The Hegemony of 'Lords of the Soil': Cases, Controversies, and Conflicts in the Arkansas Supreme Court, 1837--1861 Relating to the Arkansas Economy

Arkansas in the early nineteenth century was a curious mixture of a changing frontier and an emerging southern culture. As a newly founded state with a developing economy, one question would be whether the legal system would be used to promote growth or whether legal developments would, on the end, be more attuned to the need to defend slavery as an institution and to protect the interests of the landed elite. If the latter prevailed the law could serve a "hegemonic function" by which the viewpoint of the dominant social and economic class of slaveholders could be imposed on the wider society.;Dual agricultural economies emerged in this period but plantation agriculture could not develop until stability in land titles could be achieved. And, for the broader economy to develop banks and banking, internal improvements and transportation would be essential. Furthermore, in an agricultural state suitable for cotton production, slavery became a vital and growing institution.;In such a budding economy, the law could serve to promote economic diversification - to achieve a "release of energy"- to aid in the expansion and growth of the state's economic potential. Unfortunately, this did not occur in antebellum Arkansas except in the agricultural economy. As plantation agriculture developed and the landed elite became the dominant social and political force in the state, their interests were first served. In the end, they were able to convince the wider society that the dictates and needs of plantation society were but part of a common struggle and that the majority would benefit from particular policies. This "durable hegemony" became most evident in convincing the greater population that sovereignty was defined in terms of protection of slavery.;The Arkansas Supreme Court was a critical actor in the development of the new state's economy. The work of the court serves as a "minor" of the social and economic changes in the society. From 1837 to 1861 and the outbreak of the Civil War, the court issued 2,126 written opinions. Those dealing with land titles, banks and banking, internal improvements and slaves as property have particular relevance to the question of whether the law served to promote enterprise or to preserve a "durable hegemony", and whether non-plantation economic development was, in fact, retarded by an "undue focus on matters of race," by "pervasive localism," the "hierarchicial" nature of the society or other factors reflecting a "hegemonic function" of law. This review of the work of the Arkansas Supreme Court, in the context of economic development in Arkansas from 1837-1861, sheds light on these questions.;The work of the court reflects an abiding interest in preserving stability. In the end, this is most evident in the court's use of the law to further the economic interests of the slaveholder class and to preserve the institution itself -- a "hegemonic function of the law." This was more important than development of the non-plantation economy.