21, 2011}}</ref>