EARLY YEARS / PREHISTORY TO 1873

Slavery in Dallas County

Not all the early settlers in Dallas County came by choice. African Americans entered the region along with the earliest pioneers. Our image of a plantation with a grand home and large numbers of enslaved workers toiling in vast fields was not the reality in this region. In the older southern states, and even the southwestern part of Texas, enslavers engaged in growing labor-intensive commercial crops like cotton and needed many field workers.

With no way to ship such crops to market, Dallas County did not need that level of enslaved labor. According to the Federal Census, in 1850 there were 207 enslaved people in Dallas County, owned by 56 individuals—about 2 percent of the white population. Many families arrived with only one or two African Americans, and everyone might work side-by-side on the farm to grow sustenance, but that did not create feelings of equality. Nor did it change the fact that enslaved people were viewed as property, to be bought, sold and traded.