To the City Up North: African American Migration from Antioch Colony to Austin, Texas, 1900–1940

Abstract

Using oral histories as its main mode of archaeological inquiry, this article presents a case study of the migration patterns of former residents from Antioch Colony, Texas, from 1900 to 1940. This approach offers a nuanced analysis of African American migration in the recent past, showing how people move through space in archaeological studies of landscapes and how movement was incorporated in Black spatial productions. A sizeable number of the migrants studied relocated seventeen miles north to Austin, Texas, suggesting that for many former residents of Antioch Colony, place-attachment and place-familiarity largely shaped places of possibility. By recovering patterns of African American movement within the historical record this article finds that the freedom to move continued to be ingrained in the spatial practices of Black people during the postbellum time period. [Black American migration, oral history narratives, Black Texans, African Diaspora archaeology]