Deep Roots Vol. 2 — Towns They Built: Freedmen's Towns of Texas (Interactive Edition)

Freedom was announced in 1865. Then freedpeople did the part the announcements left out: they bought land, laid out streets, built churches and schools, and incorporated towns of their own. This book walks seven of those stories street by street.

Independence Heights voted itself into existence — incorporated January 1915, the first Black-incorporated town in Texas — and its own residents voted to dissolve it in 1928 before Houston annexed it in 1929. Freedmen's Town in Houston's Fourth Ward paved its own streets. Deep Ellum grew up on top of North Dallas's Freedman's Town — this book keeps the two distinct, because they were. St. John Colony's families bought their Caldwell County land together; the record supports two counts of those families, so both are printed, attributed. Clarksville holds an open question about who sold its founding land — the book prints it open rather than picking a side. And Kendleton carries its fight all the way to Terry v. Adams, 345 U.S. 461, decided May 4, 1953.

Inside the Interactive Edition:

- The complete book — all 7 chapters, full text

- Recorded narration by Marcus — about 75 minutes, every chapter read aloud

- A chronological timeline that jumps straight to the chapter behind each date

- A 10-question educator quiz drawn strictly from the text

- Every chapter closes with its sources and a method note — where the record disagrees, the disagreement is printed, not papered over

- The storybook-style cover, drawn for young readers and the families who read with them

- For educators: a TEKS correlation sheet for this volume is available with the Deep Roots Educator materials — mapped course by course against the adopted Texas standards

The chapters: Independence Heights: The Town That Incorporated Itself · Freedmen's Town: The Town That Paved Its Own Streets · Deep Ellum: The District Dallas Built on a Freedmen's Town · St. John Colony: The Wagon Train That Bought Its Own Land · Clarksville: The Town That Beat an Expressway · Kendleton: The Town That Took the Ballot to the Supreme Court · The Thread: Annexation, Highways, and "Urban Renewal"

Two states. One story. All receipts.