Archeological and historical research at the Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site has revealed a textured story of Anglos and African Americans whose lives intermingled during the period of slavery and later through tenant farming following the Civil War. The sugar and cotton plantation was established by Levi Jordan in the 1840s near the San Bernard River, utilizing slave labor to construct a brick sugar house, brick slave quarters and a large sugar mill. The recently restored Greek Revival plantation house was built in 1854, using slaves to handhew the sills and studs of the house and make bricks for the fireplaces. When sharecropping replaced slavery after emancipation, some freedmen continued to occupy the slave quarters until the 1880s. This site is under development and only open to the public on a limited basis and by appointment.

Watch the following videos to learn more about reconstruction era tenant farming in Texas and archeological excavations conducted at the Levi Jordan Plantation.