The 2016 San Jacinto Symposium:
AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN TEXAS HISTORY
from Spanish-Colonial times to Annexation
Saturday, April 9, 2016
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“Aspiration” (1936)
“Into Bondage” (1936)
Africans have been present in Texas since Estabanico, a North
African slave, meandered through with Cabeza de Vaca and two other
survivors of Spain’s disastrous 1528 expedition.
Africans were part of later Spanish campaigns as both slaves and
freemen. An increasing number came to Mexican Texas with Stephen
F. Austin’s “Old Three Hundred”—often as the property of cotton
farmers, merchants and craftsmen, but free black families came as
well. Afro-Texans participated in the Revolution then helped build
towns, ports and roads during the days of the Republic.
James E. Crisp is Professor of History at North Carolina State University.
His book, Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett’s Last Stand and Other
Mysteries of the Texas Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2005), won
the T. R. Fehrenbach Award from the Texas Historical Commission.
Texas A&M University Press published How Did Davy Die? And Why Do
We Care So Much? in 2010.
Jeff Dunn: “Emily D. West at the Battle of San Jacinto - Was the 'Yellow
Rose' Really in Santa Anna's Tent?”
A founder of the San Jacinto Symposium, Jeff Dunn returns to his
favorite topic with new information. Dunn is an attorney with Munsch
Hardt Kopf & Harr in Dallas. He has written numerous articles about
the Battle of San Jacinto and authored four official Texas State
Historical markers on the road from Gonzales to San Jacinto. The San
Jacinto Battleground Conservancy dubbed him a “Hero of San Jacinto”
in 2015.
Rolonda Teal: “Slave Rebellion and Flight on the Louisiana-Texas Frontier,
1800-1821”
Co-founder of Cultural Lore, an anthropological and archaeological
consulting agency, Ms Teal has worked for the Cane River National
Heritage Area, the Cane River Creole National Historical Park, and
the Louisiana Regional Folklife Center. She is a Stephen F. Austin
State University PhD student and the author of African Americans in
Natchitoches Parish (Arcadia Publishing, 2007).
Andrew Torget: “King Cotton, Afro-Texans, and the Origins of Texas
Plantation Society”
Dr. Torget focuses on the experiences of the thousands of enslaved
African Americans brought into the region as part of King Cotton’s
march into northern Mexico. Dr. Torget is a historian of the U.S.Mexican borderlands and nineteenth-century North America at the
University of North Texas, where he directs a digital humanities lab. His
latest book is Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of
the Texas Borderlands, 1800-1850 (University of North Carolina Press,
2015).
Frank de la Teja: “The Afro-Hispanic Experience in Spanish Texas”
Dr. de la Teja, the first Texas State Historian, is Supple Professor of
Southwestern Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of
the Southwest at Texas State University. He is a consultant for the
Texas State History Museum and former book review editor of the
Southwestern Historical Quarterly.
Lee Spencer White: “Bringing Joe to Life”
The research that produced the book about Travis’ slave, Joe: The Slave
Who Became an Alamo Legend, is the topic chosen by its co-author,
Lee Spencer White. A seventh-generation Texan whose fourth-great
grandfather died at the Alamo, Ms. White is a founder of the Alamo
Defenders Descendants Association, and a director of the Former
Texas Rangers Foundation and the Friends of the Texas Historical
Commission.
Alwyn Barr: “Slavery, Slaves, and Free African-Americans in the Texas
Revolution and Republic”
Dr. Barr will address four major questions: First, did slavery issues
cause the Texas Revolution? How and why did slaves and free AfricanAmericans respond to that conflict? How did Texas victory impact
slavery and the status of free African-Americans during the Republic?
Finally, how did slaves and free African-Americans respond to their
changing situation? Dr. Barr is Professor Emeritus at Texas Tech
University, a former president of the Texas State Historical Association
and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.
2016 Battle of San Jacinto Symposium
Registration Form
Please return by April 2, 2016
Name 1 _____________________________________________________________________
(as it should appear on badge)
Name 2 _____________________________________________________________________
(as it should appear on badge)
The United Way Community Center
50 Waugh Drive
Houston, TX 77007
$75 covers speakers, lunch, parking,
exhibits and more
Address_______________________________________ City ___________State ______ Zip _______
Daytime phone ______________________________ Email __________________________________
( ) Check here if you are a teacher seeking CPE hours.
Symposium tickets
Number _____ @ $75 = $_____
Price includes lunch and parking. Reservations will be held at the door. Pre-registration payment must be received by April 2 to
qualify for the ($75) fee. Late registration is $80, based on availability.
Patron tickets Number _____ @ $150 = $______
Price includes Symposium registration and an invitation to meet the speakers at the Patrons’ Reception, 6 p.m., Friday, April 8.
You will be recognized in the program.
“Save the San Jacinto Battleground Fund”
I would like to donate to the “Save the San Jacinto Battleground Fund.”
Contributions are tax deductible as provided by law.
$______
SJBC individual memberships (tax deductible as provided by law) Number ___@ $30 = $_______
TOTAL:
[ ]
[ ]
Check enclosed
Charge to my: [ ] VISA
[ ] MasterCard
[ ] Discover
$_______
[ ] American Express
Account # ________________________________________ Exp. Date _______________
Signature: ________________________________________ Date ___________________
Please print name as it appears on card: ________________________________________
Reservations and payments can be made online at www.sanjacintoconservancy.org. Or make checks payable to “San Jacinto
Battleground Conservancy” and mail to P.O. Box 36, Thompsons TX 77481.
For additional information, call (713) 521-0768 or email [email protected].
2016 Battle of San Jacinto Symposium is presented by the San Jacinto Battleground Conservancy, a Section 501 (c)(3) nonprofit
organization whose mission is to preserve, reclaim, and restore the San Jacinto Battleground and build greater public awareness
and scholarship concerning the Battle of San Jacinto. The Symposium offers Certified Professional Education (CPE) credits for
teachers.
Illustration note: “Into Bondage” and “Aspiration” are by Aaron Douglas, an African-American illustrator and painter who played a
leading role in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. These murals were commissioned for the “Negro” exhibition hall at the
Texas Centennial in Dallas.
Sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Southwest, Texas State University