Not far from Pine Bluff, Arkansas lies the remains of a small community called New Gascony. There isn’t a town to be seen, but acres of row crops, a few trees, King’s Bayou, and the outline of a small church and cemetery. The church and cemetery are on the national registry of historic places. It is St. Peter’s Church and Cemetery. I have seen it. There is an outline of the old church and several headstone of the people who once lived and farmed in the area. This land and the land around it was once owned by a few planters. These planters paid immigrants from Italy to come and settle here. These immigrants worked hard on the land, planting and harvesting cotton year after year. There was a store, several homes, a school, and a few more churches way back when. But now when visiting one must consider the weather. The roads are mostly dirt and sometimes impassible without help.

New Gascony was one of the first towns in the area. Antoine Barraque, an officer of Napoleon, settled here in 1816, right on the Arkansas river. The land was fertile and good for the planters who came. The planters used slave labor for the crops and the everyday living. But after the civil war they needed new labor, that’s when the Italians were brought in. But apart from the Catholic church that was established, there was another. Less than a mile north of the historic marker lies another spot. A quiet spot, hidden among the trees. A cemetery lies on the banks of King’s Bayou surrounded by the row crop of the season. These trees mark the history of the black people of New Gascony. As of this moment I do not know how long this cemetery was in use, or the last time someone was laid to rest here. What I do know is that it has been cast aside when recounting the history of this county.

What I do know is that in 1905 a man called John Mark Gracie owned the land it sits on and much of the land surrounding it, along with a Mr. Madding and a Mr. Sennett. I know the grandson of a man buried there. I know how to get there and that I am welcome there. In the coming months I hope to learn so much more. I will be visiting the area with camera in hand to document what is left of the area. I want to tell a different part of the story of New Gascony. The local paper, now defunct, Pine Bluff Commercial, ran more than one article on the restoration of the Catholic church and cemetery of the community, but never considered the other. It is not a secret that it exists, but it is overlooked. The common reasoning is that the people couldn’t be bother to take care of their own cemetery. This reasoning is flawed in so many ways. It ignores the fact that the black people did not have control of the land. They were often not welcome in the home they were born and raised in. They were threatened, and run off of the place they called home. Their land was sold from under them, in completely legal but immoral ways.

I hope that in the next few months I will be able to document this land and come back with a better understanding of the people who lived and loved this area. I want to share with everyone the story of New Gascony from another perspective.