Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site

Levi-Jordan Plantation State Historic Site, operated by the Texas Historical Commission, is significant to the antebellum period of Texas history and the tumultuous era of Reconstruction.

 

Levi Jordan was around 19 years old when the war of 1812 broke out, and he served as Corporal in the 1st Regiment of the Georgia Militia. In the late 1840s, he moved his family and enslaved workers to Texas to establish a sugar and cotton plantation on the San Bernard River. This site hosted a sizable plantation operation and two-story Greek Revival-style house.

 

In May of 1861, a draft was started for Brazoria County and Robert (Bob) Stanger, a 19-year-old white worker at the Levi Jordan Plantation, volunteered so he would not have to be drafted. Levi Jordan's oldest grandson, James Calvin (J.C.) McNeill, turned 17 in November of 1861 and volunteered with the local militia that December. J.C. stayed in forts and camps along the Texas coast throughout the war. Bob was captured during a battle on the Matagorda peninsula in February of 1864 and remained a POW until the end of the war.

 

Today, the site highlights the multiple perspectives and evolving relationships of those who lived and worked on the land during the 19th century. A visit to the Levi Jordan Plantation provides a unique opportunity to understand the evolving agricultural history of the South and the early African American experience in Texas.