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Contributor
Van Hoy, Teresa (Faculty Mentor)
Digital Publisher
Digital Commons at St. Mary's University
Publication Date
Spring 2026
Keywords
Slavery, San Antonio, Tax rolls, Enslaved documentation
Description
This research on the taxes collected by our city and county exposes the pervasiveness of slavery in San Antonio. This truth is shockingly new for San Antonio. No marker nor plaque nor historical commemoration exists to honor the memory and contributions of enslaved San Antonians, nor to force a reckoning with the legacy of prominent enslavers among San Antonio’s leading families and Alamo heroes. This research project recovers every person listed as enslaved in the Bexar County Tax Assessment Records from 1837 to 1862 and names their enslavers. It immediately counters the assumption and assertion that slavery was insignificant in the history of our community. The tax records prove our city’s dependence on slavery and our debt to our enslaved ancestors. Among the many findings gleaned from these records, we see that not only were men enslaving people, but women were also enslavers in their own names, exercising their own property rights in humans, independent of husbands, fathers, and sons. Among the enslavers, we also see Hispanic surnames, both male and female. Hispanic surnames are a small fraction of Anglo surnames, but they appear throughout this 25-year period. Although this research topic is sensitive, it is very important to face this raw-yet-real history.
Format
Size
1 poster
City
San Antonio, Texas
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.