Researchers have dug up the remains of dozens of people believed to have been African-American prisoners forced into labor on plantations in Texas over a century ago.
Archaeologists have exhumed 48 sets of remains in an unmarked cemetery in Fort Bend County, Texas, a sprawling suburb just outside of Houston.
The crews began digging in April as part of a project to build a $59million career and technical center on the site in the town of Sugar Land, according to KHOU-TV.
Aside from human remains, the crews also discovered other artifacts, including chains.
Researchers have dug up the remains of dozens of people believed to have been African-American prisoners forced into labor on plantations in Texas over a century ago
‘Some of these chains, especially the ones that date prior to the Industrial Revolution, some of them have swivels on them, which were more than likely utilized in chain gangs,’ said archaeologist Reign Clark.
The bodies are believed to have been buried between 1878 and 1910.
So far, since work began at the site, construction crews have found 95 sets of human remains.
Experts say that all but one of the human remains belonged to males between the ages of 15 and 70.
This July 16, 2018 photo shows chains discovered at a historic burial site at the James Reese Career and Technical Center construction site in Sugar Land, Texas
Sugar Land was once home to prison camps and sugar cane plantations.
Its reputation back then earned it the nickname ‘Hellhole on the Brazos,’ according to The Washington Post.
That’s because convicts whom the state leased to plantation owners nearby were made to toil in the field chopping sugar cane until ‘they dropped dead in their tracks.’
But the town has come a long way since a century ago.
Today, Sugar Land is considered one of the best places to retire because of its high quality of life and its relatively low cost of living, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Its strip malls, restaurants, leisure attractions, and its diversity are all considered huge pluses.
A drawing of one of the burials discovered at the site is seen in the above image from Monday
Reginald Moore, an African-American former prison guard at one of Texas’s oldest penitentiaries, became curious about Sugar Land.
The more he researched the topic, the more he grew convinced there were bodies of former slaves and black convicts buried in the area.
Moore spent 19 years searching for the bodies at a site known as the Imperial State Prison Farm.
The site was named after Imperial Sugar, the major sugar-producing company based in Sugar Land.
Moore is now urging the district to bury the bodies at a cemetery.
Reign Clark points out a brick considered a secondary context material found at a historic burial site
‘We’re trying to move forward in a positive way, getting them memorialized, getting them a museum put together, giving them recognition,’ Moore told KHOU.
Experts say that they believe there are more unmarked cemeteries in the area and that excavations will begin soon.
The Fort Bend ISD Career and Technical Center is expected to be completely built by the fall of next year.