ABOUT THIS PROJECT (Home)CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE PAST
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Levi Jordan
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 We will put a picture of Cheryl here when she gives us one... And as with all these participant pages, it is hoped that Cheryl will write her own biography to insert here! Questions
or Comments? |
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| Cheryl Wright completed her
master's degree at the University of Houston in 1974, and
since then has been teaching and, with her husband Bruce,
raising several children (and, recently, to begin helping
to raise one grandchild!). She is now employed as an
anthropology instructor and guidance counselor at the
University of Houston, Downtown Campus. In order to obtain material for her thesis, Cheryl conducted interviews with the descendants of the African-American people who lived on the Jordan, Mims, and Stratton Plantations. She wanted to learn more about the African-American community that existed, and still exists, in and around Brazoria, Texas – to find out how people lived and survived both the slavery and post-slavery periods. She discovered an extremely close, vibrant community in which there are strong connections between past and present. People in this community know their histories, and they continue to draw strength from the creative ways that their ancestors learned to survive and flourish. While the individual people that she interviewed are not named in her thesis, or here (because of their desire for personal privacy) Cheryl was able to mention some of the larger family names in her introduction, to affirm their roles in the history of Brazoria County. Some of these same family names also appear on these web pages in other contexts, and include the Wright, Williams, Hendricks, Johnson, Lee, Holmes, Austin and Higgins families. Sometimes we are able to provide links from things that Cheryl learned to some of the archaeological data – this is usually speculative. However, if family members see this web site, and are willing for their ancestors to be named has having a specific role in the plantation community (such as the person who was the hunter, or the midwife/healer), we would be very grateful. Here are the sections from Cheryl's thesis included here: Introduction ABSTRACT |
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