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When you
think of early Texas history, you think of freedom fighters at the Alamo
and rugged cowboys riding the plains. You usually don’t think too much
about slavery in the Lone Star State. Although slavery only existed in
Texas from the second decade of the 19th century to the close
of the Civil War, the majority of early settlers came to Texas from
other Southern states. When they moved westward, they brought their
slaves with them.
According
to the 1850 census, 27.3 percent of the families in Texas owned slaves.
By the 1860 census, that number had risen to 30.8 percent. These figures
closely match the number of slaveholders in Virginia during that same
time.
When
the Federal Writers’ Project sent interviewers across Texas to find
former slaves and document what their lives were like during slavery,
they filed over 590 slave narratives, the largest collection of any
state. The 27 selections in I Was Born in Slavery show that Texas
slaves had their own distinctive voices, often colored by their Western
culture.
about the author
A writer, editor, and a real estate entrepreneur, Andrew Waters has
edited two other collections of slave narratives, On Jordan's Stormy
Banks and Prayin' to Be Set Free.
Also in Blair's Real Voices,
Real History™ series.
My
Folks Don't Want Me To Talk About Slavery
We
Lived in a Little Cabin in the Yard
Before
Freedom, When I Just Can Remember
On
Jordan's Stormy Banks
Prayin'
to Be Set Free
Weren't
No Good Times |
