Conference on Texas

including

• Steering Committee chaired by Aaronetta Pierce will curate panel discussions featuring scholars from around the United States focused on slavery in Texas, including Dr. Daina Ramey Berry.
• Anticipated attendance from throughout Texas and beyond.
• More than 500 attendees expected.
• 100 scholarships for college students, high school students, and educators.
• Keynote speaker Annette Gordon-Reed.

The 2024 Conference on Texas at the Witte Museum will reveal the foundational role of chattel slavery in the formation and growth of Texas. The conference will center on the lives of the enslaved people, especially as mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers. 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.

Through new scholarship, the Conference will broaden the understanding of the ongoing legacies from slavery which continue to impact African Americans in Texas.

Learn more about this year’s conference here.