Utilizing the data stories with the Travis County WPA Slave Narratives (1937) compiled by the Austin History Center, we have loaded the locations, photos, and narratives of some formerly enslaved people living in Austin and Travis County in the late 1930s. In this interactive storymap, you can see the sites where these interviews took place, often the formerly enslaved person's residence or that of their children. You will notice that most of these sites are within East Austin. The concentration of homes in the former "Negro District" is important as rampant gentrification has altered the East Austin racial demographic, and these histories have been obscured. Some of these homes are still standing. However, how many people in these homes know former enslaved persons lived, loved, and shared a community there? Our storymap serves to preserve an important history of this country and city. These narratives give a glimpse of their lives, and we wanted to share them in a map format so you can walk around where they once lived and see how much it has changed.

Mapping Their Words: The Formerly Enslaved of Austin 

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