Months after remains were discovered at a construction site for a new Fort Bend ISD technical center, experts are revealing new details.
The Houston Chronicle reports that “Archaeologists have determined that the remains found so far are of African-Americans, all but one of whom was male. The bodies have muscular builds and appear to have completed a lot of heavy labor from a young age. They range in age from teenagers to 70, and it is believed that they were part of the state’s notorious convict-leasing system from the decades after the Civil War.”
According to Chron.com, “Catrina Whitley, a bioarcheologist with Goshawk Environmental Consulting, said 48 remains had been uncovered since the exhumations began last month, but only 25 had been completely analyzed”
“Whitley said that if the population of those found continues to be all male, then they are most likely from the convict leasing era, when prisoners, mainly African-Americans, were leased out to perform cheap labor. However, if more bodies are found to be women and children, then that may change their conclusions.”
See the full story on Chron.com.
Photo: Marie D. De Jesús, Houston Chronicle
