Freedmen’s town!

A community built by freed black men and women, known as fourth

ward. Immediately following the civil war, freed slave set out to find a place they can call home.

A place they were able to be owners and establish like they own government within. This was

the first black community established in Houston. Its impact on the city of Houston was very

important, because it gave black men and women hope after going through four and a half

centuries’ of bondage. These brave men and women built a community of progress, from the

people that once considered them as a slave. Through it all this was the foundation of liberation

were there was opportunity to grow as a people and the chance to have a newly found free

country. In the close of the 18 century ex slave came to Houston to insert themselves in society

and protect their new found freedom1, with the hopes of finding stability through building a

community for its people. From 1877 to now freedman’s town has found place in history as

being one of the first all-black community known in the history even until this today. With

endless attempts of the city of Houston to erase the memory of its history, a plac were the

freed men once lived.

Freedman’s town was established with migration of freed men and women that took refuge

in the downtown area of Houston, TX. The fore fathers first brought and settled in the in cheap

unwanted swap land of the banks of buffalo bayou. This was a place where there wasnt not

inhabited by the citizens of Houston. So they made due with their conditions as more and more

1
(marie)
freed men migrated with the skills they obtain from slavery. These freed men and women built

there fist community that grew very vast within time. The reason that these great people

moved there, it was a place that was there’s and it was called Freedman’s town.

This town led up to its name from the freed men that occupied the area. It was the first

freed men that settled there give their small the name freedmen’s town. They decided to name

after their condition that they were in, a nation of people freed from slavery.

Large numbers of African Americans left the east Texas plantations and arrived in the

Houston in 1866, setting along buffalo bayou’s southern banks but- free of Anglo oppression2.

The creation of freedman’s bureau, by president Lincoln, help freed men with a Freedmen’s

bank to help finance the transition ; where education could be obtain with fund of the

government and they were able to own businesses so it could build up their community

finances . With so many African American that was freed migrating to these swamp lands it

opened up the community known as freed man’s town. More and more freed men migrated to

freedman’s town for the opportunity to be part of a place that was establish and ran by their

own people. For the first time in centuries these people were free from slavery and this brought

about the name freeman’s town.

By 1920, Freedmen’s town had grown to represent one-third of Houston’s population.

Freedman’s town doesn’t no longer exist do to the fact the vast movement of

reconstruction from our government. ‘Economic, community, and social development were at

2
(texsindepencetrail.com)
( Darrell Patteson and d Lenwood Johnson)
a peak until local government became threatened by the Black area's prosperity. Black

businesses, homes, and churches soon became displaced in order to make way for "progress."

Government buildings, such as City Hall, the Albert Thomas Convention Center, and the Music

Hall and Coliseum have replaced that portion of Freedmen's Town whose boundaries extended

east to Travis Street; west to Taft Street; north to Allen Parkway, and south to Sutton Street.

Freedman’s town had become the Harlem of Houston and was filled with many black owned

establishments. The street were made out of red brick that were crafted handmade by the

people that resided there.

Bibliography (PRESERVATION, 2015)
Darrell Patteson and d Lenwood Johnson. (n.d.). Freedmen's town.

marie, g. (n.d.). freedman's Town.

PRESERVATION, N. T. (2015).

texsindepencetrail.com. (n.d.).