 From Slavery to Wealth
The Life of Scott Bond
Edited with a new preface and introduction by
Willard B. Gatewood
ISBN: 978-0-9768007-6-7
336 pages and 72 photographs
$19.95
Paperback
In an era in which African Americans were oppressed and deprived of many of the rights and
privileges of citizenship, Scott Bond rose from being born a slave in Madison County Mississippi in
the early 1850’s to wealth and status as a farmer, merchant, and business man in Madison, Arkansas
by the early 1900’s. From Slavery to Wealth is the story of a very extraordinary individual widely
known and respected at the time of its first publication in 1917, for his integrity, prodigious energy,
and strong work ethic. Throughout his career he never wearied of imploring African Americans to
seize the opportunities offered them in the South in general and in the Arkansas Delta in particular.
Scott Bond enjoyed an enviable reputation among blacks as well as whites. This reputation
ultimately extended far beyond his local community to prominent blacks throughout the South and
elsewhere, especially after he gained wider exposure as a conspicuous figure in the National Negro
Business League early in the early years of the twentieth century.
With this 2008 reprint edition, the current generation can be inspired by the man that has
been referred to as the black John D. Rockefeller of Arkansas.
Willard B. Gatewood is Alumni Distinguished Professor of History emeritus at the University of
Arkansas, Fayetteville, and the author or coauthor of eleven other books, including Aristocrats
of Color. (2000, University of Arkansas Press).
Scott Bond was nothing less than an amazing man, and it is important that information on him
be available to modern readers. Despite the racist times in which he lived, Bond became a
leading businessman with a reputation for shrewdness and integrity. I hope readers, especially
Arkansans, will see in Scott Bond an example of an African American leader who made myriad
contributions to his state—and who still serves as a model for young men and women who hope
to accomplish great things.
—Tom W. Dillard, founder and editor-in-chief,
Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture
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