diff --git a/cpp/src/arrow/python/helpers.cc b/cpp/src/arrow/python/helpers.cc
index 6f49a7cdb2294..75a77c640bbc4 100644
--- a/cpp/src/arrow/python/helpers.cc
+++ b/cpp/src/arrow/python/helpers.cc
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ Status CIntFromPythonImpl(PyObject* obj, Int* out, const std::string& overflow_m
   // PyLong_AsUnsignedLong() and PyLong_AsUnsignedLongLong() don't handle
   // conversion from non-ints (e.g. np.uint64), so do it ourselves
   if (!PyLong_Check(obj)) {
-    ref.reset(PyNumber_Long(obj));
+    ref.reset(PyNumber_Index(obj));
     if (!ref) {
       RETURN_IF_PYERROR();
     }
@@ -348,16 +348,14 @@ bool IsPandasTimestamp(PyObject* obj) {
 }
 
 Status InvalidValue(PyObject* obj, const std::string& why) {
-  std::string obj_as_str;
-  RETURN_NOT_OK(internal::PyObject_StdStringStr(obj, &obj_as_str));
-  return Status::Invalid("Could not convert ", obj_as_str, " with type ",
+  auto obj_as_str = PyObject_StdStringRepr(obj);
+  return Status::Invalid("Could not convert ", std::move(obj_as_str), " with type ",
                          Py_TYPE(obj)->tp_name, ": ", why);
 }
 
 Status InvalidType(PyObject* obj, const std::string& why) {
-  std::string obj_as_str;
-  RETURN_NOT_OK(internal::PyObject_StdStringStr(obj, &obj_as_str));
-  return Status::TypeError("Could not convert ", obj_as_str, " with type ",
+  auto obj_as_str = PyObject_StdStringRepr(obj);
+  return Status::TypeError("Could not convert ", std::move(obj_as_str), " with type ",
                            Py_TYPE(obj)->tp_name, ": ", why);
 }
 
diff --git a/python/pyarrow/tests/test_convert_builtin.py b/python/pyarrow/tests/test_convert_builtin.py
index 665c14f5daaea..933d8d612148e 100644
--- a/python/pyarrow/tests/test_convert_builtin.py
+++ b/python/pyarrow/tests/test_convert_builtin.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 import decimal
 import itertools
 import math
+import re
 
 import hypothesis as h
 import numpy as np
@@ -42,7 +43,7 @@
     (np.uint64, pa.uint64())]
 
 
-np_int_types, _ = zip(*int_type_pairs)
+np_int_types, pa_int_types = zip(*int_type_pairs)
 
 
 class StrangeIterable:
@@ -433,6 +434,14 @@ def test_unsigned_integer_overflow(bits):
         pa.array([-1], ty)
 
 
+@parametrize_with_iterable_types
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("typ", pa_int_types)
+def test_integer_from_string_error(seq, typ):
+    # ARROW-9451: pa.array(['1'], type=pa.uint32()) should not succeed
+    with pytest.raises(pa.ArrowInvalid):
+        pa.array(seq(['1']), type=typ)
+
+
 def test_convert_with_mask():
     data = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
     mask = np.array([False, True, False, False, True])
@@ -1684,7 +1693,7 @@ def test_struct_from_list_of_pairs_errors():
     # type inference
     template = (
         r"Could not convert {} with type {}: was expecting tuple of "
-        r"\(key, value\) pair"
+        r"(key, value) pair"
     )
     cases = [
         tuple(),  # empty key-value pair
@@ -1693,10 +1702,9 @@ def test_struct_from_list_of_pairs_errors():
         'string',  # not a tuple
     ]
     for key_value_pair in cases:
-        msg = template.format(
-            str(key_value_pair).replace('(', r'\(').replace(')', r'\)'),
-            type(key_value_pair).__name__
-        )
+        msg = re.escape(template.format(
+            repr(key_value_pair), type(key_value_pair).__name__
+        ))
 
         with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=msg):
             pa.array([