The history of Arkansas began millennia ago when humans first crossed into North America. Many tribes used Arkansas as their hunting lands but the main tribe was the Quapaw who settled in Arkansas River delta upon moving south from Illinois. Early French explorers gave the territory its name, a corruption of Akansea, which is a phonetic spelling of the Illinois word for the Quapaw. What began as a rough wilderness inhabited by trappers and hunters became incorporated into the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and became Arkansas Territory in 1819. Upon gaining statehood in 1836, Arkansas began to prosper under a plantation economy that was heavily reliant on slave labor.
Read more about History Of Arkansas: Louisiana Purchase and Territorial Status, Statehood and Antebellum Arkansas, Civil War, Reconstruction
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—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)