Black History Month: UT exhibit showcases historic emancipation documents
AUSTIN, Texas - Cursive handwritten documents in the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas serve as evidence of the avenues taken to gain freedom, emancipation and manumission.
"These are essentially the court paperwork of the time that dates to before the Civil War, with the oldest document dated 1797," said Sarah Sonner, the Associate Director for Curation at the Briscoe Center. "These represent papers that would have legally granted a person or a family freedom, or papers that would have documented the bond that someone paid to obtain that freedom."
One of the featured documents in the collection highlights the Freedom Papers of Silvia Hector Webber.
"Webber was married to John Webber, namesake of Webberville, outside of Austin," Sonner said. "This bond represents the price that was asked of the Webbers to pay for the freedom of Silvia and her three children."
The Webber land east of Austin was listed as collateral. Silvia Webber is also known for her association with the Underground Railroad, according to Sonner.
"The Underground Railroad was really a loose network rather than an organized system or organization, but we know that Silvia was welcoming and was ready to grant help to anyone who came to stay with her pass through to help them achieve freedom via travel to Mexico," Sonner said.
Sonner says the exhibit also lays out the industry of slave catching with receipts, advertisements and habeas corpus writs.
"It is very important to make the primary source evidence of history accessible to students and anyone who can come and visit us here and do research on the collections," Sonner said.
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More than 20 preserved historical documents have been pulled from the University's archives for the Freedom Papers: Evidence of Emancipation exhibit, which focuses primarily on the stories of women and children.
"This is firsthand evidence of the difficult road that enslaved people faced when they were trying to gain freedom or resisting enslavement," Sonner said.
The exhibit is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. The exhibit will be showcased until June 28, and it is free to the public.