AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The story of the Underground Railroad is largely taught in American history as a northern route that slaves used to escape and find their freedom, but a new exhibit at a University of Texas museum is highlighting the untold stories of slaves paths to freedom to Mexico.
Silvia Hector Webber’s family gave up over 800 acres of land in exchange for freedom for her and her children, her emancipation papers show. Webber’s story is the centerpiece of UT-Austin’s Briscoe Center for American History’s newest exhibit called Freedom Papers: Evidence of Emancipation.
The display showcases a variety of documents to convey what it took for enslaved people, primarily women and children, to be freed before the Emancipation Proclamation.
“This provides us with real primary source evidence of the experience that people went through trying to gain their freedom and trying to exist in a world where they were born without human rights,” said Sarah Sonner, the center’s associate director for curation. “It lets us form a personal connection to lives that happened before the Civil War.”
“We know what their names were. We know where they lived, where they grew up, where they were born,”
Originally, Hector Webber came to Texas during the Austin expedition with her owner, John Cryer. In Central Texas, she would go on to meet her eventual husband — John Webber. He purchased a large plot of land east of Austin, which is now known as Webberville. It was the land he would eventually use to help buy Sylvia’s freedom in 1832.
Handwritten bonds featured in the exhibit show that Hector Webber was initially asked to give up her two young kids in exchange for her freedom, but her husband was able to use his land as collateral.
From there, the Webber family trekked to South Texas and resettled in the Rio Grande Valley. Their 8,000-acre ranch became an outpost for the Underground Railroad, where the Webbers helped other slaves find freedom by crossing the border into Mexico.
“She was known as a generous hostess and a real comfort for people who sought her help,” said Sonner. “So Sylvia’s house served as a welcoming refuge for people seeking their freedom.”
Several stories like Silvia’s are highlighted in the Briscoe Center. Some court documents describe the monetary cost — equating to up to $31,000 in today’s economy — that owners paid to help free their slaves. The exhibit also features Stephen F. Austin’s original list of requirements for settlers’ title dues, made payable in “cash, cattle or enslaved people.”
Sonner said the goal of the exhibit was to convey the fragility of freedom, as several documents depict difficulty maintaining status when traveling from state to state.
“This is a shared history, especially in Sylvia’s case. This is land that we can identify,” she said, “and I think that it, moreover, provides us with personal connections and understanding. These primary sources illuminate so much more than a history textbook can.”
Dr. Francisco Guajardo, the CEO of the Museum of South Texas History, said he hopes others can learn about the unique role Texas and Mexico played in the emancipation of slaves, long before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
“I think part of that is really because a lot of the way American History is told is really eastern United States, East coast driven,” he said. “People who lived in Texas who were enslaved, people who lived in Louisiana and were enslaved would have found it much more practical to go down to the Rio Grande, where just south of the Rio Grande, Mexico had already abolished slavery. Mexico did by 1829.”
Freedom Papers will be open until June 28. The Briscoe Center is free to the public during the week.