Afro-German in Texas?
The term "Afro-German" commonly describes people that are of German descent but have roots on the African continent. In our project, we apply the term more broadly to the cultural area of Texas where the Southern Black Belt and the smaller Texas German Belt "buckle up". Historic population patterns characterize the region: below you can see three distinct distributions of German and African heritage in 1880. Western counties were dominated by Germans. The counties in the middle were primarily African. Eastern counties had both influences.
If you are interested in how this pattern emerged, you can read about the early encounters between enslaved Africans, German immigrants and their respective descendants. If you would like to learn about interactions between the two groups, you may be interested in a map of historic connections in the region. The biographies of black German speakers and their families illustrate these connections in a more personal manner.