Freedmen Settlements of Indian Territory and Three Freedmen Community Clusters

Abstract:

A lot of attention has been focused on the all-Black towns in Oklahoma established two decades after the Civil War. However, missing from the story of Black life on the frontier are overlooked Freedmen communities established earlier. These were not incorporated towns but were thriving communities where enslaved people in Indian Territory lived for generations. These small yet significant settlements of Black families did not voluntarily migrate to the West from the Deep South but accompanied their Indian slaveholders during the Trail of Tears. Many lived as enslaved people until the end of the Civil War. Afterward, they lived on the edge of incorporated white or Indian towns where they formed their own Freedmen settlements, established churches, built schools, and lived vibrant lives. This essay will focus on a few of these settlements, where footprints of their presence can still be found today in old “neighborhoods” that have been absorbed into other communities.