Perspective: Graves in Texas remind us that unfree labor didn’t end with slavery and raise the question of how to commemorate another dark chapter in our history
Archival records suggest that the majority of the unmarked and forgotten graves belong to Black men who had labored under the Texas convict-lease system, a regime that enabled private enterprises seeking workers to rent people from prisons. These leased men included 18-year-old Nathan Pope, identified as one of the Sugar Land victims, who was killed and buried after attempting to escape from a labor camp in 1879.
The Black Codes, combined with statewide initiatives to be tougher on crime, had a tangible impact. While the imprisonment of White people grew by 60 percent in Texas between 1865 and 1880, the imprisonment of Black people soared, increasing by 500 percent in the same period. Given these working conditions, it is not surprising that at least 95 Black workers perished laboring there — victims of contagious diseases like malaria and the flu, as well as sun stroke and heart-related conditions exacerbated by hard labor. Archivists researching the gravesite helped identify remains and uncover the many causes of death related to working conditions on sugar plantations.
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