Nearly 100 bodies found on a Texas construction site were likely forced people to work – after the end of slavery

TEXAS – Months after the inauguration of a new technical center by a Texas school district, archaeologists have made a startling discovery: the long-buried remains of 95 people.

The first remains were discovered in February in Sugar Land. southwestern suburb of Houston. And now the authorities have learned who these people are – released blacks forced to work in forced labor camps.

For over a century, these tombs were underground and intact. But the discovery that they probably held the remains of slaves, which the researchers announced Monday, highlights an era largely forgotten in history – a time when slavery was illegal, but many blacks were essentially still enslaved.

The Sugar Land Property is owned by the Fort Bend Independent School District, who is building his new technical school on

"This is a remarkable opportunity for our community and our school district to learn much more about the history of our region," said Superintendent Charles Dupre in a statement

. "It's a rare opportunity," said Reign Clark of Goshawk Environmental Consulting at CNN. "We will tell the story of what it was like to live here, to work here and, in some cases, to die here."

How they were found

It started with an intuition.

Reginald Moore is interested in historic cemeteries after working as a prison guard in the 1980s in Texas. He no longer works in prison, but he is still a community activist.

One of his main goals: to get people to recognize the abuses of the Sugar Land convict leasing system, in which the detainees were forced to work

. "I felt it was my duty to be a lawyer for them and talk about the grave for these people," Moore told CNN.

Moore is the guardian of another cemetery in Fort Bend County: the imperial cemetery, which is tucked behind a highway shopping center. Near the cemetery, is the new James Reese technical and career center of the school district

When the construction of the Sugar Land School Center began last fall, Moore told officials that D & R Other cemeteries might be nearby. documented and provided a lot of information on the history of this cemetery. He has plenty of ideas where burials could have been, "said Chris Florance of the Texas Historical Commission, who played an advisory role in the project.

What they found

The bodies were buried in each individual wooden coffins. Of those analyzed so far, all but one are men. The researchers say they could have as young as 14 and as old as 70.

They were probably buried between 1878 and 1910, said Clark.

Despite the passage of time, researchers can say that workers are malnourished or sick and face tremendous physical stress while alive.

Clark said that there was a lot of evidence that they were doing a very painful job which for some people started at a young age

. "We can tell from the state of the bone and the characteristics of muscle attachment that these were strongly constructed individuals." Some bones were deformed by musculature and labor Clark said at CNN

It's no surprise in Texas

Moore was not the only one not to be shocked by this discovery. </ p> <p> Florance said his commission played a role in the project knowing that such a discovery could happen.

"This is not uncommon in Texas," he told CNN.

The commission had done assessments before the beginning of construction, says Florance, but the land was so altered over the years that it was hard to know anything.

"One of the biggest problems with old cemeteries There are 177 cemeteries in Fort Bend County, but there could be up to 50,000 cemeteries across The State Only 1.706 have a historic Texas Cemetery designation.

President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation in 1860, "Hellhole on the Brazos"

stated that all slaves were free. This does not mean that forced labor has not continued.

After the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the ban on slaves, the Texas economy fell into a deep depression. Businesses need a new form of cheap labor. So they used prisons.

The condemned hire system was essentially again slavery. Prisoners were taken from state prisons and leased to private businessmen who worked the workers as hard as they could at the lowest price. And the less they had food, water and shelter, the less they cost.

"A 14-year-old was 6 feet tall," Clark told CNN. "This population was selected by hand."

The Sugar Land economy was developed in sugar cane plantations, which relied heavily on forced labor. So two Confederate veterans, Edward Cunningham and Littleberry Ellis, signed a contract with the state in 1878 to rent the state's prison population.

The conditions were so bad that the city made itself a nickname: "Hellhole on the Brazos." [19659002"ThesolicitorofallCrownsinTexas"saidthesociologistRichardVogelatKTRKaffiliatedwithCNN

What Happens Next

Digging and Analyzing the 95 Tombs takes time – probably more than nine months

Each burial takes up to two days plus up to nine days. eight hours of cleaning and up to 15 hours for analysis, said the school district. Until now, they dug up 50 graves and analyzed more than 22, Clark said.

Once they are dug up, a team of forensic archaeologists will look for more information about the corpses, such as their medical conditions and how they died. After that, the school district will work with the state's historic commission to determine where to re-bury them.

Moore wants to get a memorial for the group as a form of restitution.

"I speak for those who have no voice, then and now," he told CNN. "I felt like I was called to free them."