1800 — 1870
Tracing Forced Migration
into Texas
An interactive visualization tracing enslaved people forcibly migrated from U.S. states into Texas between 1800 and 1870 — reconstructed from the voter registration records of 1867–1870, in which more than 50,000 of the 140,073 Texans who registered are identified as freedmen.
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Registration Records
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Identified Freedmen
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Counties
1800–1870
Time Span
Explore the Data
Interactive Map
Visualize migration flows from origin states to Texas counties with animated arcs, historical county boundaries, and a timeline slider spanning 1800–1870.
Name Search
Search for individuals by name with fuzzy matching that handles historical spelling variants. Filter by county, origin state, or year of arrival.
The Dataset
125 counties with voter registration data including names, origin states, arrival years, and residence durations that reveal the “gap problem” of unknown interim locations.
Understanding the Data
The voter registration records contain nuances that require careful interpretation. These questions address the most important methodological considerations.