I describe southeastern Texas – for this project – as including Jefferson, Orange, Chambers, and Liberty counties. In 1850 at the time of the first US census for Texas, only Jefferson and Liberty counties existed. But I find a big anomaly between numbers of enslaved people in Jefferson and Liberty counties in 1850 and then in 1860, the last US census showing enslaved people.

The 1850 US census showed 269 enslaved people in Jefferson County. In the same year, the census for Liberty County showed almost three times as many enslaved people, 892 total.

By 1860, Orange County had been formed from Jefferson County and Chambers county had been formed from parts of Jefferson and Liberty counties. But the same anomaly appears: Jefferson County showed 249 enslaved people in 1860, and Liberty County showed 863 enslaved people. The numbers were lower in 1860 partly because Orange and Chambers counties had been formed.

But I suspect that there was something seriously different between the economies of Jefferson and Liberty counties in this period. Beaumont had the lumber economy. Did Liberty county not have a lumber economy? Any ideas about this discrepancy or anomaly?