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On Daily Life in County Line, A Former Freedmen’s Colony
Beatrice Upshaw’s memoir A Biscuit For Your Shoe seeks to preserve the history and heritage of one of East Texas’ first freedmen’s colonies.
A portrait of Beatrice Upshaw from 1976. Courtesy Upshaw family
Beatrice Upshaw’s memoir A Biscuit For Your Shoe seeks to preserve the history and heritage of one of East Texas’ first freedmen’s colonies.
A portrait of Beatrice Upshaw from 1976. Courtesy Upshaw family
A long time ago, or so it seems, I went to County Line for the first time and met the Upshaw family. County Line, also known as the Upshaw Community, is in northwest Nacogdoches County in Deep East Texas. That was 1988. I was looking for a photo project to do in East Texas while visiting my parents in Nacogdoches. A family friend told me about African American land-owner communities dating from the Emancipation, places established by emancipated African Americans on land they owned. ....

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