Period images of slavery

Period images of Lincoln, Calhoun, Jefferson Davis

A shot of Little Rock’s Baptist Meeting House

Shots of Fort Sumter and the bombardment

Cut to a fully furnished and completed House Chamber. The Secession Convention delegates are highly agitated.

David Walker, the chairman, gavels for order at the podium.

Samuel “Parson” Kelly stands to be recognized.

Back to Walker

The camera cuts to the next three delegates as each rises and speaks.

Back to Walker

Isaac Murphy rises slowly and hesitates before speaking. The crowd grows more hostile as it waits, then suddenly silent as he begins to speak.

The crowd grows loud and angry after Murphy’s declaration. Cries of “traitor” and “hang him” can be distinguished.

Cut to women in the balcony. One hurls a bouquet of roses.

The roses land at Murphy’s feet. He bends and picks them up. The crowd grows silent.

Cut back to the woman in the balcony.

Cut back to Murphy holding the roses.

Narrator Voice Over: Slaveholders had been reluctant to move to Arkansas until it was firmly established as a slave state in 1836. From that point on plantation agriculture and slavery grew rapidly. Though still a minority in a state comprised mainly a small-scale hill farmers, by 1861 the wealthy cotton planters had control of most of the state’s newspapers, which they used to agitate for secession, particularly after the election of Abraham Lincoln. When the initial states of the Confederacy seceded, Arkansas held a convention to consider the question. Because the legislature was in session, it was held in a Little Rock church. With the ladies in the audience showering their favorite speakers with flowers, the convention voted down secession.

The convention had also gone on record in opposition to coercion against those states that had seceded. After the firing on Fort Sumter, Lincoln issued a call for Arkansas troops to help put down the rebellion. The Secession Convention was hastily called back into session, this time at the State House.

David Walker: Gentlemen, enough votes have been cast to take us out of the Union. Now since we must go, let the wires carry the news to all the world that Arkansas stands as a unit against coercion.

Kelly: Mr. Chairman!

Walker: The Chair recognizes “Parson” Kelly of Pike County.

Kelly: While I hold the doctrine of secession to be insidious, the people’s right to revolution is undeniable. I change my vote to “yes.”

Gunter: Thomas Gunter, Washington County. I change my vote to “yes.”

Bolinger: H. H. Bolinger, Brother Walker. Put me down as “yes.”

Campbell: John Campbell, Searcy County. Yes!

Walker: Isaac Murphy? Will you make it unanimous?

Murphy: My principles are all Southern. If necessary I would lay down my life for the Southern states, but I would rather lose a thousand lives than aid in bringing about the untold evils that would assuredly follow in the train of secession. I have cast my vote after mature reflection, and cannot conscientiously change it. I therefore vote no!