Italians came to labor in fields
Col. John M. Gracie was known throughout Arkansas and the world in the late 1800s and early 1900s for being the largest cotton plantation owner in the state. Intent on finding his own means of solving the plantation labor crisis brought about by the mass exodus of Black slaves from plantations throughout the South after the Emancipation Proclamation, Gracie visited Italy.
Source: arkansasonline.com