Journals of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the Territory/State of Arkansas: 1819-, Arkansas Post and Little Rock, var. state
printers, 1820-.(The region now known as Arkansas came into the possession of the United States via the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. At first what is
now Arkansas was part of the District of Louisiana, being governed by the governor of the Indiana Territory. The name of the District of Louisiana,
was changed to Missouri by an act of 1812. Arkansas itself was severed from Missouri in 1819 and made a separate territory. A principal disruptive
factor in the creation of the territory was its organization as a slave territory. It was a close thing, and was only accomplished by the single vote of
Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House. Thereafter slavery became a major wedge issue in the territory and later the state, being supported by the cotton
planters of the southeast, and opposed by the hill country people in the northwest. The territorial period lasted until 1836, when Arkansas became a
state. The first capital was the old colonial town of Arkansas Post, but the government was moved to Little Rock in 1821 during the territorial period.
(Documents which are part of the Early State Records collection were digitized from a microfilm copy of title originally held by the Library of
Congress).
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