Emancipation and African-American Migration

Emancipation and African-American Migration. . , When Emancipation came to Texas at the end of the Civil War, hundreds of freed African-American slaves left Brazos River plantations and travelled east along the San Felipe Trail, many settling in Houston's Fourth Ward and in rural areas all along the road., "They travel mostly on foot, bearing heavy burthens of clothing, blankets, etc., on their heads , a long and weary journey. They arrive tired, footsore and hungry..." , - Houston Tri-Weekly Telegraph, June 30, 1865, Among the travelers were Rachel Davis Banks, who is buried in this cemetery, and her husband Jordan Banks, who had arrived in Texas as slaves in about 1860. After Emancipation, Jordan worked at a local sawmill operated by the Morse family, and lived next door to Henry Morse. Eventually, Rachel and Jordan used their savings to buy a small farm along the San Felipe Trail on former Morse plantation land, one mile to the east of here. There they raised fifteen children., Other resettled African Americans worked as sharecroppers, farmhands, sawmill workers and teamsters. In 1876, Jordan Banks, along with his neighbors Jack Alfred and Quince Oliver, founded Lovely Canada Baptist Church adjacent to the Banks' farm to serve African-American families in this area. It was demolished in the mid-twentieth century with the coming of the suburbs., Captions , African Americans picking cotton, ca. 1874 , By J. Wells Champney, From The Great South, a Record of Journeys, Edward King. 1875, Sharecropper with mule, 1937 , Courtesy Library of Congress, Houston area family, ca. 1874 , Illustration by J. Wells Champney, From The Great South, a Record of Journeys, Edward King, 1875, Houston area Freedmen, 1915 , From The Red Book of Houston 1915