In this episode, we explore what it was actually like to work as an enslaved person on a Texas plantation. 

 Slavery boomed in Texas after the republic joined the Union as a state. This raised many questions for the new state: What was it like to be forcibly brought to Texas? How did bringing in thousands of enslaved workers affect Texas? How did the human-trafficking business in Texas affect the state and the people caught up in that system? What did slaveowners do to keep slavery profitable, and how did those actions affect enslaved Texans? 

Please join me for an interview with one of the leading scholars of slavery in Texas: Professor Andrew Torget of the University of North Texas. 

In this episode, we step outside the main narrative of slavery in Texas to consider the abrupt disappearance of John, an enslaved Texan, and the legal fallout caused by his disappearance.

Slavery didn’t come to Texas by chance. This episode explores how Americans brought the slave society to Texas.

What are the roots of slavery in Texas? In this episode, we examine how the American South became a slave society.

Is slavery an important chapter in Texas history? Does our past as a slaveholding state matter now? And why did I create this podcast? Let’s talk.