Place and Mobility in Shaping the Freedmen’s Community of Antioch Colony, Texas, 1870–1954

ABSTRACT Archaeological inquiry into the landscapes produced by free Black Americans has greatly contributed to understandings of how spatial use continued to reflect resistance to racial subjugation during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras. In this article, I discuss the community of Antioch Colony, a freedmen’s community located in central Texas, to consider the remaking of Black community in the rural countryside between the years of 1870 and 1954. Using oral histories, historic aerial photography, and historic maps, I examine the ways residents of Antioch Colony adapted their landscape over time to create an empowering environment suitable for their needs in the post-bellum period. Through my analysis, I find that the landscape created reinforced a sense of belonging by allowing people to freely congregate and move through space.