1850 Free Persons of Color--
The First Black Citizens of Ft. Smith
& Van Buren Arkansas

The data provided here in this listing comes from the 1850 Federal United States Census of Sebastian and Crawford counties. The data consists of Name/Age/Gender, Race, Occupation, and Birthplace. If information was not provided in the occupation category, the marks “-----” will appear noting that info was not applicable. Those names followed by the questions mark (?) symbol represent those whose names appeared illegible or difficult to read on the census page, and the author acknowledges that they may be listed erroneously. They are listed in the order in which their names appear in the Federal Census, and they are grouped by the order in which the household where they were enumerated, appeared.

Ft. Smith Arkansas
Thomas Brown/80/Male/Black/Laborer/Virginia
Anna Brown/56/Female/Black/-----/Virginia

Charles, Sisco/45/Male/Black/Laborer/D.C.
Louisa Sisco/35/Female/Black/-----/Cuba
Sarah Sisco/1/Female Black/-----/Arkansas
Austin/35/Male/Mulatto Laborer/Kentucky

Joseph Mason/43/Male/Mulatto/Grocer/Virginia

Benjamin Gunter/63/Male/Black/Laborer/ No. Carolina
Charity Guneter/58/Female/Black/-----/No. Carolina
Jack(?) Pack/37/Female/Black/Laundress/Alabama

William Page/70/Male/Black/Laborer/Unknown

Celia Sanders(?) /39/Female/Mulatto/-----/Virginia
Lavinia Ann Stone/9/Female/Mulatto/-----/Arkansas
Celia A. Stone/6/Female/Mulatto/-----/Arkansas
Lorenzo Sanders/2/Male/Mulatto/-----/Arkansas

Mary A.. Carroll/8/Female/Mulatto/-----/Arkansas
Ellen Sisco/12/Female/Black/-----/Arkansas
Eve Greenwood/60/Female/Black/-----/Cuba(?)


Van Buren Arkansas

Thomas Eppler/ 3 /Male/Black/Servant/Arkansas *

Ned Williams /60/Male/Black/Laborer/So. Carolina
Penny Williams/56/Female/Black/-----/No. Carolina
John Williams/3/ male/Black/-----/Arkansas
Thomas Williams/41/Male/Black/Laborer/Tennessee

*Note that the child Thomas Eppler is actually enumerated with a white family in Van Buren. There are no parents to the child listed in the household. It is possible that he may be the child of parents who were live-in servants to the household at one time, and who had left or died for unknown reasons. There does not appear to be another black family in the Ft. Smith nor Van Buren Arkansas vicinities with the same name.