Hopewell Freedom Colony
The Hopewell Freedom Colony was settled by 1875, with the purchase of nearly 200 acres of land by five Black farmers including two self-emancipated men from Alabama who served in the Union Navy. Led by the Rev. Henry Jefferson, the community included a Baptist church, a cemetery, a school, a masonic meeting hall, and a small store. By 1925, the founding families had passed or moved away, selling their land to Mrs. Hattie Bassett, a white landowner who lived nearby.
After nearly 100 years, the historic Hopewell Cemetery remains, and the former farmstead sites are now valuable repositories of archeological information about Reconstruction-era Black settlements. Now owned by Preservation Texas, the documentation, preservation, and interpretation of the Hopewell Freedom Colony as part of our new Center for Rural Heritage is a critically important project.
Grant Awards From Other Organizations: $12,000
Funds Needed to Raise: $35,000
This funding will enable Preservation Texas to undertake an archaeological survey to locate the original farmstead sites of the five founders of Hopewell. Funding will also enable us to clear much of the vegetation that has taken over the Hopewell Cemetery, revealing lost headstones and making it possible to undertake a ground penetrating radar survey to locate all burials.
Funds are also needed to document surviving above-ground resources associated with Hopewell, including the Truman Williams Farmstead, the Williams-Jones Farmstead, the Town Place Tenant House, and the Prince Washington Farmstead Ruins.
"Powerful stories of freedom and family are embodied in the Hopewell Freedom Colony. The survival of Hopewell as an intact and undisturbed archaeological site offers remarkable opportunities for research and rediscovery. Building connections with descendants to understand and interpret the site will provide Texans with access to a unique but fragile cultural landscape unlike anyplace else in Texas."
- Evan Thompson, Executive Director of Preservation Texas
Tenant Farmers at Bassett Farms c. 1920
Quilt found in the Williams-Jones Cabin at Hopewell Freedom Colony
The Headstone of Reverend Henry Jefferson at Hopewell Cemetery
The Town Place Tenant House at Bassett Farms
