Banks, Johnny W. Market Days. San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum, saaacam.org/event/conference-on-texas-ode-to-juneteenth-slavery-in-texas/. Accessed 6 Dec. 2024.
This guide will highlight and broaden the understanding of the ongoing legacies from slavery which continue to impact African Americans in Texas.
"Every facet of the expanding Texas economy was impacted by slavery and enslaved labor. Enslaved people not only labored on cotton and sugar plantations, they also worked as artisans such as blacksmiths, seamstresses, and as enslaved cowboys.
In 1834, there were approximately 5,000 enslaved people in Mexican Texas. During the Republic of Texas, slavery increased so that by 1845, there were at least 30,000 enslaved women, men, and children in the new state of Texas. When Texas voted to join the Confederacy in 1861, the enslaved population was 182,566 people, the fastest growing demographic in Texas. The economy of Texas was so dependent upon slavery that not until June 19, 1865, now celebrated as Juneteenth, were enslaved people freed from bondage in Texas, two years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation."
