As a kid, Houston Chronicle business columnist Chris Tomlinson was fascinated by family stories of his great-grandfather coming to Texas as a pioneering settler of the American West. But as he grew older, he started to understand the story wasn’t as glorious as he thought — his ancestors were slaveholders.
Just five years ago, Tomlinson finally cast aside years of reluctance to research the sometimes brutal stories of his white ancestors and the stories of the slaves they owned, many of the descendants of which still live around the site of his family’s former central Texas plantation.
Houston Matters’ Michael Hagerty sat down with Chris Tomlinson to find out what he learned about a place called Tomlinson Hill.
MORE:
Tomlinson Hill Documentary
Chris Tomlinson interview on NPR’s Fresh Air