Conference at San Antonio’s Witte Museum to reckon with Texas’ history of slavery

San Antonio’s Witte Museum is exploring the dark history of slavery in the Lone Star State during its 8th Annual Conference on Texas event, Dec. 5-6.

The Witte holds the annual gathering to discuss research that sheds new light on under-examined aspects of Texas history. This year’s conference, “Ode to Juneteenth: Slavery in Texas,”  will explore new scholarship to gain a deeper understanding of how slavery shaped the state and its economy.

The conference is being held in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution’s “Our Shared Future: Reckoning with our Racial Past” and with the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum.

“At the Witte Museum, we’re proud to lead and curate this conference, connecting top scholars with the community to explore Texas’ history on such an important subject,” Witte CEO Dirk Elmendorf said in a statement. “With the expertise of groundbreaking researchers, this event is a unique chance to uncover the past and understand how it shaped the Texas we know today. It’s an exciting opportunity to inspire conversation and build a more informed future together.”

Keynote speakers at the conference will include Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Harvard history professor Annette Gordon-Reed, historian and academic Daina Ramey Berry and author and historian Ed Baptist, among others.

The event also is a continuation of Witte’s award-winning exhibit: “Black Cowboys: An American Story,” according to museum officials.

Texas’ enslaved population exploded from 5,000 people in 1834 to 182,566 by 1861 as landowners sought labor for cotton fields and sugar plantations, according to the Witte.

The state’s enslaved residents weren’t liberated until June 19, 1865, two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. That day is celebrated in Texas as Juneteenth.

Ticket information and more details on “Ode to Juneteenth: Slavery in Texas” are available at the Witte Museum’s website.

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This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 10, 2024.