18thVirginia
Major
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2012
Black women in Texas called the Civil War the Freedom War. For both women who were enslaved and those who were free, it was an insecure time. As many of the white men were away at war, the duties of enslaved women often became more arduous than usual. In 1860, the total number of slaves in Texas was 182,566, a rapid increase from the 5,000 slaves in Texas in 1836 or even the 58,161 in 1860. As plantation owners from Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi fled to Texas during the War to try and hang onto their slaves, the number of slaves increased to at least 250,000.
Even before the Civil War uprooted people from the Trans-Mississippi South, many black people who were enslaved had been born somewhere east of Texas and had walked to the state with their masters. But, during the Civil War, at least 25,000 black women who were slaves arrived in Texas. Mary Lindsay, an enslaved women in one of the counties along the Red River--Fannin County--noted that "they was whole families of them (refugees) with they children and they slaves along, an they was coming in from every place because the Yankees were getting in their part of the country."
We know something of the lives of black women in Texas who were still living in the institution of slavery from the WPA slave narratives. Texas was one of the states that documented these stories well, I've always noticed that there are far more photos of the former slaves to accompany the Texas stories. In this thread, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the lives of these black women from Texas who survived slavery and lived on into the 1930s.
Even before the Civil War uprooted people from the Trans-Mississippi South, many black people who were enslaved had been born somewhere east of Texas and had walked to the state with their masters. But, during the Civil War, at least 25,000 black women who were slaves arrived in Texas. Mary Lindsay, an enslaved women in one of the counties along the Red River--Fannin County--noted that "they was whole families of them (refugees) with they children and they slaves along, an they was coming in from every place because the Yankees were getting in their part of the country."
We know something of the lives of black women in Texas who were still living in the institution of slavery from the WPA slave narratives. Texas was one of the states that documented these stories well, I've always noticed that there are far more photos of the former slaves to accompany the Texas stories. In this thread, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the lives of these black women from Texas who survived slavery and lived on into the 1930s.
Last edited: