Count the Outside Children!: Kinkeeping as Preservation Practice Among Descendants of Texas' Freedom Colonies

Andrea Roberts, PH.D., assistant professor of urban planning and Faculty Fellow with the Center for Heritage Conservation at Texas A&M University, explores the intangible heritage of Texas Freedom Colonies. Though some buildings that were located in these freedom colonies remain, the names of the towns and settlements themselves have been changed, and there is no formal history of these places. Descendents of freedom colony residents keep the history alive through genealogy (kinkeeping) and family histories that, together, validate the significance of Freedom Colonies during the years immediately after emancipation.