Economy and ecology on the edge of America: The historical archaeology of three farming communities in the Arkansas landscape, 1820-1860

This dissertation is an ecologically-minded landscape history of the American South as it existed within three farming communities along the Arkansas frontier from 1820 to 1860. By using the two-interdisciplinary fields of historical archaeology and historical ecology, this dissertation examines how environmental change unfolded within these townships over time. The first township was located in Hempstead County in the lowlands of southwest Arkansas, while the other two were settled along the eastern and western edges of the Arkansas Ozarks in Randolph County and Washington County. Settlers' ways of life, as they moved westward with the growing nation, caused ecological transformations within these communities. Such changes were not new to North America. Instead, they began with colonial settlement and included the destruction of native forests and grasslands; a decrease in the abundance and variety of native plants and animals; and the loss of fertile soils.;This is the first study to explore long-term ecological changes, which resulted from economic choices and social institutions that shaped life during the settlement of Arkansas, which took place during the antebellum period. As a result, it opens many new possibilities for research. Future research topics may include discovering other aspects of the environmental history of American settlement as it occurred in Arkansas and elsewhere along the antebellum frontier. This dissertation also joins a growing body of research, which reexamines the upland and lowland regions of the South to gain fresh insights into the history of these portions of America. And, as the first dissertation to bring the disciplines of historical archaeology and historical ecology together to explore the landscape history of the United States, this dissertation leads the way toward a new branch of historical archaeology, dedicated to understanding the history of environmental change.;Examining these ecological changes in the Arkansas landscape not only tells the local story of community settlement, but also speaks of the broader institutions, which tied these settlers to each other and helped shape their landscapes. Similarities and differences are expressed in the institutions of family, slavery, capitalism, and common lands, which united the lives of the individuals that lived across the Arkansas landscape from 1820 to 1860. A result of the economies established during the antebellum period was the emergence of a relatively small number of wealthy settlers living in each community. Despite the significant amount of wealth held by these free households, the overall percentage of families living beyond subsistence agriculture was in decline within each township in the years leading to the Civil War. This decline was, in part, because these settlers' economic decisions were being expressed in the ecological changes taking place across these three communities over time, which made it more and more difficult for ordinary farm families to prosper in the Arkansas landscape.