Black Labor in Native Texas

Slavery, Family, and Mobility, 1821-1861

Bibliographic Data

ID3645870
AuthorsBrooks Winfree (corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume110
Issue1
Pages89-111
Publication date2025-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of African American History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1548-1867 • E-ISSN: 2153-5086
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/733982
OpenAlexW4408285512
LanguageEN
References cited15

This article explores how enslaved people experienced labor that brought them into contact with the Indigenous inhabitants of Texas during the antebellum period. Scholars have argued that enslaved people successfully sought refuge by allying with Indigenous communities. This article, however, examines another form of Black and Native interaction, by centering how the enslaved encountered Indigenous people during their forced labor practices, something that is particularly important given the centrality of labor to the institution of slavery. By joining scholarly conversations about slavery, family, gender, work, and mobility, this article argues that enslaved people found that these kinds of labor, which were particularly mobile, took them away from family and community and injected danger into slave life. Such labor was treacherous and threatened the well-being of enslaved people. If Indigenous peoples could offer meaningful opportunities for the enslaved, this article argues that contacts that occurred during labor tended to restrict opportunities. Only a few enslaved people found opportunities to use labor to escape White surveillance or to spend time with family

Genealogy · Geography · Archaeology and Natural History · Cuban History and Society · History · Latin American and Latino Studies

Tools

Open DOI